Criticizing the Messiah may get you arrested
Don’t like the stimulus? Disagree with Obama’s position on abortion? Apparently, if you make a political statement against the Obamamessiah, our Dear Leader, it just may get you arrested.
An Oklahoma City police officer wrongly pulled over a man last week and confiscated an anti-President Barack Obama sign the man had on his vehicle.
The officer misinterpreted the sign as threatening, said Capt. Steve McCool, of the Oklahoma City Police Department, and took the sign, which read “Abort Obama, not the unborn.”
Chip Harrison said he was driving to work when a police car followed him for several miles and then signaled for him to pull over.
”I pulled over, knowing I hadn’t done anything wrong,” Harrison said in a recent phone interview.
When the officer asked Harrison if he knew why he had been pulled over, Harrison said he did not.
”They said, ‘It’s because of the sign in your window,’” Harrison said.
”It’s not meant to be a threat, it’s a statement about abortion,” Harrison said.
He said he disagrees with the president’s position on abortion.
”I asked the officer, ‘Do you know what abort means?’” Harrison said. “He said, ‘Yeah, it means to kill.’ I said, ‘No, it means to remove or terminate.’”
Harrison said his sign was to be interpreted as saying something like: Remove Obama from office, not unborn babies from the womb.
The officers confiscated Harrison’s sign and gave him a slip of paper that stated he was part of an investigation.
… But his run-in with the law wasn’t over yet.
”The Secret Service called and said they were at my house,” Harrison said.
After talking to his attorney, Harrison went home where he met the Secret Service.
”When I was on my way there, the Secret Service called me and said they weren’t going to ransack my house or anything … they just wanted to (walk through the house) and make sure I wasn’t a part of any hate groups.”
Harrison said he invited the Secret Service agents into the house and they were “very cordial.”
”We walked through the house and my wife and 2-year-old were in the house,” Harrison said.
He said they interviewed him for about 30 minutes and then left, not finding any evidence Harrison was a threat to the president.
OK, OK… they didn’t actually arrest him. They just told him he would be fined, investigated, and reported to the Secret Service. Putting a sign on your car that’s critical of Obama’s position on abortion apparently makes you a threat to the President these days. Strangely enough, actual calls for death to President Bush by rabid liberal hippies in anti-war rallies for the past eight years didn’t see all of those people investigated by the Secret Service. But this is the newer, hopier, changier President. And dissent is no longer patriotic.
I’m a little curious what it means for the future of free speech if critical (and perhaps even somewhat inflammatory) speech against the President means you’ll get investigated by the Secret Service. That’s the problem with all this wailing from the Left on “hate speech”. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS HATE SPEECH — THIS IS THE UNITED STATES! As long as you are not making a direct threat against someone, you can say anything you damn well please. The First Amendment doesn’t protect speech as long as it’s pretty and pleasant and polite. It protects all speech, even if it’s rude, or demeaning, or inflammatory, or even — GASP!! — hateful.
But I guess that only holds true for liberals when they’re the ones speaking out, and not for conservatives. Free speech? That’s soo 2008.
Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin; also on a tip from Whit Bass.
Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more commentary, or follow her on Twitter.
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Posted by Cassy Fiano on February 19, 2009 12:03 pm
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, News
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2 Responses to “Criticizing the Messiah may get you arrested”
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Funny that the officer said “abort” means “kill.” Even though Harrison stuck with the technical definition, the officer was excatly right. Abortion=death. If we could get more people to admit that, we might get somewhere. Remember PETA wants fish called “sea kittens” so we won’t eat them? I want abortion replaced with “killing” so it will be less palatable. Of course, the difference between these two is that the latter is true, while the former is false.
I wish people would quit calling him the Messiah he doesn’t come close and if he proclaims to be this (which I doubt) you won’t want to be around. Read your bible and it will tell you about the one who will. I feel Obama is wrong claiming to be a Christian and supporting abortion that is against Gods law and should be against his. He will have to answer to God for that one!!!! You can’t claim to follow God and go against him God won’t stand for that very long!! But that’s Gods business