Off-duty trooper tosses teens before Santorum event by seesdifferent Sat Aug 20th, 2005 at 20:39:17 PDT The fascists are on the move. Apparently Delaware State Troopers think they are Bush's town hall goons. Some inquiring minds were thrown out of a Barnes and Noble store before Santorum showed up, by an "off-duty" but in-uniform state trooper, without consulting the store manager. Let's call a spade a spade here, he was intimidating women and kids. Questions and discussions are becoming the enemies of the Right, and they will, if this story is a harbinger, use the uniformed state authority to intimidate. This disturbing story from the Progressive: 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."... Shaffer... and... 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... MORE BELOW seesdifferent's diary :: :: 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... 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." ... Not everyone enjoyed the joke. "A woman nearby snapped: `He's only here to sign his own book. He won't sign that,... "You're shameful and disgusting." 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?" "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. "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." "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. 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." While the ACLU and the women involved have not decided whether to take legal action, they are considering their options." Here are some contact numbers I found at B and N site. grimc points out that BandN are a "Blue" company so they should be sympathetic. This incident occurred on private property, only some of which may have been leased by Barnes and Noble. The arrangements of the guard's employment are not clear, nor what authority he was given by the store. What we should be asking is that the company will no longer employ Delaware State Troopers, since that organization has endorsed the conduct of the guard. Further, that potential security events be brought to the attention of responsible store manager immediately. Not to mention, of course, the fact that B and N owes an apology, if not damages, to the kids and their families. Barnes & Noble, Inc., contact: Mary Ellen Keating, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs telephone: 212-633-3323 email: mkeating@bn.com Barnes & Noble.com, contact: Carolyn Brown, Director of Corporate Communications telephone: 212-633-4062 email: cbrown@bn.com Barnes & Noble Booksellers Concord Pike Concord Mall 4801 Concord Pike Wilmington, DE 19803 302-478-9677 Store Hours Sun 10-10 302-478-9271,is the phone number for the Concord Mall, 4737 Concord Pike, Wilmington, DE 19803, tell them you aren't going to let your kids shop at a mall where the guards are goons. Please give Barnes and Noble a jingle about this outrage. Completely antithetical to the idea of a free press, and free speech, and to the liberal thinker that has to be their most important customer. There is a Border's Books just down the road, so nobody needs that Barnes and Noble. Not to mention Powell's and the online bookstores. Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner Online contact form: http://www.state.de.us/governor/comments.shtml Telephone - Governor Minner's office: (302) 744-4101 in Dover or (302) 577-3210 in Wilmington. Joe "can't charge it to MBNA if yer in jail" Biden: Wilmington 1105 N. Market St. Suite 2000 Wilmington, DE 19801-1233 Phone: 302-573-6345 Washington 201 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: 202-224-5042 Sidewalk picketing would be in order, imho. Also, there is no reason why this subject couldn't be raised with local B and N managers across the country. View Comments | 158 comments