Thanks to Google's cache feature I was able to find an email of an article dated Aug 22, 2005 from an apparent activist editor. Along with her calling Bush and Santorum the gestapo, she also wrote or posted text of conversations with the ACLU at the time. Quote - a year ago "they are considering their options". Seems they considered them just long enough to impact a campaign.
She also offers more than even the old news story states from her speaking with the girls. One girls Father,a lawyer, spoke on the phone with police and instructed them to go home. Another girls Mother, Heidi Shaffer arrived and took them back in. And they admit to wanting to play a prank on Santorum by getting him to sign a copy of a book which was apparently previously used to mock Santorum for his conservative politics.
I also found a Heidi Shaffer with some history of political activism. But as I haven't ascertained if they are one and the same, I'm not linking those posts.
The ACLU is also quoted on the subject in August 2005 here. Fennel is Executive Director of the Delaware ACLU.
"They were not protesters," said Fennell, who has spoken with Heidi Shaffer, the mother of one of the teens. "They just wanted to ask him some questions. I think you have to have a lot more than that" to evict teens from a bookstore, Fennell said.
.*** ============== From viviane at interpac.net Mon Aug 22 16:50:01 2005 From: 46f9708b8a31f0c8ecb051d616bd3ed9-at-interpac.net> progressive.org/?q=mag_mc081905viviane at interpac.net (Viviane Lerner) Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 13:50:01 -1000 Subject: [Infoshop News] The Gestapo at Work Cont'd Message-ID: < Santorum?s People Toss Young Women out of Barnes & Noble, Trooper Threatens Them with Prison Matthew Rothschild August 19, 2005 On the evening of August 10, Hannah Shaffer of Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, decided to go to the nearby Barnes & Noble outside of Wilmington. She wanted to see Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who was promoting his book, ?It Takes a Family.? The event was billed as a ?book signing and discussion,? Shaffer says. But discussion was the last thing that the Senator?s people wanted. Shaffer, her friends, and two other young women were booted out of the store and threatened with imprisonment even before they had a chance to say a word to Santorum, as Al Mascitti first noted in the Delaware News Journal. Shaffer, 18, thought Santorum?s public appearance might be a good occasion to ask him a few questions. ?He is my Senator,? she says, and she wanted to challenge him on his notorious claim that legalizing gay marriage was akin to legalizing incest and bestiality. ?So I contacted a few of my left-leaning friends, and they said they?d really like to be there because they felt the same way,? she says. When she arrived at 6:00 p.m., some of her friends were already there, along with two other young women she didn?t know, Stacey Galperin and Miriam Rocek. As Shaffer was talking with her friends, Rocek made a joke. She held up a copy of a book by the gay writer Dan Savage called ?The Kid,? which is about how he and his partner adopted a son. And Rocek said, ?It would be funny if we got Santorum to sign this book.? (To discredit Santorum, Savage and his readers in 2003 came up with a nasty definition of ?Santorum? that now often appears on Internet searches for Santorum?s name.) Not everyone enjoyed the joke. ?A woman nearby snapped: ?He?s only here to sign his own book. He won?t sign that,? ? recalls Galperin. Shaffer says the woman also added, ?You?re shameful and disgusting.? For a minute, the young women thought that would be the end of it. But no such luck. A state trooper in full uniform, including hat and gun, was in the store, and, according to Shaffer and Galperin, he met with the person who didn?t care for the Dan Savage joke, along with a few others, including members of the store and Santorum?s people. Galperin says she heard the trooper ask, ?Do you want me to get rid of them??
