Oathkeeper Univ Police Officer: Order to remove abortion protesters ‘unconstitutional’

[RamboLiberal]

A Kutztown University police officer is asking a federal appeals court to rule that he had the right to "refuse an unconstitutional order" to disperse antiabortion and antihomosexual demonstrators.

Cpl. Steve Armbruster said he was ordered to "push" off campus 15 protesters from Repent America, an evangelical group based in Lansdowne that was being confronted by hundreds of student counter-demonstrators.

Armbruster refused an order by both the university president and the campus police chief, contending it would violate the group's civil rights and subject him to liability. Armbruster was relieved of his duties and later suspended for five days without pay.

News accounts at the time described "hundreds of angry Kutztown University students" confronting "street evangelists who unexpectedly showed up on campus Wednesday to rail against gays, Jews, Catholics, and abortion."

Campus police ordered both sides to disperse, university officials said at the time, and officers were ordered to eject the evangelists from campus on the ground of disorderly conduct.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20110128_Officer__Order_to_remove_abortion_protesters_unconstitutional.html

Last paragraph of story says he is the head of the PA Oathkeepers and is running for sheriff of Carbon County.

[fascisthunter]

1. Hate speech=free speech

the right wingers have been trying to make the claim that their speech is part of free speech, but we know what their ends are, and they are a danger to those not exactly like them. No idiots, you support hate speech.

[bluestateguy]

2. One pissant cop doesn't have the right to decide what is and is not constitutional

That's what courts are for.

[Occulus]

5. But that's what this "Oathkeepers" movement is about

These people are, to hear them (and some who have been watching their movement grow), everywhere, from military ranks to police, fire, and EMS.

They are, potentially, just as bad as the brownshirts of the Nazi Party, and for many of the same reasons.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. Actually he has the duty to refuse illegal orders

If you refuse an order, you have to be able to defend that refusal. His refusal is not defensible and the order clearly legal, but what if the order had been to attack a peaceful Code Pink sit in with nightsticks?

[bluestate10]

3. The university should fire him. When individual cops start making decisions anarchy

can't be far behind. Either the idiot turn in his badge, or have it taken from him.

[Demoiselle]

4. Doesn't the University have the right to say who's on campus?

Armbruster sounds like a piece of work...