Veteran and Activist Adam Kokesh Caged at Philly Pot Protest
May 20th, 2013
Iraq War veteran Adam Kokesh is no stranger to protest. Ever since he returned from serving his country, he has continued his service to the Constitution by exercising his First (and other) Amendment rights at every possible occasion, in some cases engaging in civil disobedience to expose unjust laws.
Though he recently made news by announcing an open carry march on Washington DC to raise awareness to Second Amendment rights, US News is now reporting that Adam Kokesh was arrested over the weekend at Philadelphia’s “Smoke Down Prohibition” rally, an event at which some participants violated marijuana laws by publicly smoking. Allegedly, reports are coming in that Kokesh may have been arrested on charges of “assaulting a federal officer,” which could put him at risk of facing 20 years in prison. Watch the video of his arrest below, which, you will note, contains no acts of resistance nor any assaults on any federal officers.
Kokesh Was Speaking, Not Smoking
“Smoke Down Prohibition” was a civil disobedience rally. Many people there were purposefully violating the law and were willing to go to jail for it. However, Adam Kokesh was a speaker at the rally, not one of the smokers. Speaking is totally legal, obviously, under the First Amendment.
During Kokesh’ presentation as a speaker at the rally, officers grabbed him. He verbally declared to the audience as a form of poetic symbolism that he was being kidnapped by people in costumes, referring to the officers, but he did not physically struggle nor attempt to harm an officer. He held his hands in a peaceful, non-threatening posture. He was clearly not attempting to harm officers, nor escape their custody.
Kokesh Faces Dire Charges
A Constitutional activist and veteran, Kokesh could now face up to 20 years in prison for an alleged assault on a federal officer which obviously never happened. He was denied bail, supposedly over allegations of drug use. Could federal agents have chosen to target Kokesh in an attempt to prevent him from carrying out his open carry protest on Washington DC?
Adam Kokesh is an activist. He works for a better, freer future for Americans. He does not belong in jail next to criminals. If anything, there should be an investigation into who led the law enforcement response to “Smoke Down Prohibition.” The officers chose to ignore the people who were openly smoking marijuana in favor of Adam, who was simply a scheduled speaker. Of course, marijuana shouldn’t be illegal in the first place, but the fact that they chose to arrest a speaker over the civilly disobedient smokers shows that there must have been another motive behind the bust. In fact, past versions of the same event have not been interfered with by local police.
This whole situation seems like a form of preliminary retaliation for Kokesh’ planned open carry march on Washington DC. Will the event still happen? Will Kokesh serve prison time?
It’s still to early to tell. That said, free Adam Kokesh!
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