East Caln Township is near Coatesville, IIRC.

Easttown is near West Chester. While they aren't at separate ends of the world, they aren't especially close to each other.

Since the police response was PSP (PA State Police) from the Embreeville Barracks, the response time is NOT quick. The distance to the station is at least 20 minutes. That assumes that the Troopers were not out dealing with something else at the same time.

Also, movie theater managers HATE hassles. The last thing they want to do is call the police, because that information then shows up in the local newspapers. If folks get a bad impression of that particular theater, they'll go elsewhere. If they called the cops, she more than likely had become a bitch on wheels.

Also, if she were set up in front of the exit doors handing out voter registration forms (or any other kind of literature) she was representing a hazard or nuissance. This would also be the case if she had posted herself in the lobby.

I'm reminded of the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail ... "Help, help! I'm being oppressed!!"

I think it may have something to do with the fact that you can't swing a dead cat in Chester County without hitting a large, active Quaker Meeting House.

Not likely seeing as how Lani Frank (2nd to the right -in the pink shirt) is the Vice President of the National Women's Political Caucus of PA. Here's a pic lifted from the Chester County Democratic Committee.

http://www.chescodems.org/graphics/swingthurs04.jpg

She is quite active in local politics (not that there's a thing wrong with that - just making the point that she's no wet-behind-the-ears volunteer).

My bad ... I was looking at the town the woman is from, Easttown, and transposed that to Westtown, which is where the Regal I described is. Never mind.

She was asked to stop distributing the voter registration forms. I see no information showing that the theater manager asked to leave the property (And the theater manager most likely doesn't own the property). She had a discussion while still handing out the forms about why she shouldn't be prevented from handing them out, and by that time the theater was empty, and she left without being forced to leave. Assuming the guy even did ask her to leave, she did comply and she left within a matter of minutes. What do you think she should do, drop all her belongings and run out of the theater screaming so she doesn't get shot?

My principles are always consistant. If I ask someone to leave my property and they leave, I have no complaint. The woman didn't hang around for 12 hours before going. She left within a matter of minutes which is acceptable for any reasonable person.

She probably wouldn't have found the audience as receptive, but why not?

If she was in the MALL parking lot, the theater owner has no authority to force her to leave the parking lot. Only the owners/operators of the mall could do that. And even if she was still in the theater's parking lot, she was on her way out. If someone is asked to leave do they have a 1 minute time limit? What if they've got a bad hip or are in a wheelchair? Do they get more time? I say as long as they are moving in the direction opposite the theater, they are leaving. We're talking about a matter of minutes, not hours.

Given that it takes no more than 5-10 minutes to hand out the forms to every single person exiting a theater, it's not likely that they were 20 minutes away. In fact it's more likely that they were in the immediate area and responded in 1-2 minutes.

Having worked in theaters when I was a kid, I can tell you that is absolutely and utterly false. Theater managers often create hassles where there are none and treat patrons like shit.

A person standing in a lobby our outside of a theater exit handing out forms is not a hazard, or a nuissance in any way, shape, or form. If someone wants a form, they take one, if they don't they don't. No nuissance, and certainly no hazard. Nobody said she was standing in the middle of the doorway blocking people.

Funny, it reminded me of the scene in the Rodney King beating video.


Here's a clue for you people. You have free speech no matter where you are. If you're on someone elses property who doesn't like what you're saying, they can ask you to leave. If you are asked to leave and you comply, you haven't trespassed. No matter what property you own, you do NOT have the right to tell anyone what they may or may not say. You may only ask them to leave if they do, or tell them your house rules so they'll know what to avoid saying so you don't ask them to leave.

This woman had no way of knowing the theater manager would act the way he did. After all she was just handing out government voter registration forms, which is normally considered a civic duty and a service to the community. When asked to stop handing them out, she pleaded her case with the guy and then she left. She did absolutely nothing wrong at any point what-so-ever.

People, stop. Look at the story journalistically. It is practically a TOTAL FABRICATION. Read it again with this thought in mind:

Apparently the "reporter" only talked to one person: FRANK.

The reporter got one quote from the state police - not an individual officer, such as the one making the arrest. Here's guessing she got it from an ordinary press release or something, not from an individual. And where is the quote from the theater manager? Wouldn't that point of view be not only important, but critical to the reader's understanding of the event?

There is no quote, because this "reporter" got the entire story from Frank and wrote the story almost entirely from her point of view. (A point of view which we can now assume the "reporter" shares.)

Which is typical of the Daily Lack O' News, as vsp can confirm. You read that paper long enough, you start being able to translate the "news" into the "real story" pretty quickly.

I doubt that much that is closer to the truth will be revealed ... but our speculations are closer to it than what was printed.

