{news} In Willimantic, free speech can be tricky

[David Bedell]

Jean de Smet, Mike Westerfield, and Juan Perez made the July 17 Norwich 
Bulletin for challenging military recruiters:

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050717/OPINION/507170318/1014
In Willimantic, free speech can be tricky

>From a legal standpoint, there is no constitutional right clearer than the 
right to distribute leaflets on a public street. Unless, of course, you live 
in Willimantic.

Several citizens found out the hard way that legal standpoints can collapse 
in the face of power. The boss on the job, the cop on the beat, the teacher 
in the classroom -- all of these people with position power and/or force -- 
can bust legal standpoints to smithereens if they are allowed to operate 
unchecked.

It began simply enough during the Third Thursday Street Festival on May 19. 
Michael Westerfield, a peace activist and local government official, 
delivered some fliers about a bicycle ride to one of the exhibitors. 
Westerfield then learned that National Guard recruiters had set up their 
wares including a machine gun and a grenade launcher. This bothered 
Westerfield, philosophically and because the festival does not allow weapons 
to be displayed.

"We don't allow the display or sales of even water guns or silly string," 
explained Jean de Smet, a festival organizer.

The National Guard has a right to show its tools, despite objections about 
the seduction of youth by the cool weapons and uniforms. The appropriate 
remedy for offensive speech is more free speech. Those who object to the 
weapons, etc., might present a photo display showing the results of those 
kinds of weapons inflicted on many thousands of American service personnel 
and Iraqi civilians.

But Sgt. Edy Torres of the National Guard relented and removed the weapons 
from his display. Score one for censorship here. In this context, what 
followed is not surprising.

Torres was angry. He and Westerfield confronted each other verbally. That 
Torres had to call in backup -- Willimantic police officers -- has been the 
subject of amusement and ridicule in local letters to the editor and 
conversations around town. If a soldier can't handle a discussion about a 
vital issue of the day, that doesn't say much for his disposition and 
training.
Told to move on

Willimantic police officer Ian Brown told Westerfield to move on. 
Westerfield avoided more trouble but reported to a police lieutenant and the 
chief that he had almost been arrested for talking to recruiters.

The same night, Eastern Connecticut State University history professor Jim 
Russell and his daughter, Magdalena, a union organizer, also risked arrest. 
Their alleged crime: handing out leaflets near the National Guard booth. 
Police threatened them with arrest for breach of peace.

"The recruiter was the verbal aggressor, but the police wrote the report on 
his behalf without even talking to the two persons passing out 
anti-recruiting literature," said Juan Perez, a poet, boxing coach and 
well-known community activist.

In the local press, those who confronted military recruiters were accused by 
police of "crossing the bounds of decorum." Who knew? Willimantic police 
also run a charm school. Must be something new in the Constitution.

The next Third Thursday Street Festival is scheduled for July 21. Festival 
organizers have scheduled a meeting with the police chief to make sure 
everyone's rights are protected. Peace activists, noting the recruitment is 
down nationwide, have asked for more leaftletters to make a "stronger 
statement of opposition to targeting economically depressed towns for 
recruitment in this illegal war."

Thibault, a former Norwich Bulletin reporter, writes for the Connecticut Law 
Tribune from which this is reprinted with permission. He is author of "Law & 
Justice In Everyday Life,"a mentor in the MFA writing program at Western 
Connecticut State University, and managing partner of Maltese Investigative 
Group LLC.

Originally published July 17, 2005