# Police Arrest Fallen Soldier's Mom Before Bush's Speech



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*WASHINGTON -- *Cindy Sheehan finally got her invitation to see President George W. Bush again, but before she set eyes on him at the State of the Union address, Capitol Police removed her from the gallery overlooking the House chamber.

The offense: her shirt, bearing an anti-war message and other "unlawful conduct," police said.

Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq who reinvigorated the anti-war movement, was handcuffed and charged with unlawful conduct, according to Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. The charge was a misdemeanor and Sheehan was being released on her own recognizance, Schneider said.

Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to Tuesday night's speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed in the House chamber, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., gave Sheehan her only ticket earlier in the day -- Gallery 5, seat 7, row A -- while Sheehan was attending an "alternative state of the union" news conference by CODEPINK, a group pushing for an end to the Iraq war.

"I'm proud that Cindy's my guest tonight," Woolsey said in an interview before the speech. "She has made a difference in the debate to bring our troops home from Iraq."

Sheehan, wrapped in a bright pink scarf against the cold, protested outside the White House with a handful of others before heading to the Capitol for Bush's speech. There were no cameras around, but the small band faced the executive mansion and shouted repeatedly, "You're evicted! Get out of our house!"

Sheehan was arrested in September with about 300 other anti-war activists in front of the White House after a weekend of protests against the war in Iraq. In August, she spent 26 days camped near Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he was spending a working vacation.

Meanwhile, the wife of U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young said she was ejected during Bush's address for wearing a T-shirt that said, "Support the Troops Defending Our Freedom."

That's according to the Saint Petersburg Times.

Beverly Young said she was sitting in the front row of the House gallery Tuesday night when she was approached by someone who told her she needed to leave.

She said she reluctantly agreed, but argued with several officers in an outside hallway.

In a telephone interview with the newspaper, Young said she told them her shirt wasn't a protest but a message of support.

Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said Young wasn't ejected from the gallery and she left on her own. She couldn't provide additional details.

Young's husband is a Republican from Indian Shores, Fla. He found out about the incident after Bush's speech and called it unacceptable.

*First Lady's Guests*

First lady Laura Bush's guests at her husband's annual address to Congress certainly were diverse. One, in fact, wasn't even human.

Rex, a 5-year-old German shepherd, fit in with the other Iraq war veterans who were guests of Republicans and Democrats.

Rex sniffed out bombs in Iraq. He's been the subject of congressional legislation. He's famous, and Wednesday night he became one of Mrs. Bush's guests at the State of the Union speech.

How Rex landed such a coveted seat -- actually a spot in the aisle labeled "Rex" on the official seating chart -- is quite a tale.

His owner, Air Force Tech Sgt. Jamie Dana, awoke in a military hospital last summer badly injured by a bomb in Iraq and crying for her bomb-sniffing dog. Someone told her Rex was dead.

Later, Dana found out that wasn't true. But it would take an act of Congress before she could take him home to Pennsylvania.

The Air Force said it had spent $18,000 training Rex and that, by statute, he needed to finish the remaining five years of his useful life before he could be adopted. Dana's congressman, Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., helped abolish that policy in an end-of-year defense bill, the White House said.

No less interesting were the other guests of Republicans and Democrats, ranging from parents of fallen soldiers to the mayor of Washington to survivors and rescue personnel from Hurricane Katrina.

Also in Mrs. Bush's box were the family of Marine Staff Sgt. Dan Clay, 27, who was killed Dec. 1 in Fallujah.

Democrats offered a gallery seat to Benny Rousselle, president of Plaqemines Parish, La., which was heavily damaged by Katrina. 
*Missing*

Conspicuously absent from the table of powerful House Republican leaders was Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who sat there for a decade as the schedule-setting majority leader. He was forced to step down from the post last year after being indicted on campaign finance charges in Texas.

Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder at the table instead were the candidates to succeed him: acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt of Missouri, Ohio Rep. John Boehner and Arizona Rep. John Shadegg. House Republicans choose a new majority leader Thursday.

Spokesman Kevin Madden said DeLay was sitting near a podium from which members debate opponents. 
_Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed._​


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## JoninNH (Jan 29, 2004)

Okay, I clicked on this thread to read this article because I thought it was about a fallen soldier's mother being arrested at the speech... had it known it was this liberal, socialist, unpatriotic, selfish bitch who is using her son's sacrafice to push her liberal agenda and get airtime, I never would have wasted my time!
:letitall: :uc: :letitall: :uc: :letitall:


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Yes and she was delt with in the proper manner ARRESTED !!!

