# # Can you imagine the city asking the NAACP, or the Million Man March for protection money so that they can exercise their First Amendment rights ?! That exactly what this is. Mark http://www.sierratimes.com/schc012000.htmSC: Police Extort Protection Money From Protestors A SierraTimes.com Exclusive Released: 20JAN00 18:00PT Filed by J.J. Johnson – SierraTimes.com Filed by J.J. Johnson – SierraTimes.com [Image] SC State House 01.08.20 Heritage 2000 rally COLUMBIA, SC - The Columbia City Police demanded "protection money" of $7500 from the South Carolina Heritage Coalition for the attendees at the Columbia Flag Rally on Jan 8th. . Checks weren’t good enough. They wanted cash. Columbia Mayor Bob Coble, who has oversight of this situation is an outspoken opponent of the Confederate Battle Flag and has twice sued the State to have the Flag removed from the State Capitol dome. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has also launch an attack against the Southern symbol over the last few days. NAACP leaders have also called for a boycott of South Carolina, and are making plans to intensify their extremist rantings against the Confederate Battle Flag at the Georgia Superdome – home of Super Bowl 2000. Coble spoke to the NAACP march in Columbia on Monday as an opponent to the flag and called for it to come down. According to Michael Reed who attended the event, Coble denounced his own ancestors who fought for the South because he wants the "ethnic vote that keeps him in power in Columbia.” The January 8th event, called “Heritage 2000”, was almost canceled when City of Columbia Police officials at the last minute demanded that South Carolina Heritage officials come up with $7,500 for additional police security or face cancellation of their parade permit, a spokesman for the South Carolina Heritage Coalition said. “With participants already en route to Columbia this could have caused the arrest of Coalition leaders if the parade went on as scheduled” according to the SCHC’s press release. With no time to file a lawsuit, Coalition Chairman Chris Sullivan paid the money under protest following the advice of an SLRC legal team. The money as they were told, was insurance to cover any damages that might occur during the protests. There were no arrests among the 10, 000 who attended, and legal advisors to the Heritage 2000 event said they will make every opportunity to use legal action for return of the extortion money. © 2000 SierraTimes.com – All rights reserved Yah!
