Couple Arrested at Bush Rally Settles Lawsuit for $80,000
The federal government has agreed to pay $80,000 to a Texas couple arrested for wearing anti-President Bush T-shirts at a 2004 event with the president in Charleston.
0817 06Jeff and Nicole Rank went to Bush’s Fourth of July speech at the state Capitol wearing homemade T-shirts with a red circle with a bar through it over the word “Bush.”
On the back, hers read “Love America, Hate Bush” and his read “Regime Change Starts At Home.”
When the couple refused to cover up their shirts, they were arrested and charged with trespassing. Those charges were later dropped by the city of Charleston, and city officials later apologized.
The American Civil Liberties Union subsequently filed a lawsuit on the Ranks’ behalf in federal court in Charleston, alleging that the Ranks’ First Amendment right to free political speech had been violated.
“This settlement is a real victory not only for our clients but for the First Amendment,” state ACLU Director Andrew Schneider said in a news release Thursday.
Jeff and Nicole Rank said Thursday they never intended to be a big First Amendment case.
They came to West Virginia in 2004 because Nicole Rank was working as an environmental liaison officer with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. When they learned that the president was scheduled to speak in Charleston, they decided to get tickets to the event.
“We’d noticed that whenever you see Bush on television, he’s always surrounded by fervent supporters,” Jeff Rank said via telephone from Houston, where he and his wife were scrambling to avoid Tropical Storm Erin as they picked up their 13-month-old daughter, Abigaile.
“We decided that we wanted to go, no doubt about it, but we didn’t want to be added to the throngs of supporters,” he said.
As they made their way through security, they wore shirts over the white undershirts with the slogans, he said. Their intention was not to attract a lot of attention when they revealed their handiwork, but to avoid antagonizing Bush supporters as they stood in line.
“It’s kind of ironic that we wore the outer shirts to minimize the impact of our shirts, not to maximize,” he said.
About 10 minutes after they displayed their undershirts, two Shelley Moore Capito staffers who were working the event approached them and told the couple they had to take off their T-shirts or leave the event, Jeff Rank said.
“We tried to explain to them that it was well within our right to stand there and wear these T-shirts, just as people around us had the right to wear pro-Bush and Cheney T-shirts,” he said.
When it became clear that they were going to be ejected, they sat down and made the officers handcuff them, he said, because they wanted it clear that they were being involuntarily removed.
“To add to the thickness of the irony, as we’re being led out, ‘America the Beautiful’ is playing over the loudspeaker,” Jeff Rank recalled.
According to an edited version of an October 2002 Presidential Advance Manual posted on the ACLU’s Web site, organizers actively tried to prevent protesters from going to presidential appearances.
“Proper ticket distribution is vital to creating a well-balanced crowd and deterring potential protesters from attending events,” the manual states.
“Rally squads” were also used to drown out protesters by creating a shield between demonstrators and the press, according to the manual.
When Nicole Rank returned to work after the holiday weekend, FEMA officials sent her home to Texas.
“I was told that my actions had compromised FEMA’s mission in West Virginia and I was being relieved from duty,” she said.
Shortly thereafter, the couple contacted the state branch of the ACLU.
“[The First Amendment] is a fundamental tenet of our nation, and it needs to be fought for,” Jeff Rank said. “Surprisingly, it still needs to be fought for.”
Jeff Rank, 32, now a third-year law student at the University of Houston, hopes to focus on civil rights law once he graduates. Nicole Rank, 33, is pursuing dual degrees in law and social work.
“People take for granted their ability to express their own opinions until something like this happens to them,” Nicole Rank said.
The couple lived in Charleston for about a year to deal with the legal proceedings surrounding the lawsuit, and they still harbor a fondness for West Virginia and its citizens.
When asked if are glad they decided stand up for their beliefs, both answered “absolutely” without hesitation.
“We have thoroughly not enjoyed our 15 minutes [of fame]. It’s cost us personally and professionally,” Jeff Rank said. “The thing that we’re fighting for, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, is just too important to this country to lay down on something like this.”
© Copyright 2007 The Charleston Gazette
I’d like to see an explanation from the Capitol police as to why these folks were handcuffed and removed. This settlement is not enough.
Just knowing that the police will descend upon you and eject you from a certain area based on your political opinions, when they are clearly being expressed in a way that does not disrupt the event, has a chilling effect on anyone who disagrees with those in power — and is clearly anathema to democracy and to the Constitution of the land.
This is not a fascist state where the police are politicized.
The stinking republican party has put the citizens of the U>S> under a dictatorship. Well the democrats anyway.We shall repay them after they are out of office unless it is stolen again. How about sending them to find Hitler their brother
“I’d like to see an explanation from the Capitol police as to why these folks were handcuffed and removed. This settlement is not enough.”
In the eyes of the public, a settlement is an admission that the action of the police was indefensible.
But as they say, it was not enjoyable; it just reminds us how much has to be done to wholly undo the regime that took power nearly seven years ago.
To Jeff and Nicole,
I thank you for your courage on behalf of all of us who love justice, our Bill of Rights and our Constitution in a country which has lost so many of our rights. Human rights and the American soul will have a tortured path yet to be fully known.