And then the trooper, Delaware State Police Sgt. Mark DiJiacomo, who was on detail as a private security guard, came over to the group of women. Here is the conversation, as Galperin remembers it: ?You guys have to leave.? ?Why?? ?Your business is not wanted here. They don?t want you here anymore. If you don?t leave, you?re going to be arrested. If you can?t post bail, you?ll go to prison. Those of you who are under 18 will go to Ferris [the juvenile detention center]. And those of you over 18 will go either to Gander Hill Prison or the woman?s correctional facility. Any questions?? Shaffer remembers the conversation basically the same way. ?I said, ?Sir, we?re not doing anything wrong. We?re sitting in a bookstore. On what grounds would we be arrested?? ? ?He said, ?This is private property. Are you going to leave on your own, or are you going to leave in cuffs?? Shaffer decided to leave with her friends. Galperin and Rocek decided to stay. ?That?s it,? he told them, according to Galperin. ?You?re under arrest. Give me your ID. You?re going to prison.? Sgt. DiJiacomo led the two out to his police car. ?You?re going to embarrass your families,? he told them, she recalls. ?Your names are going to be all over the paper.? He told Rocek to put her hands on the squad car, and then told both of them to call their parents and tell them to bring ?at least $1,000 in bail money,? Galperin says. Galperin reached her father, an attorney. ?I told my dad, ?I?m under arrest for expressing dissenting opinions.? ? Her father asked to speak to the sergeant. ?Your dad says get out of here,? the sergeant told her. ?He?ll meet you at home.? And so they both left. By this time, Hannah Shaffer managed to reach her mother on the phone, who was planning on going to the event anyway. ?She came and said whoever wants to return to the bookstore should come with her and we would talk respectfully to the police officer and to Barnes & Noble about why they had kicked us out and threatened to arrest us,? Shaffer says. ?Six or seven of the braver kids got in the car and we drove back over to the parking lot of Barnes & Noble,? she recalls. ?We were standing outside in the parking lot and my mother went into the store. Just as she entered, the officer came out, and he saw us, and he drove over in his car very fast.? Here?s her account. ?You?re under arrest. Get into the car.? ?But my mom took us over here and wanted to speak to you.? ?Do I look like your mother? You?re not wanted here. You had your chance. You showed up again. Now you?re under arrest.? Shaffer said he then asked the ages of everyone in the group, and he used this information to further threaten her. ?Not only will you be arrested for trespassing, but I?ve got you on the counts for contributing to the delinquency of one, two, three, four, five minors,? he said, according to Shaffer. ?Those are serious charges. Is that really something you want on your record? Is that something that will make your parents proud?? And he warned them, she says, that they would be arrested if they ever showed up at the bookstore or the mall again. At that point, he let Shaffer and the other young women leave. ?I was pretty upset,? Shaffer says. So was her mother. ?These are the cream of the crop--the outgoing student class president, students who had given hundreds of hours of community service, kids who wouldn?t know how to cause trouble in a public place much less in their own basements,? says Heidi Shaffer, who had encouraged her daughter to go to the book signing. ?This is unconscionable.? Heidi Shaffer says she approached Sergeant DiJiacomo. ?I actually tried to talk humanely to the policemen,? she says. ?He told me if I took any of the underaged kids in, I would be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.? Heidi Schaffer says she is most upset about the strong-arm tactics of Sgt. DiJiacomo. ?One of the girls came home and was hysterical for about two days,? she says. ?Some even were afraid to tell their parents. That this hired gun can say whatever he wants and terrorize these kids is very, very scary.? Sgt. DiJiacomo did not return my phone calls seeking comment. ?From all indications that we have, he handled his duties and responsibilities appropriately,? says Lieutenant Joseph Aviola, director of public affairs for the Delaware State Police. Aviola says two customers warned Sgt. DiJiacomo that the young women were planning a disturbance and that there had been a previous incident at a book signing with Santorum. Aviola says it is not uncommon for Delaware state troopers, in their official capacity, to work for private contractors, who later reimburse the state. Senator Santorum?s office did not provide comment on this story. Robert Traynham, communications director for Santorum, told me to contact the public relations firm that was handling the book tour, Shirley&Banister, in Virginia. Account Supervisor Kevin McVicker at Shirley&Banister failed to return three calls for comment. When I contacted the Wilmington Barnes & Noble store and asked for a manager, someone named Pam came on the phone, said ?No Comment,? wouldn?t give her last name, and hung up. At Barnes & Noble?s headquarters, Mary Ellen Keating, senior vice president for corporate communications and public affairs, gave this account. ?I spoke to the assistant manager, and what she told me was that the store management was not consulted on how the situation was managed,? she says. ?A state policeman, without consulting management, removed these students from the store.? Drew Fennell, executive director of the Delaware ACLU, sees the incident in a larger context. ?This is trickle down from Bush: Politicians are now keeping away, out of sight, anybody who disagrees with them,? she says. ?If the Senator?s staff was so put off by the idea he might be asked a difficult question that they brought in the police, that?s a sad commentary on the state of political discourse. ? Fennel is also particularly concerned about the participation of the Delaware state trooper. ?That puts a different and far more disturbing face on this,? she says. ?Frankly, it?s a great deal more intimidating to be asked to leave by an armed police officer threatening you with arrest than if the manager does it.? She says Sgt. DiJiacomo ?truly overstepped the bounds? in threatening the young women. While the ACLU and the women involved have not decided whether to take legal action, they are considering their options.
