Police Arrest 80 Yr Old Protester In Wheelchair At Mall - For Wearing "Dead" & "Enough" T-Shirt

[kpete]

Police Arrest Anti-War Protester, 80, At Mall
Submitted by davidswanson on Sun, 2008-03-30 19:03. Media
By Anastasia Economides & Matthew Chayes, Newsday

An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War.

Police said that Don Zirkel, of Bethpage, was disturbing shoppers at the Lake Grove mall with his T-shirt, which had what they described as “graphic anti-war images.” Zirkel, a deacon at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Wyandanch, said his shirt had the death tolls of American military personnel and Iraqis - 4,000 and 1 million - and the words “Dead” and “Enough.” The shirt also has three blotches resembling blood splatters.

Police said in a release last night that Zirkel was handing out anti-war pamphlets to mallgoers and that mall security told him to stop and turn his shirt inside out. Zirkel refused to turn his shirt inside out and wouldn’t leave, police said. Security placed him on “civilian arrest” and called police. When police arrived, Zirkel passively resisted attempts to bring him to a police car, the release said.

more at:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/32332

[pepperbear]

1. YOU GO, DON! n/t

[Smith_3]

2. Fascism on the march.

Arrest them pacifists...

when will it end?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. The land of the free?

since when haven't we been allowed to wear teeshirts with messages on them?

[indepat]

14. The land of the free went the way of the home of brave: they were bushwhacked

:cry:

[SeattleGirl]

4. Those people SHOULD be disturbed!

They've been living in la-la land for a long time, and they need to wake up and smell the death caused by this illegal, insane war.

I guess they don't want to worry their beautiful minds, though, so hey, let's arrest the messenger!

Fuckers!

[Juche]

12. Damn fucking right

People need to see the consequences of their actions. I don't mind when PETA shows the horror of slaughterhouses, or when protestors show the horror of war. We need to see what our actions are doing to people.

Its disgusting that people want to live in their coccoon of blissful ignorance. If you want to support a war, you need to see what the consequences are.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/image/tid/55

[Rosemary2205]

5. our local mall had an anti-Clinton protestor arrested in the 90's.

A mall is private property, not a public space. They have every right to set any conditions they please for someone visiting their property short of discrimination based on race, gender etc. The man's age and the fact he was in a wheelchair are just pure sensationalism in the story. -- I defy you to find a shopping outlet in this country that will allow highly volatile political protests on it's property. It has NOTHING to do with fascism, and EVERYTHING to do with the practicalities of commercialism.

[enlightenment]

10. So, they are private spaces.

They lease space to other commercial enterprises.

If one of those enterprises decided to sell those t-shirts and display them in their shop window, could the mall tell them to remove the display?

If the movie theatre inside the mall decided to show an anti-war film with graphic imagery, could the mall tell them to stop?

Both of those things have the potential for volatility, but they are also free-enterprise, so I suppose they're acceptable?

(I'm not trying to be snarky, by the way - just wondering how these things work)

[Rosemary2205]

11. It all depends on the community I'd think and how it plays out PR wise.

I doubt there's any hard and fast rule about what mall management decides crosses the line and what doesn't. "Provacative" can draw in dollars by the truckload. "Offensive" keeps people out of the mall. And whether or not something is "Provacative" or "offensive" can be a very fine line indeed.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. We protest regularly here in my city - at shopping centers

This is fascism at its finest. There are court rulings supporting our rights to protest at malls. http://newsquake.netscape.com/2008/01/03/overlooked-the-right-to-protest-on-mall-property/

Have you never heard of a boycott during a strike - accompanied by a picket?

[90-percent]

6. hypothetical

I always wondered if it is within my rights to wear a "unionize Wal mart" shirt whilst shopping at wal mart?

Any input?

-90% Jimmy

Smithhaven Mall - I lived two towns over when they built the damn thing back in the early 70's. I'm so nostalgic for the good old Walt Whitman Mall in Huntington, which was about the only mall in Suffolk county back in the 60's. It was a big deal to go there, a real treat for a youngster back then.

[Rosemary2205]

8. Walmart can ask you to leave

it's thier store. They can ban anyone they please short of obvious illegal discrimination.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. And WalMart can be sued

Their store is a public place.

