Mugshot of reporter Dan Heyman, arrested while trying to question a government official (via CNN)
West Virginia state police arrested Dan Heyman, a veteran reporter with Public News Service, for repeatedly asking Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price whether being a target of domestic violence would be considered a “pre-existing condition,” allowing health insurance to be denied, under the new Republican healthcare bill.
The charge: “willful disruption of governmental processes.”
Capitol police “decided I was just too persistent in asking this question and trying to do my job and so they arrested me,” Heyman told reporters (The Hill, 5/9/17). “First time I’ve ever been arrested for asking a question. First time I’ve ever heard of someone getting arrested for asking a question.”
The criminal complain against Heyman said that he was
aggressively breaching the Secret Service agents to the point where the agents were forced to remove him a couple of times from the area walking up the hallway in the main building of the Capitol. The defendant was causing a disturbance at Ms. Conway and Secretary Price.
The report of the arresting officers appears to contradict that complaint, however; the officers said they “were able to detain the defendant before he tried aggressively to breach the security of the Secret Service.”
In a statement, the ACLU of West Virginia said:
Dan Heyman was doing his job as a reporter. He was fulfilling that sacred role of the media in a democratic state of holding our elected officials accountable regarding the vital issues of the day. And for that, he was arrested.
The arrest follows the conviction last week of Code Pink activist Desiree Fairooz for “unlawful conduct” because she laughed for three seconds in a Senate conference room when Republican Sen. Richard Shelby said that then-nominee for Attorney General Jeff Sessions had an “extensive record of treating all Americans equally under the law.” She faces up to a year in jail (New York Times, 5/3/17).
ACTION:
Please ask West Virginia to respect the First Amendment and drop all charges against reporter Dan Heyman.
CONTACT:
Secretary Jeff Sandy
West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety
email: Jeff.Sandy@wv.gov
Twitter: @WVDMAPS
Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave copies of your messages in the comments thread of this post.
*Ask me no questions, so I can tell you more lies
OK, it’s not my best work and it’s a little high horsey, but feel free to use it:
Dear Secretary Sandy,
I’m writing to request that you immediately drop the charges against reporter, Dan Heyman, for doing his job under The First Amendment by asking Tom Price about the ramifications of the House-passed health care bill
We are in dangerous times when reporters are being threatened with jail time for fulfilling their sacred role within a democracy: to keep the citizens informed.
It is not a crime to demand answers from people who claim to work for us and in our best interests; it’s an act that preserves the very best idea of being an American.
Thanks, I added to it and used it
Sent the following brief comment to West Virginia governor by email and tweet: please respect the First Amendment and facilitate the dropping of all charges against reporter Dan Heyman.
If reporter was from the Wall Street Journal and kept asking why, just because the upper-half of society owned all the land and wealth, that the lower-half of society should get free healthcare,
“Why relieve the laboring-class from their burden to do all the manual labor
for starvation wages, does not the Bible say, “By the sweat of thy brow shall
thou labor”?
About time, why bar the lifetime homeless from expressing an opinion just because they have not the intelligence to do simple math?
I sent the following:
I have read the story of the arrest of Dan Heyman for asking a question in
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/05/10/asking-questions-government-figures-not-crime.
The article in question states that security was able to do its job and prevented Mr. Heyman from reaching Mr. Price and Ms. Conway. Hence, there was no breach of security.
Please drop the charges against the reporter. A free and open society needs such persons to ask questions and uncover truth. Our First Amendment to the US Constitution demands it.
Thank you for your consideration.
I am distressed to hear of the arrest of Dan Heyman for being a reporter! As one who many years ago began my college career as a journalism major, I know the value of a free press and of those who ask difficult questions. If democracy is to survive we need these!
I respectfully ask that you support the First Amendment and support US democracy by dropping all charges against Dan Heyman.
Secretary Jeff Sandy
West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety
Secretary Jeff Sandy,
The First Amendment is vital for the well being of a functioning democracy. West Virginia should fully respect the First Amendment and drop all charges against reporter Dan Heyman.
We live in a democracy. Not all of us ask questions in the same manner. A reporter asking a question and being arrested,even if his style may have seemed aggressive (Which I cannot say since I was not there.) The response to a reporter’s question needs to be in the context of the democracy in which we are living.
Please drop all charges against reporter Dan Heyman.
Thank you,
Howard
(I cc’d this email to Tom Price)
I am deeply troubled to learn of the arrest of journalist Dan Heyman for “causing a disturbance at Ms. Conway and Mr. Price” in the course of his attempt to get Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to respond to his very valid question concerning pre-existing conditions on the AHCA plan. As a citizen impacted by health care law and obviously very interested in getting as much information as possible about new legislation, I am outraged that Secretary Price seemed to use the Secret Service and police as a buffer against answering a legitimate question. We, the American public, depend on a free press and deserve to get straight answers from our public officials. I appeal to you to drop these ridiculous charges.
Sadly I was not particularly respectful.
I urge you to drop all charges against journalist Dan Heyman after he repeatedly asked Secretary Price about pre-existing conditions in the health care bill at your state Capitol building earlier this week.
Arresting reporters for asking tough questions in the name of “order” and “preventing disruption” is the sort of thing folks do when they feel conflicted about whether or not they’re really doing the right thing. In my experience, one can resolve such conflicts with a little soul-searching. Since you’re going to have to drop the charges against Mr. Heyman at the end of such soul-searching, you might as well save yourself some time and do it now.
Here is what I wrote:
Secretary Sandy,
Please take a bold public stand in support of that most American of ideals, Freedom of the Press. Drop all charges against Public News Service reporter Dan Heyman, and make it known that you are firmly committed to defending our First Amendment rights, especially when it comes to the vital function of holding public officials accountable for how they implement public policy.
Thank you
Here’s the letter I wrote:
From what I understand of the circumstances, Dan Heyman’s arrest was a gross violation of the First Amendment and an assault on the longstanding American notions of free press and open inquiry into the conduct and intentions of public officials. I hope you see it this way, too, and drop all charges against Mr. Heyman.
Thank you very much.