The State of the Union's Mystery Suspect (Hasting's Guest Abused)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1156497,00.html

T-shirts, it turns out, aren't the only things that get you in trouble with the Capitol Police at the State of the Union address. Much has already been made of the fact that both anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and Beverly Young, the wife of Republican Congressman Bill Young, were ejected from the speech for wearing shirts with political messages; in Sheehan's case, her t-shirt read "2,245 dead. How many more?", while Young was sporting a sweat shirt with the words, "Support the Troops-Defending Our Freedom." Both have denounced their treatment-and both have received apologies from the police.

But on the same evening that President Bush was lauding democracy and freedom, there was one other person in attendance whose rights were infringed upon. The man, who did not want his identity revealed after the disturbing incident, was a personal guest of Florida Democrat Alcee Hastings. He is a prominent businessman from Broward County, Florida who works with the Department of Defense-and has a security clearance. After sitting in the gallery for the entire speech, he was surrounded by about ten law enforcement officers as he exited the chamber and whisked away to a room in the Capitol.

For close to an hour the man, who was born in India but is an American citizen, was questioned by the Police, who thought he resembled someone on a Secret Service photo watch list, according to Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer. Eventually, the police realized it was a case of mistaken identity and let him go. Gainer has assured Hastings that the Capitol Police, Secret Service and FBI will investigate why the man was detained for so long, and try to "sharpen our procedures." But the man was "very, very scared" by the incident, says Fred Turner, a spokesperson for Hastings. On Tuesday night, he told the congressman that the experience was "maybe just the price of being brown in America," Turner says.

"He shouldn't have gone through the ringer as long as he did," Gainer says. "He did get caught up in the morass of Secret Service FBI, Capitol Police. Everybody was trying to figure out whether he was a threat. And he absolutely, unequivocally clearly was not." Gainer apologized to the man afterwards, only one of the many apologies he has had to make this week. He met with Congressman Young at least twice, as well as with Young's wife. "There is no prohibition against simply wearing a T-shirt that states your particular cause," Gainer stresses, taking full accountability for not providing clearer direction to his officers.

[PSPS]

1. "He shouldn't have gone through the ringer as long as he did," Gainer says

I guess in Bushler's Amerika, we must expect to be apportioned the proper amount of "ringer" to go through more fairly.

Seig Heil!

[anitar1]

16. How about the inablity to spell correctly? re Ringer? How about

wringer?Even news services cannot get that right.Oh, well. On to the article. Everyone knows that brown people are suspect these days. But haven't they always been suspect? Seems as if they are catching up to the suspect black people.

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. Brown and Male

= Dangerous in Bush's America.

Disgraceful.

[IndianaGreen]

3. "the price of being brown in America"

America never stopped being racist or xenophobic. Lucky he didn't get shot like that hapless brown skinned airman the other day.

[Angry Girl]

12. Amerika's insidious racism is worse than blatant racism

What's worse?

A. Walking into a place knowing that the folks there don't like you.
B. Walking into a place where you believe the folks there like you?

I'll take the former any day, because in the latter scenario you have your guards down and expect decent treatment. Unfortunately, Amerika, master of media and spin that it's become, is all about doing one thing under the guise of another, like their fascism in democracy's clothing.

[HuffleClaw]

4. what is truly sickening is that this wasn't news.

racial profiling at the capital.

[Hekate]

5. Not so much racial profiling, given that two white women were the others

And who has truly apologized to Cindy Sheehan for manhandling her, holding her for 4 hours, and driving her to fresh tears of grief for the country we are losing?

What's really going on is a radical shift in the consciousness of our Capitol law enforcement agencies, so that everyone is a suspect -- and guilty -- until proven innocent. Everyone who sticks out (color, dress), everyone who publicly disagrees with this president (voice, writing, dress) -- all must be considered a threat.

:cry: Cry, the beloved country.

Hekate

[upi402]

6. They get more wrong than right

Does that mean we get our taxes back?
Iraq war = fuckup
pretty much everything = fuckup
cronies = fuckups
* = well, worse than words. Need new words now. Higher bar (lower???)

[xchrom]

7. one of those perfect metaphors for

bush america.

[AlecBGreen]

8. ...taking full accountability...

Thats a nice change of pace

[Dover]

9. Sure he wasn't a big Dem contributor? Isn't that why Martha Stewart

was singled out? They really have all the scare/intimidation tactics down, don't they?

[susu369]

10. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer should be fired

he obviously doesn't have a handle on his "officers." His apologies make me yawn.

That's my two cents worth.

[Benhurst]

11. When you lie down with dogs, you're likely to get fleas.

Some places aren't worth visiting.

[mantis49]

13. You would think Time magazine's editors would know

that it's "wringer," not "ringer."

[Robb]

14. Maybe there were bells involved

:D

[sabra]

15. kick

:kick: