BlogWood: MT Archives

"F 9/11" activist arrested for falling

Hillsborough Sheriff’s Deputies arrested a 51 year old woman for handing out literature at an AMC theater. There were cops at every AMC theater that I am aware of. They were stationed in order to prevent under aged people from seeing this movie and to prevent others from exercising their freedom of speech.

Actually, on private property, you have no freedoms. That is why many civil libertarians are concerned about the long trend away from gathering in public spaces like parks and toward gathering in private spaces like malls and shopping centers.

Even in the parking lot, this activist was still on private property, thus she really had nowhere to legally pass out literature. I’m really not sure why AMC decided to host this movie if the chain is so concerned about the potential behavior of the people in attendance, but by posting uniformed police in front of every entrance to Fahrenheit 9/11 and not in front of other theaters, they managed to create the feeling that simply seeing this movie was a subversive act.

On Saturday night, Elizabeth Zollner wanted to see a movie.

Not just any flick. The 51-year-old Brandon woman bought tickets to the documentary igniting political passions. And after watching Fahrenheit 9/11, she planned to pass out a handful of fliers promoting a political event featuring the movie's director, Michael Moore.

Politics proved the least of her worries.

Early Sunday, Zollner was jailed on charges of trespassing, obstructing an officer and battery on a law enforcement officer after an encounter outside Brandon's AMC Regency 20. Her arrest was the only one reported from last weekend's opening of the Bush-bashing film at AMC theaters nationally.

Zollner was released Sunday morning on $4,500 bail. A graduate student at the University of South Florida, she has no prior arrest record in Florida.

Zollner said officers unfairly singled her out for political reasons.

"Would they put a police officer in Shrek?" said Zollner, who is trying to hire an attorney to fight the charges. "They were looking for people who might try to do any political activity."

AMC Theaters were warned about political organizing around Fahrenheit 9/11, said Rick King, of Kansas City, Mo., a national spokesman for the chain. Company policy prohibits distributing in theaters.

Zollner said a security officer asked her to stop passing out fliers in the lobby for MoveOn PAC, a liberal advocacy group, so she moved to the sidewalk. The officer noted that she remained on private property, she said, so she moved to the parking lot.

By then, a crowd formed. More officers arrived.

"They were pushing me and bullying me, and I didn't like it," said Zollner. She said she did not realize she was dealing with an off-duty Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy. In the push, Zollner said, she began to fall and raised a leg for balance.

Sheriff's deputies saw things differently.

"She kicked our deputy in the leg and laid down on the ground," said Lt. Rod Reder, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.

"It looked like overreacting," said Joyce Halstrom, who watched her domestic partner's arrest in horror. "I'm 60 years old. Joyce is 51 years old. We're not rabble rousers. We just wanted to do our part to take care of the troubled situation George Bush has gotten us into."

Now, who, exactly, “warned” AMC about dangerous activists like Ms. Zollner, and what were the nature of these warnings?

Fight the power. Buy unaccompanied kids tickets to this “R” rated movie and escort them into the theater if you need to in order to ensure they get in unmolested by security. 15 year olds will be killing and dying in our names very soon. They need to see this movie now.