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As reported on 880 AM News from NYC:
This afternoon, the charges against Don Zirkel, were dismissed.
Wilderside commentary: Don is 80 years old. He is a deacon in his church and a member of Pax Christi (the Catholic Peace Movement.) Don had been at an outside peace demonstration at the Smith Haven Mall in March. When he and his wife and friends when inside to have a cup of coffee, they were asked to leave by security and police, merely for wearing shirts that told of the 4,000 soldiers killed in Iraq, with the word “Enough” on back. Don refused to leave.
The charges against Don Zirkel were dismissed today, May 22nd, 2008 in First District Court.
Earlier in the morning, charges were also dismissed for Susan McKeon, who was at the same outside demonstration that day, but was reading names in a different corner of the mall, while Don and his friends had coffee.
Don states: “Before I got my day in court, the mall asked the charges be dropped…That’s an easy out. The truth is that this arrest should never have happened in the first place. The greater truth is the mall’s owner (Simon Property Group) and management should have had the courage to allow freedom of expression, as others have done. In this country, it is something they could have been proud of.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSZjJDDfyUM]
Filed under: activism, Anti-War, Corporations, international politics, Iraq, Long Island Politics, media, News, Peace, Political Websites, reform, US Politics
I wish I could have stayed to support/meet Don. Were there as many people there in the afternoon as there was in the morning?