The following story hasn’t received the attention it deserves.
Back in May, a man was arrested by a private security guard and an off-duty police officer after asking pointed questions to American diplomat and author Dennis Ross during a library discussion. When a library employee attempted to intervene, he was also arrested.
ABC News reports:
The executive director the Kansas City library system says he is “outraged” that prosecutors continue to pursue charges against a man who was arrested after asking pointed questions during a library discussion about the Middle East peace process and an employee who tried to intervene.
Although the arrests occurred in May following a speech by author and diplomat Dennis Ross, the library system only recently went public about its opposition to charges, the Kansas City Star reported.
R. Crosby Kemper III, executive director of the city’s library system, said “we’re going to be living in a different kind of country” if people can be arrested for asking questions at a library. “If this kind of behavior is unacceptable to the police, then I guess we’re going to have to shut the library down.”
Issues arose after Ross finished speaking and took a question from Jeremy Rothe-Kushel concerning whether Jewish Americans like Rothe-Kushel should be concerned about actions by the U.S. and Israel that amount to “state-sponsored terrorism.”
“When are we going to stand up and be ethical Jews and Americans?” Rothe-Kushel asked.
When Rothe-Kushel tried to ask another question, a private security guard grasped his arm, followed by an off-duty police officer, both employed by the Jewish Community Foundation. Rothe-Kushel then shouted, “Get your hands off of me right now!”
Kemper said the private security guards had no right to remove a patron for asking a question.
Ross’ speech was the inaugural Truman and Israel Lecture, established by the Truman Library Institute and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City.
BoingBoing also covered the incident:
Take care when asking provocative questions at Kansas City’s library events: you might end up in jail.
The executive director of Kansas City Libraries says he’s outraged by the charges against Jeremy Rothe-Kushel, a Jewish man grabbed by private security after asking the event’s speaker, former diplomat Dennis Ross, uninvited follow-up questions. Off-duty cops moved in to arrest Rothe-Kushel when he objected to the hands-on treatment—as well as a library staffer who had moved to intervene.
On-duty officers posted to the event apparently did not get involved until later: he was arrested by a man out of uniform and paid by the event’s organizers.
Rothe-Kushel was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest. Steve Woolfolk, director of public programming for the library, was charged with interfering with an arrest. The libraries’ executive director, R. Crosby Kemper III. Kemper, said the private security guards have no right to remove library patrons and that he was going public because prosecutors refuse to drop the charges.
Land of the free? I think not.
Now watch a video of the incident, as well as two library employees discussing why they find it so disturbing.
We should all thank R. Crosby Kemper III and Steve Woolfolk for bringing this to our attention.
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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Ok so why not post contact info for prosecuters ofc so other outraged Americans (or are there any?) can call them and chew their ass about this?!
Note to any intelligent readers:
Wake up America. If you can’t see what is happening and cannot by now connect the dots with each law enacted since Sept 11, 2001 that are continuing to come at us (or should I say after us)…designed to take away our most basic freedoms and remove civil liberties as in this case…then YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM!
Figure it out! 9/11 was the catalyst for what you see here. More everyday. Do you really believe all these police killings are normal. Doesn’t it strike you odd that a person can arrested for such mundane reasons?
If this doesn’t strike a monsterous chord with you…then you could be a moron! If you read/watch this and nothing stirs you to blow up in anger enough to want to at the very least call Kansas City prosecutors…then guess what…nothing will enact change or correction. More sinister and evil underhanded events like this that causes ruin to innocent people will come. And in increased count and occurance. You see, bullies get to be bullies because they have never been punched in the nose. Well guess what…I have always been happy to oblige. What is it about Americans today that allows you to simply do nothing. Say nothing. This is and will be the biggest challenge we face in the world. Lack of backbone! F*cking pisses me off damn it!
Lighten up, Mike. They’re just keeping us safe.
Palestine is Still the Answer.
It is outright disgusting but it shows the power of the Zionist puppet masters , Bank of Ireland closed down the account of Soladarity with Palestine today , these bastards need to be stopped but as Wayne says people are just to dumbed down and like him this frustrates the hell out of me , people do not care the only thing that matters to them is bullshit tv and sports
If this is not the America that you want to pass on to your children and grandchildren, then, as Wayne says, call:
City Prosecutor Lowell Gard 816-513-6750
Kansas City Police Chief Darryl Forté 816-234-5111
Someone please tell me now, how that “off duty” road pirate can make a lawful arrest! If he can do that and get away with it, then he’s really never off duty, and is working on a falsified time sheet. He needs to be fired for falsifying his time sheets! If he’s on call 24/7/365, then that needs to be spelled out in his union contract so there is no doubt that he is on duty 100% of the time.
More to the point, the public need to be educated that the legal system is a complete fraud and a scam, and therefore, no one has any kind of an obligation to be ripped off by it! Fraud vitiates ALL that it comes into contact with, ergo no valid charges can be brought against anyone.
Calling Forte or Gard will do no good, because they are acting in criminal collusion with the road pirates and it’s one hand washing the other there.
Public pressure does often do some good. What do you think people should do?
More info from a Mondoweiss piece about these cops:
“Rothe-Kushel says that the Kansas City police detective who arrested him is named Brent Parsons and was also trained in Israel. He added, by email:
Both these guys [Parsons and Hawkins] have backgrounds in counter-terrorism and have in recent years been to Israel for security conferences/training.”
The Zionization of the US.
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/10/security-arrests-questioner/#sthash.ttm8kJ08.dpuf
I wonder what the reaction would have been if the questioner had been a WASP type? ‘Probably like ‘he got what he deserved’, and there would have been no protest.
Truly sad if that is your primary takeaway from this article.
What makes you think that Kemper and Woolfolk are protesting only because the questioner is Jewish?
Which goes to show you the Police and Judicial system are not your friends.
I have a question of my own for the library director.
Is your library a “gun-free zone?”
If so, consider the hypocrisy inherent in complaining that the first amendment was violated in your library.
If not, proceed with all good speed and my best wishes.
Henry Bowman,
I refer you to the following library policy on expectations of customer behavior:
107.10
Part A
Expectations of Behavior
Prohibitions
…
#21 Possession of knives, firearms or other weapons, unless authorized by state law.
Found here:
https://www.kclibrary.org/policies/100-public-services#10710
In other words, yes, a gun free zone.