You know, that's only 9 months ago...not a year. But other than that, bully!
Posted by: boolshoot | Thursday, June 01, 2006 at 01:13 AM
I myself am definitely in support of these young women.
The security guard, Mark DiJiacomo, was indeed completely rude to them. And apparently one of Santorum's representatives also was involved in orchestrating this travesty.
Incidentally, the Barnes and Nobles store doesn't appear to have been notified, so the idea of it being on private propert doesn't seem to shield these two sleazebags from the lawsuit.
I hope justice is served.
Posted by: Sundown | Thursday, June 01, 2006 at 01:04 PM
Justice was served. Kudos to the cop for standing up for private property rights.
Those who would support these women need to read the story again. You do not have the right to completely free speech on somebody else's property. This is the perfect yelling "Fire" in a crowded theater example. It is not right.
The women may have had the right to picket outside mall property, but that was not their goal. They wanted to turn a book signing on private property into a forum for their political beliefs, and they have admitted to that. Everything else comes after that fact.
The Customers who were there to purchase Santorum's book and hear his comments about the it, did not want their event turned into a political melee. These customers were given the right to peacable assemble without fear of interruption by Barnes and Noble. These women were making rude jokes and made no attempt to hide their intentions to people within earshot, who tipped off the cop.
Regular Americans are getting tired of "activists" who think their political opinion trumps rules of polite society and civil discourse.
They were counting on police not enforcing disturbing the peace and trespassing laws. They bet wrong.
These women are just pissed they didn't get a chance to pee in somebody else's pool. Last I checked, I could not find a right to pee in someone else's pool in my copy of the Constitution.
And I would endorse the same treatment of a right wing "activist" who showed up at a Michael Moore or Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter booksigning.
Posted by: Dark Jethro | Friday, June 02, 2006 at 08:52 AM
I would ask Sundown: Why do the "rights" of the women ejected trump the "rights" of Rick Santorum supporters, who were store customers?
Do I have the right to ask John Kerry at one of his book signings if shooting wounded, naked teenagers in the back as they are running for their lives worthy of a medal. Do I have the right to press him on his first Purple Heart, for the wound that required a band-aid to treat, the one his commanding officer at the time turned down, but later was submitted to the next commanding officer who approved it? On public property, maybe. On private property? Not a chance.
Barnes and Noble management did not have to be contacted. Their customers complained to the cop, who nipped the ejected womens party in the bud, as is the job of Police Officers.
As the customer is always right, the only difference in the outcome I see as a result of B&N management not being notified, is now Barnes & Noble may not be named in whatever frivolous lawsuit these women wish to bring.
Posted by: Dark Jethro | Friday, June 02, 2006 at 09:16 AM
Jethro,
What's that? B&N management didn't need to be contacted? What, don't they have the right to their property? That's absurd. Are you some kind of commie?
Another factor. The security guard didn't just "do his job". He was an extreme bully about the matter, insulting and reviling the young women. He went beyond what you think he was supposed to do. Therefore, he is an immoral person, and deserves much more punishment than a lawsuit. I think he should be eternally blackballed from police service.
But your stupdiest arguement by far has to be :
"Regular Americans are getting tired of "activists" who think their political opinion trumps rules of polite society and civil discourse."
What? How do you know this? Have you talked to a representative sample?
Probably not, it's just you and your buddies who think this is the case.
Besides, people do not lose their freedom of speech when they become activists.
Posted by: Sundown | Friday, June 02, 2006 at 11:14 AM