Mark Schlinkmann
stltoday.com
August 20, 2013
The arrest Saturday afternoon of two anti-Barack Obama protesters on an Interstate 70 overpass is stirring controversy – fueled by a video of the incident circulating on the internet.
The two — Marc S. Messmer, 41, of St. Charles, and Jimmy D. “Duane” Weed, 57, of Bridgeton — say that their constitutional rights were violated.
“Citizens have a right to peaceably assemble,” said Messmer, who was part of a series of overpass demonstrations around the country seeking the president’s impeachment. “We were simply doing that. There were no laws broken.”
Sgt. Al Nothum, a spokesman for the Missouri Highway Patrol, said the potential for a traffic hazard was why the two and 10 or so other protesters were told by officers to leave the Fairgrounds Road overpass about 2 p.m.
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