Reports of police threatening, intimidating Americans at overpass rallies
Thousands of Americans have participated in numerous Overpasses for Obama’s Impeachment rallies across the nation over the past few weeks – and now there’s word of several arrests and police intimidation of citizens who peacefully protest on public walkways.
WND reported that Americans were staging protests on freeway overpasses and calling for Obama’s impeachment when the movement first launched.
Now, police have responded to some protest sites after reports of profanity and items being thrown from overpasses. Protester and organizer Lisa Zimmerman said none of these claims have been substantiated, and there is a concerted effort to shut the protests down. In two separate incidents, three overpass protesters have been arrested.
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At a rally west of St. Louis, Mo., Mark Messmer and Duane Weed were arrested. The incident was caught on a YouTube video that’s racking up about 50,000 views per day.
As seen in the video posted online, the protesters, while standing on a public sidewalk, asked repeatedly what law they were breaking and why they were being asked to leave.
One officer can be heard saying, “I’ve been polite and asked you to leave the overpass.”
Another officer can then be heard saying, “Can you come with me? Do you recognize I am a peace officer? I’ve asked you and told you that you needed to leave.”
One protester asked, “Are we breaking a law here? What law am I breaking?”
Officer Jensen spoke up, “Failure to comply with the highway patrol. I’ve given you two chances. Third time, I’m going to arrest you.”
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that a spokesman for the Missouri Highway Patrol said the reason for the police intervention was the potential for a traffic hazard.
The Post-Dispatch report said the protesters spent 24 hours in the St. Charles county jail. Prosecutors have yet to determine which charges to press.
Dave Roland, director of the Theodore L. Stiles Center for Liberty in Olympia, Wash., viewed the video.
“Courts have been clear that American citizens have a fundamental right to peacefully offer their political opinions on public sidewalks, as long as they are not preventing other people from using those sidewalks,” he told WND. “The video offers no suggestion that these speakers were obstructing the sidewalk or causing any traffic problems. In fact, the officers’ own squad cars seemed to be more of a threat to traffic than the protesters themselves.
“Courts have made clear that the freedom of speech is so important, citizens must be allowed to exercise that freedom unless it is clear that the speakers are creating dangerous driving conditions. Under these circumstances, it appears that the officers had no legitimate reason to interfere with the citizens’ peaceful political expression.”
Roland continued, “Citizens are required to comply with police orders to leave an area if it is reasonably necessary to allow the police to arrest lawbreakers or investigate a crime scene. But police officers are not kings, and citizens have no obligation to follow improper or unlawful orders. It is extremely disturbing that these officers seemed unable to identify any law that justified their instructions to leave the overpass.”
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In Fresno, Calif., police arrested one man at an overpass rally. Brian Sumner, a 24-year-old veteran of the Iraq war, who served as a combat medic with the 1st Infantry Division, spent a night in jail after police and Department of Transportation workers arrived to remove his sign from the overpass.
Sumner told WND he knew there would be a confrontation when the police arrived and accused him of smelling “like marijuana.” The entire incident was captured on video by several different protesters and posted to YouTube. The video ends with Sumner’s arrest.