IPFS News Link • Police State
Library Worker Beaten and Arrested for Peacefully Defending ...
• http://thefreethoughtproject.comKansas City, KS — Since 9/11, the American police state has been constantly trying to outdo itself in the oppression of civil rights. From the Patriot Act to National Security Letters to warrantless wiretapping to militarized protest crackdowns, the State has been unable to hide its authoritarian desires.
The oppression of rights and free speech was put on full display recently at the Kansas City Public Library, where a senior library staff member was brutally taken down and arrested by police and private security officers — for peacefully intervening in the harassment of a library patron.
The armed guards were present as security detail for Dennis Ross, champion of the Israeli lobby and former Bush official who pushed for the Iraq invasion. Ross was giving a talk called "Truman and Israel."
Steve Woolfolk, director of public relations at the library, became the victim of abuse when he tried to remind the security detail of library policy after an audience member was forcibly removed from the microphone during the Q&A session.
The library hosts several speaking events every month, and Woolfolk knew this would be one of the more controversial events where the library makes a rare exception allowing armed security guards. The library has conditions when security details are brought in for speakers.
According to the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BRDC):
"First, nobody could be forcibly removed for asking an unpopular question. Second, nobody could be removed at all without consulting with the library staff, who would only allow an individual to be removed if staff concluded they were an imminent threat."
Woolfolk had positioned himself near the stage where people ask questions, prepared to ask those who went on too long to give up the microphone for the next person. Jeremy Rothe-Kushel was first up.