Wear a T-shirt, Go to Jail

Most everyone has heard about Cindy Sheehan getting arrested for daring to wear a T-shirt criticizing the war in Iraq to the SOTU speech the other night. Here's the story in her own words.

I had just sat down and I was warm from climbing 3 flights of stairs back up from the bathroom so I unzipped my jacket. I turned to the right to take my left arm out, when the same officer saw my shirt and yelled; "Protester." He then ran over to me, hauled me out of my seat and roughly (with my hands behind my back) shoved me up the stairs. I said something like "I'm going, do you have to be so rough?" By the way, his name is Mike Weight.

The officer ran with me to the elevators yelling at everyone to move out of the way. When we got to the elevators, he cuffed me and took me outside to await a squad car. On the way out, someone behind me said, "That's Cindy Sheehan." At which point the officer who arrested me said: "Take these steps slowly." I said, "You didn't care about being careful when you were dragging me up the other steps." He said, "That's because you were protesting." Wow, I get hauled out of the People's House because I was, "Protesting."

I was never told that I couldn't wear that shirt into the Congress. I was never asked to take it off or zip my jacket back up. If I had been asked to do any of those things...I would have, and written about the suppression of my freedom of speech later. I was immediately, and roughly (I have the bruises and muscle spasms to prove it) hauled off and arrested for "unlawful conduct."

There's more if you follow the link. Read it and weep for America.

***Update*** Glenn Greenwald has a great round-up of the many, many right-wing blogs out there who accused Cindy of "breaking the law" when, in fact, she violated no law at all by simply wearing a T-shirt in the chamber where the speech was being given. Even the cops now admit that they "made a mistake" in arresting her, and all charges have been dropped.