by staff

Florida Today

03/23/05

The American tradition of free speech is under attack across the country, as law enforcement agencies -- under the guise of the war on terror -- intimidate ordinary citizens into silence. The videotaping by Melbourne police of 36 demonstrators outside City Hall protesting President Bush's inauguration is just one more in a series of such intolerable incidents nationwide. ... Boettcher, 57, was near tears as she and five others named in a Brevard County Sheriff's Office report on the Jan. 20 demonstration went to the sheriff's Melbourne office Monday. They were seeking the files deputies had secretly collected on them -- files the department must deliver, completely and promptly. And they wanted to know why the sheriff's report tagged them as 'persons of interest.' Of interest for what? 'Protesting in an anti-government assembly,' says sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Andrew Walters...)

http://tinyurl.com/3jcen


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp