The image banned by Officer Cheeks

A school security officer in Virginia who told a protester opposing President Obama's health-care plan that America is "no more" remains employed but is now under investigation because of his statements, according to his school district.

"I have to say, I've seen the video. We do not condone what the officer did say," Paul Regnier, the coordinator of communications and community relations for Fairfax County Public Schools told WND today.

WND reported earlier when a YouTube video showed school Security Officer Wesley Cheeks Jr. objecting to a protest sign carried at a town-hall meeting held by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va. The sign read, "Organizing for National Socialist Health Care – The Final Solution." It depicted Obama as the Joker character of Batman films.

"This used to be America," argued a protester outside a health-care town hall meeting in Reston, Va., after Cheeks threatened him with arrest for holding up a sign with a picture critical of Barack Obama. The officer's response?

"It ain't no more, OK?"

At the time, a WND unscientific poll showed overwhelming outrage over the officer's actions.

Asked "What should be done about security officer who threatened arrest over anti-Obama sign?," 45 percent of the 5,455 voters said he should be reprimanded, fired and used as an example.

Another 28 percent said he should be fired for bullying with a badge. Eleven percent said he should be reprimanded.

Get the prescription for reclaiming America's heritage of liberty – before the what the officer said is true – Joseph Farah's "Taking America Back," autographed only at the WND SuperStore.

WND messages trying to reach the protester were not returned, but on the YouTube channel where the video appeared, there was a claim of credit for the production from a participant identified as "Dissentfromday1."

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SOMETHING IN THE AIR

No Joker! Officer probed for saying America 'no more'

Public demands firing, school officials decline to confirm he's 'on staff and on duty'

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Posted: September 03, 2009

9:31 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

The image banned by Officer Cheeks

A school security officer in Virginia who told a protester opposing President Obama's health-care plan that America is "no more" remains employed but is now under investigation because of his statements, according to his school district.

"I have to say, I've seen the video. We do not condone what the officer did say," Paul Regnier, the coordinator of communications and community relations for Fairfax County Public Schools told WND today.

WND reported earlier when a YouTube video showed school Security Officer Wesley Cheeks Jr. objecting to a protest sign carried at a town-hall meeting held by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va. The sign read, "Organizing for National Socialist Health Care – The Final Solution." It depicted Obama as the Joker character of Batman films.

"This used to be America," argued a protester outside a health-care town hall meeting in Reston, Va., after Cheeks threatened him with arrest for holding up a sign with a picture critical of Barack Obama. The officer's response?

"It ain't no more, OK?"

At the time, a WND unscientific poll showed overwhelming outrage over the officer's actions.

Asked "What should be done about security officer who threatened arrest over anti-Obama sign?," 45 percent of the 5,455 voters said he should be reprimanded, fired and used as an example.

Another 28 percent said he should be fired for bullying with a badge. Eleven percent said he should be reprimanded.

Get the prescription for reclaiming America's heritage of liberty – before the what the officer said is true – Joseph Farah's "Taking America Back," autographed only at the WND SuperStore.

WND messages trying to reach the protester were not returned, but on the YouTube channel where the video appeared, there was a claim of credit for the production from a participant identified as "Dissentfromday1."

(Story continues below)

"Many people were left outside when the school filled to capacity. School security officer Wesley Cheeks, Jr. did not like my anti-Obamacare poster which used one of the gone-viral 'Joker' graphics," the video source said. "When I said to Officer Cheeks, 'This used to be America!' his response was: 'It ain't no more, OK?'"

Wesley Cheeks, Jr., security officer for Fairfax County Public Schools in Reston, Va.

"I feel sorry for Officer Cheeks. He, like many African-Americans are being played by the racist Obama administration. Wake up people. They used to want you only for your votes, but now with the huge Hispanic illegals pouring in they won't even need you for that," the video source said.

The video, which had surpassed 450,000 views, also attracted more than 6,000 comments, including one that clearly implied racial overtones to the officer's opposition to the poster.

"If it had been a Sarah Palin rally and the cop had been white, he would be on his way to federal prison for civil rights violation," said a YouTube forum participant.

Regnier told WND the district would not comment on personnel issues. He did confirm the congressman's event had been under a rental arrangement on school property and the officer was there as part of a school assignment.

But he also confirmed that whatever sign rules the school normally would impose would not have been in effect since the facility had been rented for the congressman's meeting.

"We are looking into this and will take appropriate action," he assured WND.

But he said that because of the personnel issues involved, no information would be released.

Asked to confirm that Cheeks still is on staff and on duty, Regnier declined.

"He is still an employee," he said.

Cheeks had told the protester that even though others were holding signs, his sign was unacceptable because of the depiction of Obama.

"But you got this with a picture," Cheeks said, explaining why the protester was singled out from the others. "That's the difference. This has got a picture on it. That don't have a picture on it.

"Sir, leave the picture down," the officer said. "If you put the picture back up, you'll be charged with trespassing."

The protester continued the argument, wondering how his presence among hundreds of others at the town hall meeting could be deemed trespassing.

