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Texans for Accountable Government

TAG Executive Director John Bush arrested for FREE SPEECH!

Police arrest activist, citizen journalist at Obama rally. Activist group questions legitimacy of ‘speech zones’

AUSTIN — John Bush, director of Texans for Accountable Government and a contributor to the blog Austin Free Press, was arrested Monday afternoon, Aug. 9, after U.S. President Barack Obama gave an address at the University of Texas at Austin campus.

Bush, 26, who was arrested the same day as fellow activists Chandra Seymour (31), Dan McCarthy (22), and the Director of Environment Texas Robin Schneider (50), took to the campus of Texas’ flagship university to ensure Austinite’s civil liberties were not violated, to document the event, and to protest the President’s foreign policy over the last two years of the Administration. The difficulty arose when University of Texas Police Officers began instructing activists to move to what the university deemed a “Free Speech Area” — a distant area dedicated to public addresses — outside the campus’ Gregory Gymnasium.

Bush, noted that he was not only redressing his grievances, but also exercising his freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and his right to peaceably assemble, all of which are enumerated within the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

As Bush was monitoring police and UT staff who were trying to remove an individual who was debating Obama’s policies, Police approached him, asked if he was a student, and then asked him to leave.

“You guys don’t want to do this,” Bush said, while being approached by campus police. “You’re about to violate my civil rights … there’s no violence going on. It’s a peaceful discussion. It may be a little heated, but it’s peaceful.”

Bush continued:

“People are learning from each other — well, maybe not too much from each other. But maybe they’ll learn a lot more from a gentleman who is standing here very calmly, with a press pass, John Bush, exercising … three of my First Amendment rights — my right to free speech, my right to peaceably assemble, and the freedom of the press, that’s three — … which could potentially be violated by the University of Texas Police Department and the Dean’s Office.”

Protesters then began a chant, as Bush was escorted away by police:

Leader: “Tell me what a police state looks like:”
Other protesters: “This is what a police state looks like!”

Bush was held on a criminal trespass charge, a class B misdemeanor, in the Travis County jail Monday evening. He was subsequently released, and made several media appearances on Tuesday.

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QUOTE:

Members of the press are welcome to attribute the following comment to John Bush, director of Texans For Accountable Government:

“The whole idea of a ‘free-speech zone’ is repugnant to the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Americans must realize that the entire country is a free speech zone! I encourage everybody to learn their rights and to exercise them whenever possible. Stand strong in the face of adversity if you know you are doing no wrong.  Together, we can make Austin the most free and prosperous city in the world!”

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WEB LINKS:

A YouTube video of the arrest may be found at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gr1BIDi97M (08/10/10, 4:39p.m. CST).

UT-Austin’s free speech policy may be read at:
http://registrar.utexas.edu/catalogs/gi09-10/app/gi09.appc04.html

Austin American-Statesman crime blotter article:
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2010/08/10/obama_protesters_arrested_afte.html