U.S. Capitol police arrested the protester who blasted President Barack Obama during his second inauguration ceremony Monday. Zachary Krahmer | Senior Staff Photographer
The protester who blasted President Barack Obama and the Democratic party from a tree throughout Monday’s ceremonies was taken into custody, U.S. Capitol Police confirmed.
The man came down a few minutes after the inauguration ended amid chants of “Go to jail” from fuming crowd members. Officers were unable to arrest the man before the official proceedings because he had shimmied to the top branches and their ladders could not reach him.
The man held an anti-abortion sign and clung to branches yelling, “Obama is the anti-Christ,” “Democrats are baby-killers,” and “Homosexuality is sin” nonstop for hours. He said God would judge Obama and the nation by sending earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis and plagues.
On-lookers from the Mall walked by to snap pictures or point and stare, while others mocked him and chanted “shake the tree.”
It’s sort of ironic that this moron took a page right out of the Leftists’ handbook, and they wanted him to go to jail.
I guess the first amendment isnt really that important to the Obama administration
The chant was “save the tree”. It was in response to his save the baby’s chant. Started it myself.
I was one of the people who couldn’t get to their seating area because of this guy.
A couple of things:
1) Not a single person said that he couldn’t say his peace. He certainly has that right, but last I checked, we also have to right to mock him for the rather silly way he went about it.
He’d have been more effective walking around with the sign or with fliers, but that wouldn’t have garnered any notice from the crowd, which would have defeated his purpose.
2) Please don’t expect me to believe that if Mittens had been elected and some pro-choice advocated shouted anti-Republican slogans that people on the whole would have shrugged it off. In my experiences, one thing right-wingers really hate: being disagreed with.
3)He didn’t get arrested for shouting. There were totally different charges, and this tree-climbing incident wasn’t his first public show. He makes it a point to make a spectacle of himself.
4)When the dude finally came down, the crowd wasn’t hateful and vitriolic, just annoyed. We didn’t even curse, though. We sang “Na Na Hey Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye.”
I inadvertently started that one (sang it to myself and didn’t realize that anyone heard me til they joined in).
I’m not sure why some GW students wanted that man to go to jail. I’m sure that top ranked students at Georgetown and American understand and value the First Amendment. But, what do you expect from students attending an unranked university?
I really thought that he would urinate on the police on the latters or the crowd directly beneath him. I was up against the metal fence being pushed forward by the crowd behind me. I was more annoyed by that than the protester who was demonstrating his Freedom of speech. Although it was irritating, he really didn’t do anything wrong other than putting himself and us in danger by being too high up in the tree where he could have fell on top of the crowd. He had a right to protest and we had a
right to boo, which we did. Heck, we booed Paul Ryan as he walked to his seat. I am sure we irritated him. Sometimes,or most of time, we are all so ever too quick to judge such as homosexuality.
The First Amendment is subject to time and place restrictions. Climbing up in a tall tree on federal property is probably illegal (not sure what statute applies, but I’m sure the police and prosecutor will figure it out). What annoys me is that this guy did exactly what the liberals usually do: acted disrespectfully, violated lawful police orders, etc. There are ways to convey your views without climbing in a tall tree and placing yourself and others in harm’s way.
Conservative, you would express your point better if you didn’t lump liberals together as a disrespectful lot. I think you’ll find that both sides of the spectrum have acted disrespectfully and violated lawful police orders in recent years.
@Conservative – the statute in question is 40 USC 5104(d), which says “(d) Injuries to Property.— A person may not step or climb on, remove, or in any way injure any statue, seat, wall, fountain, or other erection or architectural feature, or any tree, shrub, plant, or turf, in the [Capitol] Grounds.”