Getting Busted for Wearing a Peace T-Shirt

From CounterPunch:

Yesterday 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."

Beginning to get his drift, I said firmly, "Not before I finish my coffee."

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.

Click here for the rest.

Needless to say, this guy was arrested when he refused to leave. Why the hell is this shit still going on? Sixty percent of this country, or more, is now against the war in Iraq. It strikes me as nutty, at the very least, that people are still acting like it's two days after 9/11. Not that it was excusable then, but the insanity gripping this nation was far more tangible at that point. And it doesn't really matter that this was a VA hospital either. Vets are entitled to their freedom of speech, same as everybody else, and quite a few soldiers are now quietly opposing the war too. Anybody who wants to get tough because of a simple peace t-shirt has a hole in his head.

Man, this country is so sinisterly weird.

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