This afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee while sitting in the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center on Chicago’s south side, a Veterans Administration cop walked up to me and said, "OK, you’ve had your 15 minutes, it’s time to go."
"Huh?", I asked intelligently, not quite sure what he was talking about.
"You can’t be in here protesting," officer Adkins said, pointing to my Veterans For Peace shirt.
"Well, I’m not protesting, I’m having a cup of coffee," I returned, thinking that logic would convince Adkins to go back to his earlier duties of guarding against serious terrorists.
Flipping his badge open, he said, "No, not with that shirt. You’re protesting and you have to go."
About this point I'm thinking "no way, they don't seriously arrest this guy for his t-shirt!. Even the threat of that is ooogy but arrest him?" Turns out I was wrong:
He insisted that I leave, but still not quite believing my ears, I tried one more approach to reason. "Hey, listen. I’m a veteran. This is a V.A. facility. I’m sitting here not talking to anybody, having a cup of coffee. I’m not protesting and you can’t kick me out."
"You’ll either go or we’ll arrest you," Adkins threatened.
"Well, you’ll just have to arrest me," I said, wondering what strange land I was now living in.
You know the rest. Handcuffed, led away to the facility’s security office past people with surprised looks on their faces, read my rights, searched, and written up.
He was charged with trespassing and weapons posession because he had his pocket knife in his, well, pocket. W.T.F.?
After informing me I could either pay the $275 fine on the citation or appear in court, Ousley escorted me off the premises, warning me if I returned with "that shirt" on, I’d be arrested and booked into jail.
I’m sure I could go back to officers Adkins’ and Ousleys’ fiefdom with a shirt that said, "Nuke all the hajis," or "Show us your tits," or any number of truly obscene things and no one would care. Just so it’s not "that shirt" again.
Mike said he is not paying the fine, he is going to court to fight it. He also adds:
And if there’s a Chicago area attorney who’d like to take the case, I’d really like to sue them — from Dubya on down.
What about the ACLU? Wouldn't they take on this sort of case?
Anyway, what the hell kind of country is this where a person cannot merely sit in an office sipping coffee (where s/he belongs, no less) with a shirt about PEACE and be arrested for it? That's fucking scary.
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