Liberty Bell Crackdown

I think this is a case were all the onlookers should have taken action (our Founding Fathers would have).  These Park Police (or whatever they are) were clearly in the wrong.  They had no right to apprehend these people and they should be punished severely...fired yes, hung no, tarred and feathered maybe, a good tasing...aah, I think that would sink into their numb skulls!

Source: American Thinker
Shocking Police State Crackdown at Liberty Bell and Independence Hall

Mark Passio and his wife Barb were arrested, cuffed and detained for handing out fliers in front of Independence Hall, the birthplace of our nation.

Gateway Pundit

Mark Passio wrote about his experience last Saturday. 

On Saturday, May 18th at 3:00 pm, I was walking with my wife Barb in Philadelphia from Market Street to Chestnut Street between 5th and 6th Streets, and handed out a few fliers about how the Federal Reserve Bank is de-valuing our nation’s currency to people standing in the line at the Liberty Bell location (something I have done almost 20 times in the past). I briefly spoke to a couple of them who asked me for more information. We then proceeded to continue to walk to Chestnut Street when we were stopped by two Park Police who said that I could not hand out fliers without a permit (I had already finished handing them out actually; I had a few left in my hand, and was in the process of leaving the area).

They began citing some obscure federal regulation that I had never heard of. I calmly told them that I was peacefully exercising the Rights of Free Speech and Free Press as I was walking through the area, which are Natural Rights which can not be granted by man, nor alienated from man, and which they do not have the “right,” regardless of what the terms of their “job” may tell them, to usurp from me or to stop me from exercising. I informed them that the unalienable Rights to Free Speech and Free Press were also guaranteed and protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, which, as the highest legal document of American law, certainly trumps and negates any un-Constitutional federal regulation which they were quoting to me, even under their own legal system. I calmly informed them that they were violating those Natural Human Rights by even attempting to stop people from exercising them and claiming that our Free Speech Rights can be invalidated by an obscure regulation, and by making the claim that I now need to PAY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR PERMISSION to exercise a Natural Human Right.

I then proceeded to attempt to walk away toward Fifth Street on Chestnut Street, when these Park Police told me that I was NOT FREE to walk away from them, even though I had long since finished handing anyone any fliers and had done absolutely nothing to harm anyone or violate anyone else’s rights.

They appeared to be viciously angered at my declaration that I had engaged in a peaceful activity that was a Natural Right, and that they had no right to attempt to stop me from exercising it. Along with many other Park Police who had gathered while I was speaking to the original two officers.

They followed me and Barb onto Chestnut Street, violently stopped us from proceeding on our way, put handcuffs on both of us (mine were applied so tightly that I have lost feeling in a large portion of the top of my left hand and will need to see a doctor about possible permanent nerve damage), unlawfully arrested our freedom of movement for over 20 minutes, unlawfully searched my person when I told them that I did not consent to any searches, stole my property in the form of the remaining fliers which I had paid to print, and, adding insult to injury, also stole a $20 bill from my wallet, which I discovered was missing when they returned it to me, after releasing us. They attempted to give me a citation for exercising Free Speech, which I refused to take from them, because I will not admit that I did anything morally wrong or have my time wasted to “defend” myself, as my actions harmed no other being, and I was doing my duty to warn people about the de-valuation of their earnings and savings, and in doing so exercising a Natural Right which is “allegedly” Constitutionally protected in America. They told me that a warrant will be issued for my arrest if I did not take the citation from them, and I still refused.

Free Speech is being shut down in America. America is actively, right before our eyes, being turned into a Police State such as Hitler’s Nazi Germany or Stalin’s Soviet Russia.

This was outrageous!