Bush's Goons at it Again
Bush Uses Police Power Again in a Devious Plan to Stop Free Speech

Civil Rights Advocate Joe Redner was among the heroes arrested last Saturday for standing up for their constitutional rights to protest. Unlike some of the protesters who were addressing specific policy issues regarding treatment of Haitian refugees, Mr. Redner was actually protesting the "protest zone", as were Adam Elend and Jeff Marks. Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies told Redner and his friends three times to go to the official protest zone, but they refused, Redner said.

"Protest Zones are unconstitutional and unamerican because they violate free speech. If you have to go to a "protest zone" you may as well protest in your bedroom. What worries me is the leaders of the so called free world do not understand what "freedom" is. They do not realize how fragile and in what bad shape our rights are in." said Mr. Redner.

It is becoming far too common for protesters to be forced into a "zone" so as to keep them away from the very people they wish to protest to. The Bush administration policy silences those voices who have a right to be heard. The zone was established by the Bush campaign, on the campus of the University of South Florida. Citizens were stopped from protesting anywhere outside of a small "Protest Zone" located on Fowler Avenue. The "Zone" was so far away from the event it made it ineffective if not impossible to protest. That is, unless you are like the ilk of Joe Redner and refuse to accept this policy and protest outside the "zone". Of course, you will be "arrested" by the, (regularly used in every city where Bush appears), local police, fondly called the Bush Goons by some!

Adam Elend who was also arrested that night said, "the U.S. Supreme Court in Tinker v. Desmoines states, Freedom of Expression would not truly exist if the right could only be exercised in an area that a benevolent government has provided as a safe haven for crackpots." Indeed, this was one of the very signs carried before they were arrested for being outside the protest zone. Another asks "Why do you let these crooks fool you"?

So you ask if it is so unconstitutional why is it allowed? Elend, Marks and Redner are political activists trying to stop the erosion of our constitutional rights and they say the protest zones continue because no one has actually taken it to court yet.

"We will either take this to court or if the courts drop these charges [tresspass after warning] then the next step will be to file for an injunction the next time a "protest zone" is being established at an event." Elend remarked when asked what next.

Other couragous people last year were arrested during a rally for President Bush at Legends Field in Tampa for doing the same thing, protesting to close to the event! A protest zone had been set up a half-mile away. ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the City of Tampa for violation of the protestors' Free Speech Rights violations stemming from the wrongful arrest of two grandmothers and another man during a demonstration organized last year for President George W. Bush and Florida Governor Jeb Bush this past week.