Police officer scares kids away at Santorum book signing

Huh. I guess I just go to the wrong signings… ;)

Actually santorum is not so obviously a “frothy mix of lube and fecal matter”.

That’s funny.

“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.”

The policeman spoke to the customer, some store people, and Santorum’s staff. Who else should he have interviewed? The article points out a previous disturbance at a Santorum book signing, so it’s hardly a “punishment” for a book store to have their hired security to ask a group of young adults (there were at least 6 of them) who are raising a fuss to leave.

What about the so-called “citizen’s arrest”? Maybe one of the lawyers here can yak up general guidelines on this. Perhaps this is how an off-duty policeman could arrest someone for non-violent crimes like trespassing. Honest question.

Joking that you’re going to get him to sign Dan Savage’s book is raising a fuss?

McCullough- Why are we taking the activists who got kicked out at their word?

The punishment i refer to is this:

He came up to us and said, ‘If you don’t leave you’ll be arrested, and if you can’t post bail you’ll be put in prison.’ He said it was private property and we would be arrested for trespassing."

When the girls protested that they hadn’t done anything, DiJiacomo told them they were under arrest. After taking them from the store, Galperin said, "He told Miriam to put her hands on the car and kept telling us, ‘You’re going to embarrass your family, you won’t get into college with this on your record.’ "

They weren’t arrested and were allowed to leave after showing ID, but then:

The younger teens, meanwhile, had gone to Concord Mall to call their parents to pick them up. When Hannah’s mother, Heidi Shaffer, arrived, DiJiacomo had told the teens they were banned indefinitely not only from the bookstore but the entire mall next door.

“He told me this wasn’t the time or place for these kids to protest,” Heidi Shaffer said. "He [also] told me if any of the children was arrested I would have to appear in court, and that I could not take any of the kids into the store unless I wanted to be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. I said I wanted to talk to the Barnes & Noble management, and he said it’s not up to the management, that Barnes & Noble had no authority.

I think you skipped over that part, bud. I don’t know if that’s how it really went down, but like i said, if that’s how it was, it’s ridiculous.

From one side’s version of the events:
[i]No official report of the incident was filed because no arrests were made, but state police spokesman Lt. Joe Aviola said, “As I understand it, they actually were being disorderly within the store. Someone overheard them saying they were going to cause a disruption.”

That’s not quite the version the teens related.[/i]

Far be it from me to presume that a bunch of 18 year olds who were specifically there to mock the guy would leave out small tiny little details in their account of the events. But I know you probably agree with the ACLU that this is a trickle-down effect from GWB himself, so I’ll just continue in ignorance.

So “yelling” is far too much punishment for trespassing? Let me guess, the mall and bookstore were trampling their rights as well, yeah?

Not at all. In truth, I suppose I may agree with you on this second count if there was any objective accounts or footage showing how much of a fuss they raised. See my reply to Jason above. If they got too crazy, I can easily see a mini-mall 86ing them at the request of a major tenant.

Because the only other information is vague non-sourced stuff from the authorities?

He wasn’t hired by the book store, he was hired by Santorum. And he didn’t consult book store personel, as far as I can tell, he just consulted another member of Santorum’s team.

As far as I can see, these people hadn’t committed a crime and no one representing the bookstore expressed any desire that they should leave. So the only authority the cop had to kick them out at that point (that I can see) is if the bookstore somehow gave Santorum and his staff the authority to act on their behalf.

Neither article appeared to indicate who had actually hired the officer. Oh, and even the liberal rag says he consulted some of the store people.

“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.”

Either way, if it was billed as a “discussion” as well as a book signing, why can’t you dissent with the guy’s opinion? Where’s the discussion of everyone agrees? That’s what I don’t get. You can’t invite the other side and then go and throw them out because you don’t want to hear what they think.

Well, I guess you can if you’re an off-duty cop…

–Dave

If this was a standard book signing (and everything seems to indicate it was) the “discussion” part means you get to say hi to the author while he signs your book. Maybe a little QnA about the book, but probably not. Trying to read anything else into Barnes and Noble marketing materiels for the evert is just petty nitpicking.

Well, I was taking the DO article as more informative, as it seems to have follow-up. For instance, the Progressive article says “A woman nearby" while the DO article says “someone on Santorum’s advance team”. It’s possible he was just making that detail up I suppose.

The quote by the B&N rep:

“Rick Santorum’s security team felt they were going to be a security threat and asked them to leave,” said Amanda Winnington, the community relations manager for the Barnes & Noble store.

The security, however, wasn’t provided by a private guard, but by off-duty Delaware State Police Sgt. Michael DiJiacomo

So I’m assuming ‘the security’, in the form of DiJiacomo, who asked them to leave, was a member of the ‘security team’. Again, this could be wrong.

Later we have:

I said I wanted to talk to the Barnes & Noble management, and he said it’s not up to the management, that Barnes & Noble had no authority.

“What he told me was, ‘They don’t want you there,’ that it was all under the direction of Santorum. Maybe he was making it up, because I called Santorum’s people and they’ve denied it to me, but I got the impression they didn’t want anyone there who didn’t agree with him.”

which I guess could be total fabrication.

Overall, it’s hard to escape the impression that the cop kicked them out because Santorum’s people (not B&N) wanted them kicked out.

On the other hand, there’s a technical rule:

Barnes & Noble’s Winnington confirmed that only customers who had a receipt for Santorum’s book were allowed near him.

So maybe that’s what the cop was thinking about. I still think the cop overreacted and I especially don’t like his explanations (if that is what he said).

edit: I especially like the ‘B&N has no authority’ part, cause as far as I can tell, they are the only source of the neccesary authority to kick the people out.