An Oberwetter Stands Up For America
Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, as everybody knows, is on April 13. To celebrate the occasion, Brooke Oberwetter, daughter of former Ambassador Jim Oberwetter of Dallas, decided to do a little dancing at the Jefferson Memorial. So off she went with nineteen or so of her friends. Their spontaneous patriotic effusion, however, was interrupted by a security guard, who proceeded to arrest young Brooke. This being 2008, the incident was recorded. This being Brooke, it was reported in the Washington Post. And this being America, friends have created a web site to proclaim the injustice of the thing and to raise money for her defense. Knowing the FrontBurner Nation to be friends of freedom, I hope you will make a small contribution to the cause. One generation proclaimed, “Don’t tread on me!” Now another generation proclaims, “Bopping is not a crime!”
12 Comments to “An Oberwetter Stands Up For America”
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I am so sorry for the desitute family. I shall look for change in my couch.
Bop?
Yes, that’s what they proclaim, all right — that wacky GI generation.
This being 2008, the word “bopping” is no longer used to describe dancing. But yeah, I hope she’s able to successfully fight this thing.
Looking at the video, I must concur that it’s an outrage. But I was jailed for BS in my woolier years — who wasn’t — and so I propose that the good strangers of FBNation set up a fund to reimburse me for the expenses I incurred. Alas, I bore the expense all by myself, O Lovers of Freedom! Let’s face it: that alley was so dark anyway, he couldn’t have seen me doing what he said I was doing, even if I was doing what he said I was doing, which I wasn’t doing — at all.
Let’s just say a nice even five, rounding up but not adjusting for inflation. (It’s a largely symbolic gesture, in any event; is to me, anyway.) After that, it’s on to the noble cause of Brooke.
Let Freedom Ring (TM)!
The security guard obviously took his “Wear A Cheap Badge & Be Somebody” classes from some jackass left over from the Dick Nixon Administration’s Oppress The People Department. Does G. Gordon Liddy have a “Laws Are For Us To Wink At; Arrests Are For You Academy” somewhere?
May this team of guards be as successful as Ceaphus Gordon, the hyped-up Dallas cop who knocked down the roller derby queen Michelle Metzinger in Deep Elm. It took a courtfight to prove it, but she was innocent.
This may sound silly to those who pay no attention to history, but if these overzealous guards stop just one of us from celebrating freedom, they stop us all.
Security guard? Looks more like a member of the jack-booted United States National Park Police. They are harder on dancing than a foot-washing Baptist.
gotta fight it. we are giving up our freedoms for “security”. the Gestapo lives with these guards. Barny Fite is back. where is the ACLU when we need them. lucky she was not praying. that could be a “death sentence” infraction.
Somehow, I think the daughter of a former ambassador will find money to pay for her legal expenses.
I can’t wait for April 13, 2009. Now that is going to be some dance party.
hmmm, david, it occurs to me that some people (read: adults) might not want to run to their parents every time they have a problem. and to the extent that there seem to be a lot of people who are pretty upset by this and motivated to help, i can’t see why she would want to.
Seems to me legal fees for a low-level offense like this would only be about a grand or less. And that’s if you demand that the lawyer actually produce a “not guilty” rather than a “deferred adjudication” or a “case dismissed upon completing a court-approved Dancing Management class.”
Sorry, but I’ve got outrage fatigue over here. Nonsense like this happens all the time. She was probably sprung within a few hours and slapped with a two-hundred dollar fine. There’s a reason the scruffier echelons call the cops “pigs.”
There is a second video by the person who filmed the first one. Episode 0002: Free the Jefferson 1!
It’s quickly turning into a marketing ploy. T-Shirts, etc. Behold, capitalism!