[TheMightyFavog]

19. One of the reasons Wal-Mart doesn't let the Salvation Army have Bellringers outside their stores.

Because every year, the local unions would sign up to be bellringers and ask to be put outside the local Wal-Mart. The Boilermakers local from the Ship factory in Marinette would do this every year until the decison to ban the bellringrs was handed down from corporate a few years later.

[lpbk2713]

7. Did they toss him out on the floor when they arrived at book-in?

Lot of that going around you know. :eyes:

[malaise]

9. Well Bush did say forget the war

and go shopping! People must not be reminded of their government's crimes. :sarcasm:

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. And that is our motivation for protests at our area shopping malls

Not only are we not arrested, but the cops at one mall are there providing security. This weekend, they arrested some people who threw something at us as they drove by.

[hootinholler]

13. At least they didn't dump him out on his face.

Just to make sure he needs the wheelchair.

-Hoot

[timtom]

20. Actually, my interpretation of the article

indicates that he wasn't wheelchair bound, but, because he passively resisted, they put him in a wheelchair and wheeled him out.

[Swamp Rat]

15. Never commit the anti-war crime called 'peace' in a mall in Amerika.

And never 'passively resist' incarceration for promoting 'Peace on Earth.'

[Hannah Bell]

16. Pruneyards & other case law re free speech in "private" malls:

http://yawiki.org/proc/Pruneyard_Shopping_Center

In the late 1970s, the PruneYard (Mall) was involved in a free speech dispute with some local high school students that ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court. See Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, . In American constitutional law, the PruneYard is famous for its role in establishing two important rules:

...under the California Constitution, individuals may peacefully exercise their right to free speech in parts of private shopping centers regularly held open to the public, subject to reasonable regulations adopted by the shopping centers

...under the U.S. Constitution, states can provide their citizens with broader rights in their constitutions than under the federal Constitution, so long as those rights do not infringe on any federal constitutional rights

Marsh v. Alabama (1946) 326 U.S. 501, 502:

"The more an owner, for his advantage, opens up his property for use by the public in general, the more do his rights become circumscribed by the statutory and constitutional rights of those who use it." (Id. at p. 506.)

http://consumerist.com/337634/california-supreme-court-feel-free-to-protest-inside-the-mall


It is, of course, a joke to say that a shopping center may regulate political speech on the clothing of its customers.

[HuffleClaw]

17. i would guess that handing out pamphlets isn't permitted

but wearing a t-shirt is.

[elleng]

22. Wrong!

'A pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets. Pamphlets were used to broadcast the writer's opinions on an issue, for example, in order to get people to vote for their favorite politician or to articulate a particular political ideology.

A famous pamphleteer of the American Revolutionary War was Thomas Paine.'

wiki

CA supreme court recently ruled the mall of today is the town square of yesterday and the protestors can be there.

http://newsquake.netscape.com/2008/01/03/overlooked-the-right-to-protest...

»

[puebloknot]

18. Of course, there weren't any magazines in that mall with *truly*...

...disturbing images of the sort that people of all ages see every day.

American shoppers are just too sensitive to have to see and think about this kind of thing. Perfectly understandable. That guy is old enough to have learned some manners in four-score years. (No sarcasm icon. You get it or you don't!)

[bdamomma]

21. when will this shit end? long live dissenters.

[Echo In Light]

23. Don, thank you for your brave civil disobedience! Only in brainwashed America would such images...

...being shown as an act of protest over what our govt carries out in ALL of our names, with our tax $, be considered more offensive than the actual acts that result in such images.

Kudos, Don.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. Where did this happen?

[RedCappedBandit]

32. Smith Haven Mall is on Long Island

Suffolk County, NY

[Supersedeas]

28. worlds like that threaten lil Lord Pissy pants

[IamyourTVandIownyou]

29. Smith Haven Mall - Info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Haven_Mall

Owners
http://www.simon.com/

Owners - Email Contact Page
https://www.simon.com/about_simon/contact_spg/default.aspx

[coalition_unwilling]

30. Local anti-war community needs to launch an immediate boycott

and constant picketing. Let mall merchants know they are losing $$$$ over this heavy-handed malarkey.

[RedCappedBandit]

31. Oooh.. Smith Haven

Five minutes from my home.

Can't wait till I get break from school. Havoc shall I cause.