Washington – Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and the wife of a powerful GOP lawmaker are free women, with apologies from the Capitol Police chief for ejecting them from President Bush’s State of the Union address because they wore T-shirts with war messages.
“The officers made a good faith but mistaken effort to enforce an old unwritten interpretation of the prohibitions about demonstrating in the Capitol,” Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said in a statement late Wednesday.
“The policy and procedures were too vague,” he added. “The failure to adequately prepare the officers is mine.” The extraordinary statement came a day after police removed Sheehan and Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young, R-Fla., from the visitors gallery Tuesday night. Sheehan was taken away in handcuffs before Bush’s arrival at the Capitol and charged with a misdemeanor, while Young left the gallery and therefore was not arrested, Gainer said.
“Neither guest should have been confronted about the expressive T-shirts,” Gainer’s statement said.
Gainer added that he was asking the U.S. attorney’s office to drop the charge against Sheehan. The statement also said he apologized to the Youngs and “share(d) the department’s plans for avoiding this in the future.” “A similar message has been left with Mrs. Sheehan,” Gainer said.
For his part, Bill Young said he was not necessarily satisfied.
“My wife was humiliated,” he told reporters. He suggested that “sensitivity training” may be in order for Capitol Police.
The statement did not address the removal of a third person, a foreign-born American citizen who was the guest of Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla.
The congressman met with Gainer and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., about the incident.
“I’d like to find out more information,” Hastings said in an interview, identifying the man only as being from Broward County in Florida. “He is a constituent of mine. I invited him proudly.”
Sheehan’s T-shirt alluded to the number of soldiers killed in Iraq: “2245 Dead. How many more?” Capitol Police charged her with a misdemeanor for violating the District of Columbia’s code against unlawful or disruptive conduct on any part of the Capitol grounds, a law enforcement official said. She was released from custody and flew home to Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Mrs. Young’s shirt read: “Support the Troops – Defending Our Freedom.”
“They violated my civil rights, they humiliated me,” Sheehan told reporters when she arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.
“They treated me like instead of having just a T-shirt on I had a weapon.” Asked whether she was causing a disturbance, she said, “I just unzipped my jacket. … I wasn’t boisterous. I didn’t say anything.
I just sat down.”
The two women appeared to have offended tradition if not the law, according to several law enforcement and congressional officials. By custom, the annual address is to be a dignified affair in which the president reports on the state of the nation.
Guests in the gallery who wear shirts deemed political in nature have, in past years, been asked to change or cover them up.
Rules dealing mainly with what people can bring and telling them to refrain from reading, writing, smoking, eating, drinking, applauding or taking photographs are outlined on the back of gallery passes given to tourists every day.
However, State of the Union guests don’t receive any guidelines, said Deputy House Sergeant at Arms Kerri Hanley. “You would assume that if you were coming to an event like the State of the Union address, you would be dressed in appropriate attire,” she said.
Associated Press Writer Liz Sidoti contributed to this report.