I can’t begin to list of civil rights abuses in the inner cities (present and past) of the voiceless…The 9/11 to Natives, Latinos, Afro-Americans and so-many others has happened many times over. America wake up and witness.
Homeboy,
Gilberto
GOD BLESS JEFF AND NICOLE ! TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOTS!
Thank you so much for standing up for everyone.
Feels good to know that there are ‘real americans’ out there who will not bend to the ‘authority’ of the ruling class…….
At the end of a truly horrible week filled with evil and woe, from the heights of Washington DC to the depths of Utah, this REALLY hits the spot. Mmmm, that’s the stuff!
I give Jeff and Nicole a standing O. You deserve a world of credit for not letting the bastards get you down, but instead insisting on the supposedly inalienable rights that were flung down and danced upon by the very authorities sworn to protect them. That takes admirable courage and determination.
Two thumbs up! [applauds, bows sweepingly in Jeff and Nicole’s direction]
Jeff and Nicole are true patriots who fought for the principals of their country. Shame on the fascists (aka Republicans) who tried to silence them. The fascists don’t deserve to live in a country with democracy and freedoms. People like Jeff and Nicole who literally stand up (or sit down) for their country have earned the right to live in a democracy.
More proof that the USA has become everything it claimed was bad about the Soviet Union…..
NO free speech, surveillance, investigation and reprisal of peaceful political dissenters, camera surveillance of public areas.
Such is the American Way. When Americans do something that is entirely within their right only to be arrested for it. That is not cool.
To the police officers who arrested this couple, I wish you the worst life has to offer!
To the city officials who apologized to this couple for treating them inhumanely for practicing a so-called right, your apology is a mere PR stunt and nothing more! You are just sorry you had to pay them 80,000 dollars.
Glad to see some rewards came with the danger of exercising your rights.
While you have stand up for your rights, Bush flees ( burning more airplane gas and polluting the atmosphere every trip ) to Crawford Texas, or any place other than staying in the White House and working. Why did he ever run for president if he doesn’t want to work at it?
Here’s another story along the same lines…except it was Barack Obama’s people doing it, not George Bush’s. Not as egregious (since the context is different), but I’m just pointing out that controlling speech is a bipartisan project.
“This is not a fascist state where the police are politicized.”
Actually, mirf59, it is a fascist state. It’s not _supposed_ to be a fascist state, but it now is. This is just the tip of a very large ice berg. Our rights are vanishing.
I hope we can all borrow a little of the Rank’s courage and start standing up for our rights. With those rights come responsibilities. We use the latter or lose the former.
It seems that this Administration’s continued abrogation of Free Speech is unabated and there is little anyone can do to stop such incidents. How many people, fearing that their livelihoods and financial security may be put in jeopardy, as well as their personal liberty, will feel able to exercise their right to dissent? Many may feel strongly, but have to think about choosing between mortgage payments and attorney fees, should they offend someone in power.
If we are intimidated, we ALL lose, before we begin. God Bless those that are willing and able to stand. They stand for us all, no matter what spectrum of political opinion they represent.
It is always dangerous to Speak Truth to Power.
It is, however, a risk that must be taken to maintain our precious Liberties.
laurajwintersduke:
It is sad but true that there are too many that live too close to having nothing that most who would stand up and offend someone in power couldn’t get out of jail on their own let alone hire an attorney.
Besides that, if you go into federal court, you’d better have some unlimited financial resource available ’cause that process starts in the hundred thousands “$” and usually runs into the millions before it’s over.
“Besides that, if you go into federal court, you’d better have some unlimited financial resource available ’cause that process starts in the hundred thousands “$” and usually runs into the millions before it’s over.”
If the ACLU takes your case, they cover the legal expenses but they only take the most clear cut cases. And usually the fascists cover themselves well enough. They did in my case, destroying my scientific career at Los Alamos National Laboratory with their political profiling.
The arrest was bad enough but take notice of how Nicole was attacked at FEMA. General Dynamics runs a big part of the incompetent show at FEMA. FEMA’s budget is partly out of the public view and great jobs are there. Chimp’s friends will savage someone’s career if they step out of line.
These are true patriots. The $80,000 is not enough. The Republican Party should also be held accountable for setting up this hostile atmosphere.
Considering her career was destroyed 80K is pretty pitiful. Yet they did better than the vast majority who suddenly find themselves out of the blue escorted out.
What we have here is taxation without representation. The Bush Administration has quietly deregulated everything that stands between the citizen and fair play. Perhaps GWB does that frantically between hacking underbrush on his unholy and numerous Crawford visits.
I gave up on Hillary when she implemented the W tactic of disallowing discussion and dissent at her speaking arrangements. That was before I figured out she is one of them. As I understand it, we already meet the criteria for fascism. Because of the Patriot Act, and other scary dictates handed down by this administration, an award for violation of First Amendment rights in the current time or future may not be as forth coming.
My guess is that the ‘08 election will not take place as we will have gone into war mode and the election will be suspended. Should that occur, perhaps many of us who try to track the realities of our nation in peril will follow the lead of the Ranks and quit paying the people who work so hard to separate us from our meager (or not so meager) livings and who intend to enslave or capture us within the national boundary as a hypnotized slavery class.
