NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan

[Guest guest]

Village Voice

 

NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan

City's Finest pulls move even Bush wouldn't have tried

 

by Sarah Ferguson

September 19th, 2005 5:54 PM

 

Cindy Sheehan speaking out in Union Square with Al

Zappala, who also lost a son in Iraq

photo: Sarah Ferguson

Cindy Sheehan may be the Rosa Parks of the anti-war

movement. But that didn't stop members of the New York

Police Department from marching into the crowd of

about 150 people gathered in Union Square Monday to

hear her speak and yanking away the microphone.

The NYPD pulled the plug just as Sheehan was calling

on the audience not to lose heart in the fight to end

the war in Iraq.

 

" We get up every morning, and every morning we see

this enormous mountain in front of us, " said Sheehan,

speaking on behalf of the other parents and family

members of fallen soldiers who have taken up the

crusade to bring the troops home.

 

" We can't go through it, we can't go under it, so we

have to go over it, " she continued, just as the cops

rushed the makeshift podium.

 

Police dragged away Paul Zulkowitz, a.k.a. Zool, an

organizer with " Camp Casey New York, " the small

encampment that he and other activists helped set up a

month ago in Union Square in solidarity with Sheehan's

vigil outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford,

Texas. The New York branch existed much to the ire of

the city's Parks Department. Today, Zulkowitz was

arrested for failing to obtain a sound permit—a charge

that normally warrants no more than a summons.

 

Moments earlier, Zulkowitz had been chastising Parks

officials for refusing to grant a permit to the

encampment, and accusing the police of trying to

harass the antiwar protest away. Contrasting the

liberal Big Apple with the hostile environs Sheehan

faced in Crawford, Zulkowitz told the crowd: " You

would think that here in New York City, at Union

Square—our Hyde Park—you would think that we would

little difficulty having a 24-hour vigil to oppose the

war. In fact, we've had two arrests and eight

summonses and endless harassment from the police for

doing what we do. "

 

As the activists hustled away Sheehan and the other

family members on the Bring Them Home Now tour,

an enraged crowd of about 50 people stormed

after the police, chanting, " Shame! Shame! " Meanwhile

Iraq war veteran and now peace activist Jeff Key

played " God Bless America " on his trumpet.

 

" Since when can't you talk out here in Union Square? "

demanded an Upper West Side social worker who

identified herself as Quha, who said she'd taken her

lunch break to hear Sheehan because she has a

19-year-old son who is considering enlisting. " I've

seen everyone and their mother come out and speak

nonsense out here in this park, and for them to shut

down Cindy Sheehan is just not right. "

 

" They came in like gangbusters. It was really

ridiculous, " said Margaret Rapp, a retired teacher

from Inwood who added that she planned to file a

complaint after an officer forcibly shoved her in the

chest. A mother of a 19-year-old, she said she'd come

to hear Sheehan because she lost her fiancee during

the Vietnam War. " This is very close to home. There is

a chord that Cindy hits among people that have lost

people in this war and other wars, or who have draft

age children like me. We're scared to death. "

 

Inspector Michael McEnroy, commander of the 13th

Precinct, insisted the shutdown order had nothing to

do with the content of Sheehan's speech, but was

instead about the " provocation " caused by Zulkowitz.

" This has been going on for much longer than today, "

McEnroy said, adding of Sheehan, " I don't even know

the woman. " That last part prompted one pissed-off

onlooker to shoot back: " Haven't you watched the news

or read a paper in the last three months? "

 

Sheehan has been touring the country for the last

month with members of Gold Star Families for Peace,

Military Families Speak out, and Iraq Veterans Against

the War. They will be speaking tonight at 6:30 at St.

John the Divine (Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street),

part of the lead up to Saturday's big anti-war march

in Washington, D.C.

 

 

 

 

" Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They

never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people,

and neither do we. "

 

George Bush, at the signing ceremony for a 417 billion dollar

" defense " bill.