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, *D*-Calif should have been arrested also for providing the invation.


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## Guest (Feb 1, 2006)

Cindy Sheehan's crusade stopped being about her son, a long time ago.


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## stm4710 (Jul 6, 2004)

She should be arrested for haveing a ugly snatch.


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## rscalzo (Sep 16, 2005)

While she lost all my respect a long time ago, this past week she is photographed along side the President of Venezuela who is solidly anti-American. The only claim to her son was the fact that she gave birth to him. He was not raised by her nor involved in his life. She seems to like the limelight. The Dem who gave her the ticket should get a swift kick in the ass by her own party members. Som how the State of the Union address should maintain some sort of decorum and not turn into a protest setting. What ever happened to high class?


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## Nachtwächter (Dec 9, 2005)

* Police Apologize, Drop Charge Vs. Sheehan *

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer_ 49 minutes ago_

Capitol Police dropped a charge of unlawful conduct against anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on Wednesday and apologized for ejecting her and a congressman's wife from President Bush's State of the Union address for wearing T-shirts with war messages.

"The officers made a good faith, but mistaken effort to enforce an old unwritten interpretation of the prohibitions about demonstrating in the Capitol," Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said in a statement late Wednesday.

"The policy and procedures were too vague," he added. "The failure to adequately prepare the officers is mine."

The extraordinary statement came a day after police removed Sheehan and Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young, R-Fla., from the visitors gallery Tuesday night. Sheehan was taken away in handcuffs before Bush's arrival at the Capitol and charged with a misdemeanor, while Young left the gallery and therefore was not arrested, Gainer said.

"Neither guest should have been confronted about the expressive T-shirts," Gainer's statement said.

Gainer added that he was asking the U.S. attorney's office to drop the charge against Sheehan. The statement also said he apologized to the Youngs and "share the department's plans for avoiding this in the future."

"A similar message has been left with Mrs. Sheehan," Gainer said.

For his part, Bill Young said he was not necessarily satisfied.

"My wife was humiliated," he told reporters. He suggested that "sensitivity training" may be in order for Capitol Police.

A foreign-born American citizen who was the guest of Rep. Alcee Hastings (news, bio, voting record), D-Fla., also was taken by police from the gallery just above the House floor, Hastings said Wednesday.

The congressman met with Gainer and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., about the incident.

"I'd like to find out more information," Hastings said in an interview, identifying the man only as being from Broward County in Florida. "He is a constituent of mine. I invited him proudly."

Sheehan's T-shirt alluded to the number of soldiers killed in Iraq: "2245 Dead. How many more?" Capitol Police charged her with a misdemeanor for violating the District of Columbia's code against unlawful or disruptive conduct on any part of the Capitol grounds, a law enforcement official said. She was released from custody and flew home Wednesday to Los Angeles.

Young's shirt had just the opposite message: "Support the Troops - Defending Our Freedom."

The two women appeared to have offended tradition if not the law, according to several law enforcement and congressional officials. By custom, the annual address is to be a dignified affair in which the president reports on the state of the nation. Guests in the gallery who wear shirts deemed political in nature have, in past years, been asked to change or cover them up.

Rules dealing mainly with what people can bring and telling them to refrain from reading, writing, smoking, eating, drinking, applauding or taking photographs are outlined on the back of gallery passes given to tourists every day.

However, State of the Union guests don't receive any guidelines, according to Deputy House Sergeant at Arms Kerri Hanley. "You would assume that if you were coming to an event like the State of the Union address you would be dressed in appropriate attire," she said.


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

What BULLSHIT !!!!!!


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## dcs2244 (Jan 29, 2004)

The police *did not* apologize...the political hack/tool *police chief*, TERRENCE GAINER, *apologized*. What a leader...I wish I worked for a guy like him...:321:

"T shirts" are not appropriate attire for the venue in question. I can understand that a syphilitic, bolshevik, white trash whore like Cindy wouldn't know better than to wear a "T shirt" to such an event, but the rep's wife certainly should have known better. For Cindy, arrest by the Capitol Police was appropriate. For the rep's wife, arrest by the Fashion Police would have been appropriate.

Since the beginnings of this country the Europeans have considered us rustics, rubes and churls. It's incidents like this that lend credence to that opinion.:BE:


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