hey, the free speech zone is over there, under that camera...

[Guest guest]

Bush foe loses 'fencing' match

 

Sign-carrier arrested after balking at curbs

 

Wednesday, September 04, 2002

 

By Milan Simonich, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sixty-five-year-old Bill Neel wanted to needle President Bush in the spirit of

the First Amendment.

 

So Neel concocted a protest sign, picked up his sister and drove to Neville

Island, where they planned to spend Labor Day criticizing Bush in public. The

president was in town to make a speech to unionized carpenters.

 

 

 

 

 

Bill Neel, 65, of Butler, was arrested for protesting outside the designated

protest area when President Bush visited Neville Island on Labor Day. The sign

he was carrying said: " The Bushes must truly love the poor -- they've made so

many of us. " (Joyce Mendelsohn, Post-Gazette)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neel, of Butler, learned on his arrival that demonstrators against Bush were

being herded onto a baseball field behind a fence at Neville Memorial Park.

 

He refused to join other protesters inside the fence, saying the arrangement

infringed on his right of free speech and reminded him of a Nazi concentration

camp.

 

Neel insisted on holding his sign outside the fence, so Allegheny County police

arrested him and took him away in handcuffs. They detained him for two hours in

a fire hall and confiscated his sign, which said: " The Bushes must truly love

the poor -- they've made so many of us. "

 

Neel was freed after he received a summons accusing him of disorderly conduct.

He said yesterday he plans to ask for a court hearing because everything he did

is protected by the First Amendment.

 

" The police told me I had to be in the designated free-speech area. That's a

contradiction in terms, " he said.

 

Neel's sister, Joyce L. Neel, 50, also was arrested. She ran to her brother as

police were taking him away. He said she gets upset easily and can be loud, but

she did nothing illegal.

 

Neville Police Superintendent Edward Selzer said keeping protesters behind a

fence was his idea.

 

" You can't deny them the right to demonstrate, but you can restrict where they

demonstrate, " said Selzer, a Neville officer for 42 1/2 years. " It's best for

everybody that way. "

 

He said almost everyone complied with the arrangement. The Neels were the only

two arrested.

 

County Police Superintendent Ken Fulton said the U.S. Secret Service specified

crowd-control procedures to ensure Bush's safety. His officers, he said, were

enforcing rules put in place by federal agents.

 

" The magistrate could let them go when they appear in court, " he said of the

Neels. " It's no skin off my back. "

 

Selzer said Bush was the first president to visit Neville Island since Franklin

Roosevelt in the 1930s, and the event generated intense regional interest.

Protesters wanted to use Bush's appearance as an excuse to take over a

neighborhood, Selzer said, so he decided to limit their ability to move about.

 

" One group wanted to have 300 people on the street. That's too large. You can't

have them meandering around, carrying signs. That's disorderly. "

 

Neel said he and his sister were not affiliated with any organization. They went

to Neville Island to pan the president, he said, because they disagree with his

policies.

 

Various people with signs friendly to Bush were allowed to stand along Neville

Island's main street, where the president's motorcade passed. One Neville Island

woman carried a homemade sign that said, " Hello, George. " She said she stood

along the street for about seven hours until Bush arrived.

 

Neel said county officers were " professional and nonjudgmental " when they

arrested him. But, he said, the steps taken to buffer Bush from critics were

indefensible.

 

" It's not me that's in trouble. It's the country, " said Neel, a retired

steelworker who has run for Congress as a Democrat and for the state Legislature

as a Republican.

 

No date has been scheduled for his court hearing.

 

 

 

--

Milan Simonich can be reached at msimonich or 412-263-1956.

[Guest guest]

They do that over here as well - particularly when the Chinese chap came

over.

 

Jo

 

 

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