Newsday reports
An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War.
Police said that Don Zirkel, of Bethpage, was disturbing shoppers at the Lake Grove mall with his T-shirt, which had what they described as "graphic anti-war images." Zirkel, a deacon at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Wyandanch, said his shirt had the death tolls of American military personnel and Iraqis - 4,000 and 1 million - and the words "Dead" and "Enough." The shirt also has three blotches resembling blood splatters.
Police said in a release last night that Zirkel was handing out anti-war pamphlets to mallgoers and that mall security told him to stop and turn his shirt inside out. Zirkel refused to turn his shirt inside out and wouldn't leave, police said. Security placed him on "civilian arrest" and called police. When police arrived, Zirkel passively resisted attempts to bring him to a police car, the release said.
"Arrested at Mall for Wearing Anti-War T-shirt"
No -- arrested for trespassing. There's a difference.
Hmm. So you're saying if he'd stopped handing out pamphlets, but not turned his shirt inside out, the mall would have been OK with that?
So answer me this: why did they tell him to turn his shirt inside out?
Trespassing was the specific charge they used; nobody can dispute that. And in fact, since it was private property, from a legal standpoint you're correct. They were within their "rights" to have him arrested.
But the actual import is much worse: in many cities, the mall has replaced public property as the only commons available for community discussion. By making that private property, and by ensuring that some topics are off limits, we ensure that some communities have no discussion of topics which are very important. That's the motivation for including this piece on the blog -- not that a law was broken, but that in this case, the law is broken. The result is a suboptimal society. We think that should be fixed.
Simon property group 317-636-1600
speak to Malls Complaint Department ask for Mickey Ruby
I did and you can too ;-)
In cases like this, people should check to see if tax money is involved in some way, like tax abatements or something else. If so, then that property is semi-public, and persons should sue for the right of public assembly and free speech. If you want to take government money there should be strings attached re/ people's rights.