A Tale of Two Shirts (Sheehan Update #2)

Two women wore t-shirts to the President’s SotU speech last night.

One of them wore a pro-war t-shirt and the other wore an anti-war t-shirt.

Both women were forced to leave the building.One of them was handcuffed, arrested, forcibly removed and booked on misdemeanor charges. The other was not.

Guess who was wearing which shirt?

More here.

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Just for the record, I’m pissed that both of them were forced to leave. And, for context, here’s a link to a court case from the Cool and Wonderful about wearing t-shirts in Congress not qualifying as “protest.”

“…Believing that the Capitol Police needed guidance in determining what behavior constitutes a “demonstration,” the United States Capitol Police Board issued a regulation that interprets “demonstration activity” to include:parading, picketing, speechmaking, holding vigils, sit-ins, or other expressive conduct that convey[s] a message supporting or opposing a point of view or has the intent, effect or propensity to attract a crowd of onlookers, but does not include merely wearing Tee shirts, buttons or other similar articles of apparel that convey a message.”

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Let’s ask a real serious question.

Do yellow ribbons qualify as “protest?”

How about those little American flag pins?

How about a wedding ring?

All are symbols with definate meaning. It is patently ridiculous to ban such symbols. Of course, we are talking about the “free speech zone” President.