KEYEtv.com (CBS): (h/t JazzTrombone)
A 74-year-old retired mathematician who sells anti-Bush buttons at a Maryland farmers’ market has become a symbol of free speech to some people. Others say Alan McConnell is a nuisance.
McConnell was at the market in Kensington as usual yesterday, selling buttons that say “Impeach Him” He has sold the $1 buttons for months; he told The Washington Post he uses the money earned to pay for “Impeach Them Both” yard signs.
Town officials had previously warned McConnell about peddling his political wares at the market (he is accused of being “aggressive” in his pitch), and had cited him for selling merchandise without a proper permit.
McConnell was also warned that he would be arrested if he returned to the market, even though it is public property.
McConnell showed up this weekend, when police arrested him and forcibly carried him to a squad car. A crowd of about 40 McConnell supporters booed the arrest, chanting “Free speech!”
McConnell was charged with trespassing; he faces 90 days in jail and a $500 fine
Officials said kicking him out has nothing to do with politics but with fears that the atmosphere fostered by McConnell and his supporters would create a safety hazard. (Mayor Peter Fosselman even cancelled last Saturday’s market.)
It’s getting harder and harder to recognize this country some days…
No Trackbacks To “Vendor Arrested for “Impeach Him” Buttons“
Farced!!! This is weak.
A “safety hazard”??
we need to impeach them
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hr8k8WHTzN0
They arrest the man for practicing free speech which is PROTECTED under the Constitution of this country, but they won’t arrest the top attorney of this nation who sits in front of Congress under oath and lies to them and obstructs their investigations?
I really have entered the Twilight Zone..
Give the mayor a medal.
Through his idiocy,
Mconnells message has spread further than a thousand buttons.
Increment by increment.
I’m sympathic, yet if he had no legal permit to sell his merchandise and had in fact been
told that such a permit was required, then I have to agree with actions taken; tho I am
in hopes that some atty/lawyer will represent him and he does not face either a fine nor
a jail term…because GITMO is no place for a person his age.
I want these for sale at my local DC area Farmer’s Market.
I’ll take a dozen!
I suppose I’ll have to sell ‘em myself….
Every day, I become LESS PROUD of the country I LOVE!!
Are we allowed to make comparisons to 1930s Germany
now?
How much longer are the American people going to allow a small, radical extremist minority to push the vast majority of us around. This is OUR country, if the fringe folk that compose the republic party don’t like it, they can goto hell.
This isn’t a free speech case, it’s a trespassing case. He applied to sell his wares at the market, whoever is in charge of the market denied his application and now he’s breaking the rules of the farmer’s market. Perhaps those in charge don’t want to politicize the farmer’s market experience in either direction.
I’m all for free speech and a big C&L fan, but it seems in this case, most of you are making a free speech issue where there probably isn’t one.
Would any of you have a problem if I agreessively tried to see you and your children some Pro-NAMBLA buttons at the farmer’s market?
This isn’t a free speech case, it’s a trespassing case.
Bull, he was on public property that he is part owner of.
The details of the case clearly indicate that he was defying previous requests to not engage in a particular activity and was accused of being aggressive.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if his particular message didn’t have something to do with the way he was treated.
It’s going to get worse as Bush is backed into a corner and you know damn well Bush is notorious for reaching far beyond the letter of the law.
Doesn’t seem to long off now till peoples anger overcomes their fears and the sh*t really hits the fan.
So, Dan, you never answered my question: Would you mind if I agressively sold you and your children Pro-NAMBLA buttons? Look it up if you need to… Cause hey, I’m part owner of all public property and that apparently gives me the right to conduct business there.
Freedom is as Freedom does.
“accused of being aggressive”
Translation: some wing nut was asked politely if he wanted to buy one and then the wing nut went off on the old man and when the old man dared to stand up for himself the wing nut called the cops.
It sounds like he had already been selling his buttons at the market, but this time they had denied him his permit..?
“McConnell was at the market in Kensington as usual yesterday, selling buttons that say “Impeach Him” He has sold the $1 buttons for months;”
Did I read that wrong? It really sounds like it wasn’t his first time selling at this market. If that is the case, is there a problem with them suddenly denying him the right to sell there? I realize whoever is in charge of the market probably has the say-so. Just curious about why they would change direction if he had been selling before then. Just too controversial and the got complaints??
You are right that if it is a privately owned and operated market where applications and permits are required, he should have gotten the permit first. What if he had the permit and they rescinded it though?
Chadimu @ 12:
I read the article and did not see that the gentlemen applied for permission nor that his
application was denied. As I said in #7 above, it seems that he failed to seek the
permit required and that is the reason he was arrested, tho apparently told beforehand
that a permit was necessary. Am I missing something?
I wonder if he has a website. I would buy his signs and buttons from him.
I want a couple BIG signs for my front window that says “Support America - Impeach Them BOTH!” along with “Support Our Soldiers - Bring Them HOME!”
dan @ 18:
Or the Goose-Stepping Geriatric Gestapo Neighborhood Watch Association.
The police had a perfect right to arrest an anti-free-market kook trying to disrupt a farmers market.
Anonymal @ 2:
Were they “stick pins”?
Someone could possibly get stabbed with one.
Probably weapons there.
How much you wanna bet had he been arrested for selling “Support Bush” buttons Fox “News” would have around the clock coverage of the situation.
Before he was arrested did they ask him “vor his papars pleeze?”
I may have misspoke on whether he applied for a permit. If one is required to have a permit to sell something in a public space and/or a farmer’s market and he never had one perhaps they just let his selling slip by up until the point someone complained. If that’s the case, wingnut complainer or not, he doesn’t have much ground to stand on for his rights to sell something, anything, regardless if it has a political slogan or not.
