You Can’t Discriminate Based on the Content of the Speech even if the Secret Service says so.
This is quite disturbing and Andrew Sullivan even pointed it out last week.
Essentially the Secret Service is getting local police agencies to move demonstrators to free speech zones out of view of the President and the people supporting the President, but not doing the same for those who are supporters of the President or demonstrating about another issue. You can’t do that.
While you might be able to quarantine everyone–why should we? The security threat isn’t that great and there is nothing wrong with dissent. As the article points out, a smart assassin wouldn’t be advertising the dislike of the President–even a dumb one could figure that out.
I talked with one of the arrestees and surprisingly, they weren’t looking to be arrested in an act of civil disobedience, they were literally trying to be seen around the event. In fact, they were quite surprised at the system set-up to control war protesters while other protesters were ignored.
While I question the efficacy of such protests, they must be allowed. Even worse for the localities is that they will lose monetarily if these cases go to court. So will the Secret Service, but it can afford that penalty, many local police departments cannot.
What is even more amusing is that in St. Charles a few people are charged with trespassing on private land while also being charged with blocking a public highway. A judge with half a brain would see the contradiction, but in St. Charles they don’t pick judges on that criteria and thus, the charges were allowed even though they contradict each other.