Free speech on a roll

By The Associated Press

08.15.01

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ESTES PARK, Colo. — Secret Service agents claim they were missiles and a threat to national security. But a man arrested yesterday during President Bush's visit to this mountain town says they were just rolls of toilet paper he was handing out in the "First Amendment Zone."

John Fischer, who had also wrapped himself in the toilet paper, was charged with disturbing the peace when witnesses told police he handed out toilet paper and urged people to throw it at the president's motorcade, said Estes Park police spokesman Eric Rose.

The rolls show the smiling faces of Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft on each sheet.

Fischer said he handed out several rolls along with dozens of bumper stickers in the designated protest area along the motorcade route. He said teen-agers suggested throwing the rolls, but he told them not to.

"Some of the teen-agers had made those comments to me and I said, 'You better not or you're going to find yourself arrested or worse,'" Fischer said.

Fischer said he was held for about four hours and was interviewed by Secret Service agents while in custody. He plans to fight the $150 fine.

"They called the toilet paper missiles and they said it created a national security threat, and that's why they were holding me," Fischer said.

Fischer, who lives in Longmont, gained modest notoriety during the 2000 election after he began selling a bumper sticker that read, "He's not my president." Since then, he has turned the stickers and toilet paper into a business, selling them on his Web site.

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