On Friday, June 2, an American veteran, Dave Willoughby, attended the Bill Clinton rally in support of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in the recall election held this Tuesday to remove Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker from office, and be replaced with Mayor Tom Barrett.
Mr. Willoughby was protesting for Gov. Walker to remain in office. In speaking pro-Walker, he was taken away in handcuffs, put into the back of a police car and taken to jail. There is video of him at the rally and of him being cuffed and taken in a police car to jail. He did not create a fight and said many times, “I have freedom of speech as do the rest of the people here today who are in support of the mayor.”
If you are a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or independent, what happened to this man can happen to any one of us. It seems no one will be safe from this, under the National Defense Authorization Act, passed by law in the last couple of months. This law states that the Obama administration has the right to have anyone arrested and held without charges, denial of an attorney, denial of a trial, and be held in this or any other country forever.
This Dave Willoughby story just wiped out two of our constitutional rights: 1) freedom of speech and 2) the right of an attorney, speedy trial and to be charged with a crime to be arrested. For the record, U.S. senators Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson voted yes to this NDAA law.
A third Constitutional right, freedom of religion, is also being tested this month with the Supreme Court coming to a decision soon in this case. A fear has come over me today. How about you?
Ronald Piretti, Royal Palm Beach
