Muzzled on the campaign trail

Progressive, The, Nov, 2004 by Matthew Rothschild

When Van Den Bosch saw the Bush-Cheney buses coming, wanted to display his sign again.

"I unrolled my sign and stood there," says Van Den Bosch, "and then they came over and grabbed the sign and said, 'We told you you couldn't show that sign.' They walked me over in front of a frat house where a bunch of guys had been harassing us, and they handcuffed me there to the cheering of the guys. Then they put me in an unmarked car and drove me into town, fingerprinted me and photographed me, and gave me a ticket for disorderly conduct."

Lieutenant Tom Schmid of the Platteville Police Department gives a slightly different account of what happened.

"We had a person complain about the sign, and we went down and asked the gentleman not to show the sign because there were kids in the area and it didn't seem appropriate," Schmid says. "Later on, he showed the sign again, and we went down and arrested him and charged him with disorderly conduct."

Why does holding such a sign constitute disorderly conduct?

"It seemed to annoy and disturb others," says Schmid, "and when you have conduct that tends to annoy or disturb others, that's disorderly conduct."

Sergeant Michelle Hechel, who spoke with Van Den Bosch at the protest, denies that she mentioned the Secret Service or that the Secret Service had anything to do with the incident.

"He had a sign," she says. "It was offensive. And we asked him to not show it."

As to whether he has the right to display an offensive sign, Hechel says, "Once it starts offending other people, which it did in that area, he was asked to not display that. It was not appropriate. We said he could use a different sign, but he chose not to."

Van Den Bosch says his arrest shows "the fangs and teeth of the state. The chilling part is they knew they were violating my civil rights. Any eighth grade civics class will teach you that you have the right to express yourself."

The case against Van Den Bosch was dismissed on May 27.

Van Den Bosch filed a civil complaint against the city, which settled with him in August. "The city came with an offer of $6,500, plus my attorney fees, and my lawyer recommended that I take it," he says. "The total came to $12,086.45. It's about as much justice as we can get, but it's not really justice."

RELATED ARTICLE: You're fired!

Some people are facing a different kind of punishment for exercising their free speech rights this campaign season. They are being fired. Here are two examples.

Glenn Hiller is a graphic designer, and he, too, wanted to convey a message to President Bush. The President was scheduled to speak on August 17 at Hedgesville High School, which is near Hiller's home in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.

He says he asked his boss at Octavo Designs in Frederick, Maryland, whether he could take part of that afternoon off to go hear Bush and to try to ask him a question or two.

Hiller says his boss, Sue Hough, let him off early so he could go.

"I got a ticket through a woman we do work with in the advertising community," he says. "She and my boss both had full knowledge of my political position, and they had knowledge that I was going to ask a question when I was them." They knew, he says, that "I'm not a fan of Bush."