"So this is America?"

[Richard Allan Jenni]

Partnership for Civil Justice

 

"At Clinton Speech: Veteran Bloodied, Bruised
and Arrested for Standing Silently

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As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave her speech at George Washington University yesterday condemning governments that arrest protestors and do not allow free expression, 71-year-old Ray McGovern was grabbed from the audience in plain view of her by police and an unidentified official in plain clothes, brutalized and left bleeding in jail. She never paused speaking. When Secretary Clinton began her speech, Mr. McGovern remained standing silently in the audience and turned his back. Mr. McGovern, a veteran Army officer who also worked as a C.I.A. analyst for 27 years, was wearing a Veterans for Peace t-shirt.

 

Blind-sided by security officers who pounced upon him, Mr. McGovern remarked, as he was hauled out the door, 'So this is America?' Mr. McGovern is covered with bruises, lacerations and contusions inflicted in the assault.

 

Mr. McGovern is being represented by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF). 'It is the ultimate definition of lip service that Secretary of State Clinton would be trumpeting the U.S. government's supposed concerns for free speech rights and this man would be simultaneously brutalized and arrested for engaging in a peaceful act of dissent at her speech,' stated attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the PCJF.

 

Mr. McGovern now works for Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C."

 

[Ronald A. Nelson Col.USA (Ret)]

Just one more in a long list of Constitutional violations by this Administration and its' officials.  I hope that Mr. McGovern's suit is successful. In fact, I encourage others whose rights are infringed by this Administration to take similar action... let's bury them in an avalanche of law suites.  

This type of action deserves the attention of Congress. This Administration has established a pattern of civil rights violations against dissidents and protesters.  There is an emerging pattern of INSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMINATION and VIOLATIONS AGAINST THE CIVIL RIGHTS of those who disagree with the Administration. The use of SEIU members and other official and unofficial sources to quash dissent and the civil rights of citizens to protest, needs to be investigated by Congress. Action to reign in such conduct and to discipline those members of the Administration that are engaged in unlawful conduct is certainly due.

The People must insist on JUSTICE and justice begins with OPEN PUBLIC HEARINGS to expose the serious nature and wide spread use of such actions by this Administration to discourage and control peaceful, public protest. The House of Representatives is the People's House, they are the primary arm of the People for the redress of such grievances.  Rep Issa and Speaker Boehner need to take action by holding public hearings on this Administrations institutional pattern of civil rights abuses.