| By Alan Franklin - Jul 11th, 2008 at 11:50 am EDT |
It wasn't the DPD's idea, and the DCPA security guard who claimed on camera that the "Secret Service" had ordered her removal was, um, mistaken. Or maybe he was covering up the far less defensible truth of the matter, which is
McCain staff asked for protester's ouster
It was Sen. John McCain's staff who asked security at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts to remove people holding protest signs at the venue -- not U.S. Secret Service agents, who were not involved in Carol Kreck's ouster from the galleria.
A video of the incident circulating widely on the Internet shows a DCPA security guard saying that he was told by the Secret Service to remove Kreck, who was holding a paper sign that said "McCain = Bush."
But Thursday, after two days of being vilified by bloggers, letter writers and others, the Secret Service emphatically denied involvement.
"Contrary to some recent reporting, the Secret Service had no involvement in Ms. Kreck being removed from the area," said Malcolm D. Wiley Sr., spokesman for the Secret Service. "It was not done at our request or suggestion. Any assertion to the contrary is inaccurate and inconsistent with our established policies and procedures."
DCPA spokeswoman Suzanne Blandon said the guard who told Kreck to leave was "simply mistaken" in identifying the Secret Service as the agency that wanted her to leave. Blandon said the guard did not intend to use the Secret Service as leverage and did not mean to mislead anyone...
There you have it. Far worse than the original report that the Secret Service was behind Ms. Kreck's ouster--which they could have 'justified' a dozen different security-related ways, at least initially--it appears that the whole fiasco was instigated by McCain staffers who were concerned about only one thing: the embarrassing message of the sign she was carrying.
Note that today's article states that McCain's staff only requested the removal of attendees with protest signs--dozens of people festooned with pro-McCain schwag were allowed in, contrary to claims from McCain's campaign that nobody was. That's a critical point.
It wasn't a uniform security restriction imposed by the Secret Service, and it was not some unsupportable distinction between "public places" and "not really public public places" arranged between the city and the Performing Arts Center--although that appears to have been the pretext. And not an overzealous DCPA security guard striking out on his own.
No, it was McCain's people who did this. Because they didn't like her sign. As clear and audacious a violation of Carol Kreck's right to free speech as can be imagined.
Click here to make a donation to our fund to defend Carol Kreck, and thanks to all of you who have donated thousands of dollars already. Looks like the money will be well spent, fighting for Ms. Kreck's rights--and yours, too.
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Tom Kise, McCain's regional communications director, said Friday that the senator has a track record of allowing people who oppose him to speak out at his events.
The McCain campaign had only asked that the Denver Center for the Performing Arts complex keep people with signs out of the meeting, not off the grounds of the entire complex.
DCPA spokeswoman Suzanne Blandon on Friday stood by the statement from the day before that the McCain campaign had asked that people not be allowed to hold signs throughout the complex.
Kise said he does not understand why DCPA officials would implicate the McCain campaign because the center told the campaign it follows a federal court ruling and its own policy, which says protests are not allowed in the area where Kreck was standing because the galleria is not considered a public forum.
Kreck, a former reporter for The Denver Post, was cited for trespassing.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com