To call this Stalinism or Fascism is not an understatement. This happened near where I grew up, at a mall I frequented often and once worked at, and at a mall I drove by this weekend while visiting others. While there are large numbers of good people on Long Island, for whatever reason there is still a large minority of people there who truly represent the bottom of the human barrel.
Here's what happened.
An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War.
And here's the "crime.
Police said that Don Zirkel, of Bethpage, was disturbing shoppers at the Lake Grove mall with his T-shirt, which had what they described as "graphic anti-war images." Zirkel, a deacon at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Wyandanch, said his shirt had the death tolls of American military personnel and Iraqis - 4,000 and 1 million - and the words "Dead" and "Enough." The shirt also has three blotches resembling blood splatters.
The police (who weren't there) are claiming that he was distributing pamphlets but even if that was true, he stopped. The "mall security" supposedly told him to turn his shirt inside out.
Zirkel refused to turn his shirt inside out and wouldn't leave, police said. Security placed him on "civilian arrest" and called police.
Are we living in America?
But Zirkel said he was sitting in the food court drinking coffee with his wife Marie, 77, and several others when police and mall security officers approached and demanded they remove their anti-war T-shirts.
This is what happens when you give little brownshirts who probably failed the NYPD exam several times over the "power" to bully others.
"They forcibly picked me up and put me in the wheelchair," said Zirkel, a deacon at one of the poorest Catholic parishes on Long Island where a devastating fire recently destroyed the rectory and storage areas.
Now a mall is a semi public place, it is not simply private property. The man was a customer who bought coffee and was drinking that coffee in a large food court.
Now my position is that anybody should feel free to wear a T shirt expressing his or her views about the Iraq War. In my view it's offensive, unpatriotic, unAmerican, anti-military, anti troop, Pro-Osama Bin Laden, Pro-Ahmadinejad, and anti-American economy to support the war in Iraq. Now if the mall has asked in the past every single person who has any shirt or paraphenelia showing support for the Iraq War to leave, then they would not be discriminating against others based on a political position. But clearly, this man was asked to leave because some thugs masquerading as security guards didn't like his politics. It is these thugs who should be arrested for assault and battery. I hope Mr. Zirkel refuses to plea bargain here and stands on principle.
Whether it's 3 teachers in Denver, a few hundred people in Union Square in 2004, political prisoner Donald Siegelman, or people going into bookstores, right wingers seem to think that it is okay to throw people in jail simply because they don't like their views. It was John McCain who said that he wanted to expel 3.2 million people from Moveon.org out of the country. We are dealing with Fascism here. It must be stopped.
UPDATE: I want to clarify a few things for I am really busy today with unrelated work and my time is limited at this moment.
- Please go through the comments and see this man's wonderful Catholic Church in Wyandach. Perhaps we can help them in rebuilding it. It was devastated by a fire last year.
- As I make clear time and time again in posts and in my profile, NOTHING I ever type here is meant to be construed as legal advice. I give my opinions.
- The issue here in my personal view is whether or not a mall, a public accommodation, can expel a person for wearing a T shirt that had no vulgarity or obscenity on it. Apparently in 2000 the Supreme Court ruled regarding the distribution of pamphlets. A pamphlet is not a T shirt. I could see where it is justified for a business to avoid solicitation but this is not the same as a t shirt. You do not wear pamphlets. In my personal view, a mall can not do this in this instance for a variety of reasons. Out in Lake Grove, there is NOTHING to do and the mall is the major hub.
- I would give the mall a couple of days to try and rectify this matter. Thus far this is the act of a couple of ***hole rent a cops who should be terminated. If the mall takes affirmative steps to fire these ***holes, apologizes to Mr. Zirkel, and reaches a resolution with Mr. Zirkel that he is satisfied with, then we should NOT boycott or protest outside the mall.
However, if the mall backs up their out of control rent a cops here, then we should take lawful actions and hit them in the wallet to the tune of millions. Stony Brook University is nearby and knowing this area having grown up there, I can give people many alternatives to shop at where you can get the same merchandise that you could find at Smithhaven Mall.