The officer answered, "If I told you once to take it down and you put it back up, I can charge you with whatever I want to charge you with."

The argument continued until the officer walked away.

"This used to be America," said the protester.

"It ain't no more, OK?" answered Cheeks.

As WND has reported, Americans have been flocking to lawmakers' health-care town hall meetings, typically voicing loud displeasure with the ever-expanding size of the federal government and what many see as yet another intrusive expansion.

All across the country, legislators coming to their home districts in attempt to sell the health-care plan to constituents are being met with fierce opposition and huge crowds:

• Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., was confronted by self-described Democrats who accused their representative of lying about health reform and protested, "Why would you try to stuff a health-care plan down our throats in a couple days when the president took six months to pick a dog for his kids?"

• Also in Maryland, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., admitted to receiving nearly 1,600 RSVP's for a town hall meeting at a concert hall that only seated only 500. When an estimated 1,500 showed up for the meeting, protesters lined the streets outside with signs and shouts.
• In Mehlville, Mo., protesters lined up around the block of the Bernard Middle School gym where Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo., had planned a public forum. When hundreds were left standing on the street, they remained outside into the evening. Eventually, a union representative reportedly assaulted one of the protesters, Kenneth Gladney, which lead to six arrests, including a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter. Gladney later appeared in an interview on the Fox News Channel explaining the attack, which drew national attention.
• A video posted on YouTube, one of many from around the country, reportedly shows several hundreds standing outside in a stunningly long line, waiting to get into a packed town hall meeting on health care with Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga.
• Rep. Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., has called off further events after a June 22 event he held in Setauket, N.Y., in which protesters dominated the meeting by shouting criticisms at the congressman for his positions on energy policy, health care and the bailout of the auto industry.
• Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., got an earful, too – especially on the health-care issue.
• Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., heard from a very well-informed veteran – to the enthusiastic applause of those gathered.
• Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., also heard from the crowd when he made a gaffe by saying the work needs to be done "fast."
• The Pittsburgh Tribune review captured video of a town hall with Specter in Kittanning, Pa., reporting that 1,500 showed up to voice their concerns over health care. "I've never seen anything like this," Specter told reporters afterward.
• U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., tried to explain at a town hall that people "don't know" how much they're already paying to cover the uninsured, but his reasoning was drowned out by protesters.
• WND reported the story of Mike Sola, a Michigan father who confronted Dingell in a separate meeting over what he feared Obamacare would do to his handicapped adult son. Sola later reported he was threatened at his home, at night, by supporters of the government health-care plan.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., visited a Denver, Colo., clinic for the homeless to raise support for Obama's health-care plan, only to be met by streets lined with protesters opposed to the measure.
• Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-TX, went out to meet constituents, only to be met with protesters shouting in opposition to the health-care bill, "Just say no!"
• At a health-care town hall event in Syracuse, N.Y., in July, police were called in to restore order, and at least one heckler was taken away by local police.
• Close to 100 sign-carrying protesters greeted Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Fla., at a late June community college small-business development forum in Panama City, Fla.
• Danville, Va., anti-tax tea party activists claimed they were "refused an opportunity" to ask Rep. Thomas Perriello, D-Va., a question at a town hall event and instructed by a plainclothes police officer to leave the property after they attempted to hold up protest signs.
• Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., was chased by a crowd saying the Pledge of Allegiance.
• In the wake of vocal town hall protests covered by the press, Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., attempted to ban news cameras from his public forum on health care reform, but eventually relented and allowed the coverage.
• A handful of New York's congressmen, including Democrats Brian Higgins and Louise Slaughter and Republican Chris Lee, have shunned the town hall meetings altogether, opting instead for telephone meetings or no meetings at all.
• Rep. Mark Schauer, D-Mich., also sought to dodge boisterous health-care reform critics by holding a teleconference forum, rather than a public town hall meeting. The decision didn't stop protesters on both sides of the debate rallying outside the lawmaker's office.
• The constituents of Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn., unable to access their representative through a town hall meeting, created a video charging that Tanner has met with Michael Moore and Fidel Castro, "But he won't meet his constituents in the 8th District to talk about health care."
• Meanwhile, as WND reported, pre-written questions from participants with track records of campaigning and organizing for Obama have led some to believe the president has been stacking his own town halls with "plants." The practice, some allege, may also be in use at other, purportedly open public forums.

The biggest source of protests are the health-care bill, the $787 billion economic stimulus package and the cap-and-trade legislation. They're also angry about Obama's refusal to release his birth certificate to prove he is a "natural born citizen" and constitutionally eligible to serve in the White House.

According to an Associated Press report, Obama's top political adviser, David Axelrod, showed senators in D.C. video of some of the boisterous town-hall meetings and discussed how to respond to disruptions.

"It's a challenge, no question about it, and you've got to get out there and make the case," Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said afterward. "This is not the time for the faint-hearted."

Note: To contact the school's security force, e-mail Fred Ellis, the director of safety and security for Fairfax County Public Schools, or Jim McLain, the security coordinator.

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