On June 30, I went to Chicago to participate in the final week of a four-week, 320-mile walk organized by Voices for Creative Nonviolence from Springfield, Illinois, to the Great Lakes Naval Station, north of Chicago. The day I joined “Voices” they were walking through Chicago’s south side. The walk that day ended at the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center. A few of us stood on the sidewalk, holding signs. Mine said, appropriately enough, “Demand quality health care for veterans.” One at a time, we took a bathroom break, being sure to leave our signs outside. When it was my turn, I went inside, saw a coffee stand in the hallway, and decided to get an iced coffee and rest my dogs. The rest, as they say…
June 30 2006
By Mike Ferner
This afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee while sitting in the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center on Chicago’s south side, a Veterans Administration cop walked up to me and said, “OK, you’ve had your 15 minutes, it’s time to go.”
“Huh?”, I asked intelligently, not quite sure what he was talking about.
“You can’t be in here protesting,” officer Adkins said, pointing to my Veterans For Peace shirt.
“Well, I’m not protesting, I’m having a cup of coffee,” I returned, thinking that logic would convince Adkins to go back to his earlier duties of guarding against serious terrorists.
Flipping his badge open, he said, “No, not with that shirt. You’re protesting and you have to go.”
Beginning to get his drift, I said firmly, “Not before I finish my coffee.”
He insisted that I leave, but still not quite believing my ears, I tried one more approach to reason. “Hey, listen. I’m a veteran. This is a V.A. facility. I’m sitting here not talking to anybody, having a cup of coffee. I’m not protesting and you can’t kick me out.”
“You’ll either go or we’ll arrest you,” Adkins threatened.
“Well, you’ll just have to arrest me,” I said, wondering what strange land I was now living in.
You know the rest. Handcuffed, led away to the facility’s security office past people with surprised looks on their faces, read my rights, searched, and written up.
The officer who did the formalities, Eric Ousley, was professional in his duties. When I asked him if he was a vet, it turned out he had been a hospital corpsman in the Navy. We exchanged a couple sea stories. He uncuffed me early. And he allowed as to how he would only charge me with disorderly conduct, letting me go on charges of criminal trespass and weapons possession — a pocket knife — which he said would have to be destroyed (something I rather doubt since it was a nifty Swiss Army knife with not only a bottle opener, but a tweezers AND a toothpick).
After informing me I could either pay the $275 fine on the citation or appear in court, Ousley escorted me off the premises, warning me if I returned with “that shirt” on, I’d be arrested and booked into jail.
I’m sure I could go back to officers Adkins’ and Ousleys’ fiefdom with a shirt that said, “Nuke all the hajis,” or “Show us your tits,” or any number of truly obscene things and no one would care. Just so it’s not “that shirt” again.
And just for the record? I’m not paying the fine. I’ll see Adkins and Ousley and Dubya’s Director of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, if he wants to show up, in United States District Court on the appointed date. And if there’s a Chicago area attorney who’d like to take the case, I’d really like to sue them — from Dubya on down. I have to believe that this whole country has not yet gone insane, just the government. This kind of behavior can’t be tolerated. It must be challenged.
Mike Ferner served as a Navy corpsman during Vietnam and is obviously a member of Veterans For Peace. He is participating in the Voices for Creative Nonviolence’s 30-day, 320-mile “Walk for Justice,” from Springfield to North Chicago, Illinois, to reclaim funding for the common good and away from war.
Update
In November 2006, I received word that federal prosecutors decided to drop the charges in the “V.A. T-shirt caper.”
While writing up this case initially I’d vowed that after disposing of the charges I would file suit against the Veterans Administration for the conduct of officers Adkins and Ousley at the Jesse Brown Medical Center. I was completely prepared to do so. And then…
On July 5, 2006, less than a week after the V.A. fiasco, Voices for Creative Nonviolence concluded its walk at the Great Lakes Naval Base, north of Chicago. Except for the brief delay experiencing the hospitality of the V.A. I walked with them, interviewing people we passed along the way and taking photos.
The walk terminated at the gate of the Military Entrance Processing Command (MEPCOM). Three of the Voices members proceeded briefly onto the parking lot, knelt down, and began reading a list of people killed in Iraq.
I followed, taking photos. The guard told the three to leave, which they had no intention of doing, and then said to me, “If you don’t want to be arrested with them, you’d better leave.”
Having had plenty of fun with cops already that week, I immediately turned and walked out the gate before taking another picture. Ten minutes later as I stood on the sidewalk watching the protesters getting cuffed and arrested, Officer “Friendly” McCorkle approached, demanded my camera and told me to follow him back to the MEPCOM gate where by now several squad cars had collected.
I’ll shorten this familiar old story by saying McCorkle arrested and booked me for criminal trespass and resisting arrest, plus a felony obstructing justice charge.
I pled innocent to all the above, the prosecutor dropped the felony charge, and as of September 1, 2007, I have returned to the Illinois 19th Circuit Court, in Waukegan, no less than FOUR times to stand before the judge for 30 seconds and have him postpone my bench trial. This latest date was postponed because, as the prosecutor reported, his main witness, McCorkle, “has training today and can’t make it.”
The trial is now scheduled for October 1. We plan to subpoena one of the guards present that day, who later called my attorney to say he considered the arrest bullshit.
Stay tuned.
