NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan, But Not the Antiwar Movement
by Joshua Frank
www.dissidentvoice.org
September 21, 2005



 

They can’t stop the antiwar movement, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t trying. On Monday, September 19 Cindy Sheehan spoke in New York City’s Union Square to a group of supporters and onlookers when police rushed in to break up her speech as it was winding down. 

“I was speaking and someone grabbed my backpack and pulled me back pretty roughly,” Sheehan told the Associated Press. “I was shoved around.” 

Police arrested organizer Paul Zulkowitz, who was charged with disorderly conduct as well as for using an unauthorized sound device. For anybody that has been through Union Square in the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen Zulkowitz (a.k.a. Zool) who heads up “Camp Casey NYC,” a small group of local activists who set up an encampment over a month ago to show their solidarity for Sheehan’s quest to end the Iraq war. Zool’s arrest was most likely a coordinated effort meant to disrupt the ongoing antiwar vigil. 

“Since when can't you talk out here in Union Square?” an Upper West Side social worker told the Village Voice following the incident. “I've seen everyone and their mother come out and speak nonsense out here in this park, and for them to shut down Cindy Sheehan is just not right.” 

There is no question that the New York Police Department overreacted. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve personally shuffled through Union Square where musicians and others were plugged into (unauthorized, I am sure) amplifiers -- singing their tunes or spewing their political propaganda. And never once I have I seen a police officer run in and pull the Bob Dylan or Abbie Hoffman wannabe from his microphone. No, there’s a reason why they targeted Cindy Sheehan and not these fellows. 

Quashing Cindy is a different issue altogether, and it carries a lot more weight. For starters Sheehan is actually being heard and getting her fair share of media coverage. She is proof that the antiwar movement is gaining speed. And that’s a dangerous predicament for those that support Bush’s dubious war, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg who is clearly plotting his own trajectory within the Republican establishment. Unplugging Sheehan undoubtedly scored Bloomberg a few brownie points with the Bush cartel -- as if jailing 1,8000 protestors during the Republican National Convention wasn’t enough.  

Silencing Cindy Sheehan in Union Square should show us all what we are really up against. Over 1,900 US troops have died thus far in Iraq, not to mention countless civilians. And for what? The NYPD and government officials don’t want us to ask that important question, which means we have to be even more vigilant in our efforts to expose Bush’s war for the fraud that it is. 

Joshua Frank is the author of Left Out!: How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush, published by Common Courage Press. You can order a copy at a discounted rate at www.brickburner.org. Joshua can be reached at Joshua@brickburner.org.

Listen to an interview with Joshua Frank about Left Out! from  KUCI's (CA) Weekly Signals program. Read an excellent review of Left Out! by Adam Engel.

Other Recent Articles by Josh Frank

* Interview with Ward Churchill (Part I)
* Winning the West: Progressives “Stand Up”
* Bunny and the War Profiteers
* Drop Kicking Juan Cole and Marc Cooper: Will the Real Leaders Stand Up?
* The Democrats and Cindy Sheehan
* Don’t Believe the Hype: Howard Dean and the PDA
* Color Coded Justice: John Roberts' Racial Hang-up
* Blame the Democrats: Passing CAFTA
* The Mrs. Thatcher of the Democrats, Hillary Clinton: Outflanking Bush from the Right
* Framing Abortion: Gonadal Politics and the Democrats
* The Plame Blame Game
* Muting the Muslims
* Commending Karl Rove
* Is Rove the Leaker? Stay Tuned...
* Rove To Be Indicted?
* Conrad Burns: A Senator and a Liar
* The War Path of Unity
* Bombing Iran: The Facts Don't Matter
* With Hand on Heart: Pelosi Admits Israel Comes First
* Newsweek's Koran Story Rubber Stamped by DoD
* Chavez's Economy: Is it Sustainable?
* Bush to Dine with Porn Star: Mary Carey Does DC
* John Kerry's Hate Speech
* Leaked UK Memo Indicts Blair's Iraq Folly
* A Bipartisan Assault on Teenage Girls
* A Scandal of Irony
* The Horowitz Gang: Nothing Short of Fascist
* Environmentalists Against Nature
* Supporting the Troops While Opposing Their Actions
* Calling Their Bluff: The Delay Scandal is Not a Partisan Issue
* The Minuteman Project: Gunning for Change but Shooting Blanks
* US Intelligence “Dead Wrong”: Skeptics Were Right All Along
* The Selling-Out of the Antiwar Movement, Part Two
* The Selling-Out of the Antiwar Movement, Part One
* Hope in Red State America: Lessons from the Big Sky Country (Part 2)
* A Red State Paradox (Part One): Montana on the Cusp
* Protecting Campaign Coffers, Not Nature: The Trials of Max Baucus
* Diagnosing the Green Party: Narcissism Runs Rampant
* Farewell Hope: The Hogtying of the Deaniacs
* It Just Takes One McVeigh to Ruin Your Day
* The Distortions of Acumen Continued: More Liberal Trashing of Ward Churchill
* The Distortions of Acumen: Liberals Trash Ward Churchill
* Howard Dean’s Been Suckered: The Establishment Corrals the Deaniacs
* Democrats Support Bush’s Iran Policy
* Hope is Not on the Way: The Farce of the DNC Contest
* Privacy Piracy? What Howard Dean May Bring to the DNC
* Voter Fraud as Fundraiser: David Cobb and the Ohio Recount
 

HOME