Four people, including liberty-minded patriots Chanda Seymour (of We Are Change-Austin), John Bush (Director of Texans for Accountable Government), environmentalist activist Robin Schneider (Texas Environment Organization), and Dan McCarthy (a 22-year-old Texas State University student, running for mayor of San Marcos) were arrested on August 9th by UT-Austin Police Department. The individuals were charged with their various “crimes” by Austin Police Department, as that is the handling law enforcement agency in the area with the jail facility. Their “crimes” ranged from exercising their rights of free speech and peaceful assembly at the Obama event at UT’s Austin campus ["criminal tresspass", Ms. Seymour and Mr. Bush], to collecting ballot signatures for a petition [Ms Schneider], to walking on a public sidewalk and not stopping when ordered by Austin PD University of Texas Police Department to do so [Mr. McCarthy]!
Contact University of Texas Police Department @ 512-471-4441. Let them know what you think of them violating the First Amendment.
photo by Jay Janner/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Here are videos of the arrests….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gr1BIDi97M&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP3kJwjG0RE&feature=player_embedded
They were out of the designated “free speech zone,” speaking and protesting.
August 9 at 11:12pm
UPDATE
John, Chanda, Dan and Robin all got out at midnight on August 9th for $20 bail a piece, with a collection being taken up for that purpose.
Although our fellow patriots were released on bond, we must contact the UTPD as stated above and DEMAND a full public apology. Also contact the Travis Co. DA and demand that all charges be dropped immediately!
We are not a police state! Just as the UTPD attempted to make an example today at the expense of fellow patriots, we must return the favor and make an example of the Austin Police Department in defense of our 1st Amendment Rights!
Angela CoxJCTP President
jcteaparty@gmail.com
http://www.jctp.us
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Related viewing or reading:
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2010/08/09/crowd_outside_jail_decries_arr.html
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2010/08/10/obama_protesters_arrested_afte.html
http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/obama-visit-delights-disappoints-central-texans-850629.html?viewAsSinglePage=true
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/ReaderComments/?ContainerID=1067077
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/142018
http://libertarianchristians.com/2010/08/10/demonstration-report-ut-austin/
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2568210/posts
http://fwix.com/austin/share/f7f7546bb9/obama_protesters_arrested_after_being_asked_to_leave
August 24th, 2010 at 11:10 am
From my understanding it was the University of Texas Police Department and not the Austin Police Department that had jurisdiction and did the arrest, according to the John Bush arrest video I saw. Let’s make sure we get the right police department before we lay into them…
(Though I’m sure that we can dig up something on APD too…)