Why is the Secret Service doing this?

[tomfodw]

See boldfaced section below (boldface mine)


Traverse City Record-Eagle
http://www.record-eagle.com/2004/aug/17mead.htm

August 17, 2004
Ticket ripped because of sticker
Teacher, 55, wanted to see a president
BY IAN C. STOREY
Record-Eagle staff writer
TRAVERSE CITY - Kathryn Mead wanted to see her first sitting president when George W. Bush visited the city.
Instead, Bush campaign staffers tore up the 55-year-old social studies teacher's ticket and refused her admission because she sported a small sticker on her blouse that touted the Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards.
"I had my ticket and photo identification, but they would not let me in because of this sticker," said Mead, a teacher at Traverse City West Senior High, who said she has seen Queen Elizabeth and Pope John Paul in person.
"I have never found this kind of screening anywhere in my travels around the world. I can't imagine being denied access to hearing the president of the United States speak."
Several people outside the campaign event tried to console Mead, who was visibly upset.
"It really is comedic," said a man holding a Kerry/Edwards sign. "What absolute nonsense."
Kate Stephan, chair of the Grand Traverse Republican Party, could not be reached for comment after the rally.
But Ralph Soffredine, a Traverse City commissioner, school board member and former police chief who worked security at the front gate, said it is part of the Bush campaign policy.
"We were told that anyone with stickers or shirts would not be let in if they would not take them off," he said. "(Mead) came to me after her ticket was torn up, but I told her there was nothing I could do.
"I know her and it was really too bad, but I would say that we had very few instances of that. I thought it went very well."
Lynn Larson, chair of the Grand Traverse Democratic Party, said the move is typical of other Bush rallies that only allow Republican supporters to see the president.
"The very reason that we are here protesting is to protect our First Amendment rights," she said. "When the Secret Service rips somebody's sticker off and takes their ticket away, it makes me even more determined to march to protect our rights."
Mead, who has taught for two decades, instead stood on the sidewalks with other John Kerry supporters, listening to Bush from behind a fence.
"I really, truly wanted to have the experience of having seen the president and hear him speak, which is very important to me as a social studies teacher," she said. "How can anyone in the United States deny someone entry? Isn't this a democracy?"



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Copyright Traverse City Record-Eagle, a division of Ottaway Newspapers Inc., all rights reserved.

[fishface]

1. Most likely because they've been ordered to

by the little fascists..

[tomfodw]

2. If that's true...

...it almost has to be a violation of law. The Secret Service protects the President from physical threats; they're not his campaign workers, and it's illegal for him to make them serve his campaign purposes.

[chookie]

3. But it's not the Secret Service

The Secret Service doesn't do shit like this.

The GOP operatives do this, and I believe this is what this article states.

There have been instances where GOP operatives falsely claim to be Secret Service (they did in Pittsburgh at the "Guantanamo on the Ohio" Protest), or GOP operatives falsely claiming to be acting on the orders of the Secret Service -- who later denies issuing any such order.

[MidwestTransplant]

4. Exactly right

Also, the campaign advance team have ear pieces similar to the SS so they can hear eachother through the noise.

[daisygirl]

5. I wonder...

In Cambridge, Ohio, where protesters were kept far away from Bush's rally and threatened to arrest protesters who lined up on the expected motorcade route, the police chief claimed in a newspaper interview that the Secret Service told him to do it - but the Secret Service said they expect protesters, they have a right to be there, etc, and that they didn't issue any such order.

At the time I figured the police chief was lying to cover his ass - but now I wonder if campaign operatives claimed to be Secret Service and issued that order.