McCain Campaign Denies Involvement in Denver Protester Removal

The Denver Post reported Sunday that, despite accounts to the contrary by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, McCain staffers did not ask for the removal of a 61-year-old protester outside a McCain appearance here last Monday.

The vicious cycle rears it's ugly head. A DCPA security guard originally invoked the Secret Service as responsible for requesting Carol Kreck's removal DCPA grounds. The Secret Service eventually chafed at the public attention and issued a statement putting focus on the McCain camp. The McCain camp has finally said that the DCPA acted alone in asking the woman to dispose of her sign (which read "McCain = Bush") or else leave the premises.

Yikes. Next we'll read that Kreck arranged for her own removal, just to stage a publicity stunt. Woops! That's already out there:

You liberal pukes think that you don't have to follow the same rules as everyone else - the venues rule was no signs. That means NO SIGNS! If she wanted to discuss the facts she could have put down the sign and done so but all she (and the rest of you) have are platitudes and staged sound bites like this.

What a surprise that you have a camera handy.

Emphasis mine. Admittedly, this comes from the comments section (a notoriously shady realm) beneath the original post at Progress Action Now, the site that first reported the Kreck incident. And yet I suspect this commenter (who signed as "A real American") is not alone in his/her feelings.

I can see the point about No Signs means No Signs, though the "liberal pukes" might undermine the message. Moreover, I believe the statement reflects a willful failure to consider what is the actual boundary of the venue in question, a point around which there is much consternation in Denver and the blogosphere.

Denver Librarian Carol Kreck Removed From McCain Town Hall

I'm so absorbed in my own little world editing high school curriculum--what can I say?: to date it pays better than poetry and blogging--that I wouldn't know anything about the 61-year-old, Denver librarian who was given a ticket yesterday for exercising free speech outside a McCain town hall event on city grounds if it wasn't for my friend Michelle who just sent this link.

The video is pretty galling. I am especially chagrined that the city cops actually escorted the woman off premises, acquiescing to the demands of event organizers and Secret Service, rather than standing up to the absurdity and appropriately refusing to diffuse a situation that wasn't a situation. The city cops should be the ones standing back from the political process where no threat to public safety is concerned, not carrying out the will of the candidate's zealous staff.