The Washington Post is reporting today that:
A group of young women claim they were ordered to leave a book signing featuring Sen. Rick Santorum because of their political views.Via attytood, I found this description:
The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union, argues that the women's free speech rights were violated at the event last August. It says two of the women were arrested for trespassing and three others were threatened with arrest.
On the evening of August 10, Hannah Shaffer of Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, decided to go to the nearby Barnes & Noble outside of Wilmington. She wanted to see Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who was promoting his book, “It Takes a Family.”They were reportedly going to challenge Senator Man-on-dog about his Man-on-dog views. And so, in the course of waiting to talk to an elected official, one of the group was overheard making a reference to Dan Savage's redefinition of the word "Santorum." That's when the self-appointed defenders of all that's good and right in Bush's America pounced.
The event was billed as a “book signing and discussion,” Shaffer says.
But discussion was the last thing that the Senator’s people wanted.
Shaffer, her friends, and two other young women were booted out of the store and threatened with imprisonment even before they had a chance to say a word to Santorum, as Al Mascitti first noted in the Delaware News Journal.
A state trooper in full uniform, including hat and gun, was in the store, and, according to Shaffer and Galperin, he met with the person who didn’t care for the Dan Savage joke, along with a few others, including members of the store and Santorum’s people.Who knew you didn't have any 1st Amendment protections in a bookstore? Or when waiting to talk to a US Senator?
Galperin says she heard the trooper ask, “Do you want me to get rid of them?”
And then the trooper, Delaware State Police Sgt. Mark DiJiacomo, who was on detail as a private security guard, came over to the group of women.
Here is the conversation, as Galperin remembers it: “You guys have to leave.”
“Why?”
“Your business is not wanted here. They don’t want you here anymore. If you don’t leave, you’re going to be arrested. If you can’t post bail, you’ll go to prison. Those of you who are under 18 will go to Ferris [the juvenile detention center]. And those of you over 18 will go either to Gander Hill Prison or the woman’s correctional facility. Any questions?”
i remember when this happened. i listened to interviews. i am glad these young women aren't letting the matter drop. i thought that they had. i hope they win.
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