Davenport Police Confiscate Little Flagsticks to Protect Cheney, They Say
Davenport Police Chief Michael Bladel defends his officers. “They thought the Vice President might stop, and because these were fairly long wooden sticks with points on them, they thought they might be a threat to the Vice President,” he says. “This could be considered a weapon.”
Here in uber-patriotic post-9.11 Amerika, you just never know what can be used in an assassination attempt against that Republican rock star, VP DIck Cheney. Even the instruments that American sheeple often use to display deep and undying patriotism and love of country- American flags- could, in the wrong hands, be used to hasten the demise of our brave and Godly Veep.
I know…repeat after me…WTF??? Has this Administration and it’s servants in law enforcement lost their collective minds? I realize that post-9.11 paranoia has made for a lot of truly silly situations, but since when is the American flag a threat to anyone? Yes, I understand that, theoretically at least, the flagsticks could conceivably be used as weapons, but did no one consider what the PR impact would be when pictures of police confiscating American flags from little old ladies hit the 11 o’clock news?
Apparently not.
Cathy Bolkcom, one of the founders of Progressive Action for the Common Good, stressed that the event “was not an anti-Cheney demonstration.”
Instead, she says, “it was all about what we need in this country.”
People talked about universal health care, Social Security, raising the minimum wage, and peace, she adds. The protest was co-sponsored by the Quad City Federation of Labor, and there were a lot of union people there, she says.
Except for the heat, she says, the protest was going along just fine.
“It was so fricking hot,” she says. “The heat index was 107 degrees.”
She says the police first were upset about a protester with a large peace flag on a pole, which they made him give up. She says the police had told them before the march not to have signs on poles so she wasn’t surprised by this.
But the taking away of the flagsticks—now that did surprise her. “I never imagined those were a problem,” Bolkcom says. The protesters relinquished them without a fight, in their polite, Midwestern way, she says.
In hindsight, she regrets they surrendered their flags so willingly. “There’s some real free speech issues involved here,” she says. “It’s so un-American.”
Davenport Police Chief Michael Bladel defends his officers. “They thought the Vice President might stop, and because these were fairly long wooden sticks with points on them, they thought they might be a threat to the Vice President,” he says. “This could be considered a weapon.”
Yes, apparently little old ladies waving American flags are the new stealth terrorism threat. And law enforcement can never be too careful, you know. All it takes is one crazed septagenarian with a flagstick and bad intent…and before you know it, we’re burying the VP. Of cource, how said crazed septagenarian would manage to make it through the VP’s Secret Service detail is a matter that no one seems to have puzzled through. No, it seems law enforcement is too busy overreacting to actually deal with reality.
Then again, these little old ladies WERE engaging in a political protect, and we all know how dangerous dissent can be, no? Dissent is the real weapon of terror, and REAL Americans know that if you’re not with us, then you must be with the terrorists…because the new terrorists carry American flags.
What’s next? Confiscating their purses…or their support hose? Jeebus, can we get a grip here? This is America, and carrying an American flag, even if on a tiny stick, is something that no American should have to think twice about. Now that American flags have apparently been weaponized, though, this is just another example of the insidious manner in which terrorists use the implements of everyday life against us.
Today, American flags on a stick. Tomorrow, Popsicles and Dairy Queen Dilly Bars….
