Approximately 150 people gathered outside of Sanford Bishop’s local office today at the Albany Towers on Roosevelt Avenue. The crowd mostly protested the proposed healthcare bills that were released in the House and Senate this week. A few protestors also expressed anger over Bishop’s recent vote for the Cap and Trade bill. The protest received a lot of press coverage from media surrounding Albany.
Protestors were given letters that they could sign and hand-deliver to Bishop’s office. Media officials followed to get the coverage, but a female staffer from Bishop’s office kept the media at bay. She told the reporter from WALB and the cameraman, “Cameras are not allowed on government property.” When the reporter questioned the staffer, she continued, “For instance, you cannot just bring your cameras on the military base.” The reporter told the staffer that she has done just that, but she agreed to leave.
Bishop’s office did not address the crowd. Staffers refused to talk about Bishop’s current position on the healthcare bill.
One of the protestors from the TeaPartyPatriots.org suggested that the office be closed since they are not truly offering a presence for the Congressman in Albany.
I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that the Congressman’s local office be closed. He does need to have a presence in the Second District, but the refusal to let cameras inside was puzzling. I hope that WALB will run the story of how they were refused access into the office building of our Congressman. He and his staff work for us by the way and not the other way around. At least that is what I’ve heard.
This event was organized by TeaPartyPatriots.org and FreedomWorks.org
The thing is, IIRC that’s not actually government property. It’s private property leased to the government. That’s a huge difference between that and a military base. Because it’s leased to the government, that office decides what goes in there so it was 100% their call on whether to allow cameras or not.
Not only that, but I promise you that if you examined their cell phones, you’d find cameras on them. But cameras aren’t allowed on “government property”? Hmmmm
So it was Bishop’s call not to allow cameras rather than a government rule since they are leasing the property. I still find it odd that all those people were allowed in except the reporter and the camera. By the way, they didn’t object to my video camera when we delivered the tea bags in April.
This just in!! WALB covered the fact that they were booted from the office and Bishop says he would have not done that. Gee…guess that wasn’t a good move after all for his staff?
hmmm…. maybe it was your tea bags in April that made them not like reporter cameras in July?
Sanford Bishop apparently told WALB that the situation would have been handled “differently” if he had been there.
What that actually means though is open for interpretation.
Looking at Mike’s pics on Facebook of the event, I’m not seeing anywhere NEAR 150 people. In the biggest crowd shot he has, I MIGHT be willing to say half that number is there.
That said, I know y’all had a signature sheet of some form there, and I’d be interested in hearing how many people signed it.
Jeff,
The Tea Party folks from Douglas took the sign in sheets. I know that there were many, but I didn’t get an official count. It can be hard to estimate a number. I guessed 300 in Plains and there were over 400 there. I bet the Herald will say 50 showed.
With what the Herald showed, the 150 number wouldn’t really surprise me. I’ve learned that no matter how many I estimate are there, the real number is higher