Remember a few years back when Bush Co was doing money drops over Afghanistan?
C&L would do a great service by supplying this gentleman’s address, so that we can send him a dollar and a self-address stamped envelope for a button.
Remember a few years back when Bush Co was doing money drops over Afghanistan?
Remember a few years back, before Bush, when Americans had money?
The relevent decision is Pruneyard involving private property open to the public for commercial purposes.
Even though he was selling the buttons, it’s still political “speech.”
The Constitution? What’s that ask’s King George? People should be flipping out over this, but no, just let it go unnoticed like the little frog placed in cool water in a pot on a stove. Then turn the gas jets to high and watch him just doze off as the water continues to heat up until he’s cooked.
Wake up Bloggasphere and contact your elected officials!
Bush executive order: Criminalizing the antiwar movement
By Prof. Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
http://onlinejournal.com/artma.....2219.shtml
I ran into McConnell at the ACLU’s Freedom & Justice day last month in DC. He was persistent, but hardly aggressive. He also was not exactly selling the buttons, but asking for a $1 donation for the button for the expressed purpose of funding the yard signs. I found the guy mildly annoying, though I did give him some money to put up yard signs. :)
The arrest seems fishy to me. People do this sort of thing all the time (poppies for the VFW, girl scout cookies, etc) and, the cops regularly look the other way, even when such activities are technically against ordinance.
Oh, and I love the C&L title of this one: Vendor Arrested for “Impeach Him” Buttons
and then later in the text it reads: McConnell was charged with trespassing; he faces 90 days in jail and a $500 fine
So, Nicole, was he arrested for the buttons or the trespassing?
Believe me, I’m quite left and anti Iraq war, but I’d like to keep this site from becoming the left version of Powerline.
Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74 (1980).
dan @ 30:
Sure do. Those days are gone. Every thing is credit-debt now. Besides that you’d have to be an idiot to invest serious money in any kind of enterprise in these conditions. Only crooks, liars, and white collar criminals make it in this type of economy.
pissed canuck @ 5:
Exactly. This is one of the best things the wingnuts could have done in getting out the message to support impeachment.
#34 McConnell showed up this weekend, when police arrested him and forcibly carried him to a squad car. A crowd of about 40 McConnell supporters booed the arrest, chanting “Free speech!”
The real sad part is even if you have a novel yet noble business product that takes off then you have to become a crook, liar, or white collar criminal to keep it going in most cases once you get into the “big dough”.
Chadimu @ 34:
I sold IMPEACH CLINTON pins and bumper stickers at NASCAR races in teh 1990’s and made a fortune. I had a few run ins with police, but usually they just watned to know where they could get one after tehy were out of uniform.
This poor loon is too stupid to find a place to sell them to make money AND stay safe….it is also his message that is dangerous.
Clinton had to be Impeached, Bush should be made President for life , or until the War On Terror is over.
Now, back to the coming waqr with Iran
#38 So what? He was arrested for trespassing, regardless of what people are chanting. Mobs can be wrong too.
btw I fully support this guy setting up a website and using this episode to highlight the cause. He could make a ton of cash and buy far far more lawn signs and even billboards by using this fiasco to his advantage.
“It’s getting harder and harder to recognize this country some days…”
it’s the same country it’s always been nicole. tell me a period of time when people weren’t arrested for having a controversial political opinion.
Doggiebobo @ 7:
That’s the fuzzy part of the whole article. One point it said he needed permission to sell items at the market, and another point it said the market was public property. If it was a privately owned market, I could see why they would call the cops on him. If it was public property, then this couldn’t be “trespassing”, unless there is a local ordinance stating that you need a vendor’s license to sell stuff.
ME ALSO, BUT UNLESS AND UNTIL WE ALL HAVE THE ENTIRE STORY, AND NOT BITS AND PIECES, SEEMS THAT ON THE SURFACE, HE VIOLATED A LAW….AND THE ARREST MAY HAVE BEEN APPROPRIATE….
Please, a 74 year old man arrested while selling buttons. If he had been selling crack maybe, but buttons? How much you wanna bet when the local football team in this town or the VFW has a fund raiser and takes money at traffic lights with out a permet that the cops look the other way?
Ah, just another incremental yet material step in our evolution into a police state.
This man should ask for a pardon from Bush, after all his “crime” sure doesn’t fit the $500 fine. Hell, Libby lied to protect Cheney after Cheney committed treason and got a pardon because his sentence was to severe for the crime (in Bush’s opinion)
Typically with a farmer’s market on public property there are ordinances in place stating when and what you can sell. That way, it remains a farmer’s market and not a flea market that sells completely random crap. Individual permits are usually required and part of the process involves detailing exactly what you will sell. If it were a complete free for all, it wouldn’t be a farmer’s market and in this case it sounds like it would turn into a political rally.
nabalzbffr @ 23:
he look, it’s a 20%er. im sure the parties that complained are much like our visitor here. im guessing, but if he were selling girl scout cookies without a permit there would be no arrest. at most escorted off the premises.
dan @ 45:
Mixing apples and oranges. And your opening sentence is not, at least according to the
article, correct…..Arrested for tresspassing on property without a permit to sell.
Atrain @ 46:
Thats right Bush Sr. in early 2001 said “no no no we’re not going back to that” when asked if they we’re going to continue with a Clinton style economic course-domestic policy.
Chadimu @ 12:
And what if he GAVE them away???
I’m waiting for them to arrest a vending machine.
And your opening sentence is not, at least according to the
article, correct…
Please, a 74 year old man arrested while selling buttons.
So the man wasn’t selling buttons when he was arrested?