Perhaps in ten years or so we will be too poor to cause any real trouble by stopping payment of tax monies but it is a thought toward disruption of the onslaught by these power-hungry folks who would own us outright. Fire them. They are not doing our bidding. They are supposed to work for us! But alas we send them one third of our earnings and they tell us only to be afraid of the approved list of hatreds: illegal aliens, gay folks, ambivalent/resourceless pregnant women, and liberals! It is truly a slap in the face of intellect. My feeling is that, until there are no longer chickens in the pots of our fellow citizens, no real threat exists to the autocracy.
We are in for an interesting ride.
The Thought Police are amongst us. 2007 is quickly regressing to 1984. Orwell’s bleak novel is rapidly becoming a reality.
Be very scared!
We are in great danger now. America has been fascist since at least the murder of JFK, probably before that too. We need to educate ourselves about the dangers of this government control. The situation is worse than Hitler because the rich have learned from their past mistakes while we have forgotten everything. The other big problem is that advances in technology make control easier.
america the free.
Jess August 17th, 2007 8:58 pm
“Why did Bush ever run for president if he doesn’t want to work at it?”
It’s likely a textbook case of son trying to please a father.
I don’t know the stats but he’s spent a lot of time “on vacation” compared to other presidents. Now that the rats are leaving the ship it will be a lonely place at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave for him…watch the vacation time increase.
the whole world is watching.
we thank you.
Speaking of the assassination of President Kennedy, have you noticed that only Democrats are assassinated or killed in small airplanes? John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., John Kennedy Jr., Mel Carnahan (was running for Senator), and Senator Paul Wellstone; no Republicans since Lincoln.
Let’s not forget the civil rights leader Medgar Evers and the peace activist Mahatma Gandhi who were also assassinated by the racist, war-loving right wingers.
I’m sure that if Dennis Kucinich were elected president, the inbred right-wing thugs would assassinate him also. They kill anything and anyone that is good and decent.
“I was told that my actions had compromised FEMA’s mission in West Virginia and I was being relieved from duty,” she said.
After witnessing the poor response to Katrina it sounds like FEMA’s mission is to monitor and stifle political dissent. As far back as I can remember peaceful protestors have always been considered potential terrorists in this country, and FEMA has always been involved in monitoring the activiites of political groups.
A Patriotic salute to Jeff & Nicole and the ACLU!
Many Republicans see this effort to stifle dissent against Republican lawmakers as a right and good war. They are willing to go to almost any length to execute it. It’s these Republicans that belong in handcuffs and in jail, and should have their reputations slimed.
In community we can win the fight against the aggression monster of amerikkka, let’s hit them where it hurts, in their pockets, free speech should be our #1 priority and more of these stories must be exercised as the police are now used to kill our basic human rights it will come back to them ten folds over.
to mirf 59: I hope that time proves your closing statement wrong, but the Cheney/Bush gang is certainly working very hand to make this a fascist state, and the Democrats are offering orecious little opposition.
And thank you to the Ranks for standing up to der Fuehrer.
So much for “free speach” in the “Greatest Nation in the World”. The question is, how do we get our country back?
The past six years have shown what the Necons would have it
become, (and have it well on the way) and the Democrats
certainly haven’t shown any desire to stand up to them.
They cave in at every turn with the excuse of “we don’t have
enough votes.” Our news agencys are a joke, repeating the
lies as if they were the truth. It makes me want to reach
into the TV set, slap the smiling face and tell them to ask
a real question. The printed version of the “new” video of Cheney’s 1992 veiw of Iraq has been available on the internet but the “news” people have just discovered it. Now
that is real investigating reporting.
Thanks Jeff and Nicole for standing up to the Fuehrer’s team of brown shirts.
Got my “t” shirt all printed and ready to go to the next Hillary rally….
We still have a first amendment? I thought it was declared “quaint and obsolete.”
Seriously, congratulations to another job well done by the ACLU. For anyone who believes in the first amendment and still cherishes it as a right, send a check to your local ACLU chapter. Who else is going to defend you when someone tries to take your rights away?
it has become clear that the our government and media are powerless against the international banking cartel who own the money system. they own almost all federal reserves including ours, and loan their fake money to us and all the world, at interest. the only way to have our lives back is to stop using their money. stop paying federal income tax (illegal tax) and create our own trading system. thanks ranks for sitting in. we need to do it soon because one world government (money) is on it’s way. and with it all the pain that money can buy. implanted chips will be manditory. will you have one? it’s all about the money. let’s all sit.
Looks like this may be a new career option in Bush’s new economy. Just go to one of his public events and get arrested as a protester. That should be easy. $80,000 per event huh?
Arrested on the 4th of July for dissent (as America the Beautiful plays in the background). It’s worthy of 1984 (the prescient novel). But the $80,000: does that not, finally, come from *our* pockets? In a *more perfect* settlement the monies would have been paid by all those who acted inappropriately. Were they to pay for being Fascists, maybe next time they would . . . think with their wallets instead of their compliant robot circuits (set to OPPRESSION)!