
When Bush travels around the United States, the Secret Service visits the location ahead of time and orders local police to set up free speech zones or protest zones where people opposed to Bush policies (and sometimes sign-carrying supporters) are quarantined. These zones routinely succeed in keeping protesters out of presidential sight and outside the view of media covering the event.
Google search "free speech zones"
Free
Speech Zones In the USA?
"Free Speech Zones" in the U.S.A.? I thought our entire nation was
a "Free Speech Zone." I thought that is what "freedom of speech"
meant in our Constitution. That we could say anything we wanted, anywhere on
public property where we wanted to say it. What was I thinking? Welcome to "Free
Speech, 2004, "Dubya" Bush Style."
Muffled
Voices?
Brett Bursey knew he might get in trouble when he went out to protest at
an appearance by President Bush, but he didn't expect the government to make
a federal case out of what he saw as exercising his right to free speech.
The
administration quarantines dissent.
On Dec. 6, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft informed the Senate Judiciary
Committee, To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost
liberty
your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national
unity and
give ammunition to Americas enemies. Some commentators
feared that Ashcrofts statement, which was vetted beforehand by top lawyers
at the Justice Department, signaled that this White House would take a far more
hostile view towards opponents than did recent presidents. And indeed, some
Bush administration policies indicate that Ashcrofts comment was not a
mere throwaway line.
Hiding
protestors in 'Free Speech Zones' is cowardly and un-American
As president, Bush has widened his restrictions on demonstrations against
his policies. Anti-Bush protesters are now relegated to what are euphemistically
called Free Speech Zones. These areas are cordoned off as far as a mile away
from the president and the main thoroughfares, so that Bush cannot see the demonstrators,
or their signs of protest, nor hear their chants.
'Free
speech zones' shouldn't squelch right to disagree
If you are worried about the state of free speech in America, consider the
case of longtime protester Brett Bursey. Last October, Bursey, carrying an anti-war
sign, was arrested at Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina during
a visit by President Bush. He was on public property at the time, but was charged
with trespassing because he was outside the zone established for demonstrators
that day. The zone was on the edge of a highway, a half-mile away from the president,
where neither Bush nor the media were likely to notice.
'First
Amendment Zones' Restrict Free Speech
President Bush's "First Amendment zones" were not a new development
for Knoxville. Police and Secret Service agents have been restricting protesters
across the country to zones variously called "protest zones" or "free-speech
zones" or, as in Knoxville, "First Amendment zones" for the president's
appearances.