EDIT TO ADD: I'm sure the reported actually had several sources. Ms. Frank's friends were there too, and they saw the WHOLE thing.

Here's the Philly Inquirer version written by someone other than a Bush-hatin' ho :)
Woman arrested at '9/11' film

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By Jennifer Moroz
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Inquirer Staff Writer
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<!-- begin body-content --> A Chester County Democratic committee woman was arrested Saturday night for allegedly causing a disturbance while handing out voter registration cards at a local showing of the movie Fahrenheit 9/11.

Lani Frank, 49, of Berwyn, was handing out the cards about 10:15 p.m., as moviegoers at the Downingtown Regal Cinema Stadium 16 poured out of the documentary that slams President Bush and his decision to go to war in Iraq.

State police said they got a call reporting a disturbance. When troopers showed up at the cinema, just off Route 30 in East Caln Township, Frank had moved from the theater lobby to the parking lot.

"She continuously refused to leave the area and continued to cause a disturbance and left the troopers no choice but to arrest her," Cpl. Lawrence Wallick said.

Police charged Frank with disorderly conduct, a summary violation akin to a traffic citation.

Last night, Frank said she would fight the citation. Frank, who said she was acting as an individual and not as a representative of the Democratic Party, denied causing any disturbance.

"All I was doing was offering a convenient way to acquire a government voter registration form," she said. "I made no mention of candidate, of party, of how they should vote."

She said she had questioned the troopers' authority to stop her from handing out the cards in a public parking lot and refused to leave when asked because she believed she had the right to be there.

A theater manager declined to comment when contacted last night.

Did you read the article you posted? Or any of the replies? This reply, for instance, where I cited two phrases in the article indicating that she was asked to leave, and refused. Yes, she eventually left, but by all indications she didn't leave until about 20 minutes later, after a prolonged, disruptive scene. This woman is no victim, she's bitchy and self-important, and had no respect for the theater's property rights. She was then belligerent with the police officers, who were lawfully acting on behalf of the theater to remove her from the property.

I know, it's tempting to buy into this lady's bullshit "woe is me" story, and to make the cops out to be bad guys, but let's not be gullible. Even the newspaper's one-sided account of the "victim" can't hide the fact that she was in the wrong.

Interesting: The movie seems to have been playing at no fewer than FOUR theaters closer to Ms. Frank's home.

edit: 'scuse me. Make that FIVE theaters. Four of the five are outside of Chester County, however, which was likely important to Ms. Frank's press coverage.

All indications show that? How about you show me a single indication that it was 20 minutes. Just one will do since there are none to be found in the story. And she was also not disruptive when handing out the forms. She was quietly handing them out without disturbing anyone. Nobody but the manager had a problem with it and it was the manager who started the whole disruption by telling her to stop. If he had just allowed her to finish and leave as she was doing, there wouldn't have been a disruption.

This woman is absolutely a victim and the theater manager does not have any property rights, but if he did have property rights, they would not include telling anyone what they could or couldn't say and as was proven in someone else's post, they coudn't even prevent the handing out of political flyers if PA state law allowed it. All they can do is ask the woman to leave. Whether or not she was asked to leave, she did leave and that is the point. She left. And she was arrested for exercising her rights. Property rights don't mean you have the right to silence those on your property.

And of course she questioned the officer's right to stop her. She was exercising her rights, and wasn't creating a disturbance and now she had two cops in her face while she was peacefully on the way back to her car.

Yeah? How do we know this? Probably in the wrong I'll give ya, but bitchy and self important? Is Hiibel bitchy and self important too?

Granted, perhaps that was an unfair assumption on my part. I came to that conclusion based on the fact that she was being argumentative, disruptive and refused to leave, all on Private Property, and then gives an account which is so obviously self-biased and full of half truths. I know people like that, and THEY are bitchy and self-important, so I projected those qualities onto her.

Not to mention that comments like "She continuously refused to leave the area and continued to cause a disturbance and left the troopers no choice but to arrest her," aren't usually made about people who are friendly, cooperative and polite. But I wasn't there, maybe the cops and theater manager were being assholes first. But the fact of the matter is that she was on private property, asked to leave, refused, and created a scene.

The Hiibel situation is different... the theater managers and police were not in the wrong when insisting that Lani Frank leave the property. By law, they could ask her to leave if they disagree with her actions, if they didn't like the blouse she was wearing, or the way she had her hair styled. Whereas the officer questioning Hiibel was trying to use authority which (at that time) he didn't legally possess.

On the flip side, the Regal Downingtown's probably the nicest of those (and likely the newest), and makes an attractive target for encountering crowds due to its size. That's where _I_ saw Fahrenheit 9/11 the following day, oblivious to all of this hubbub, even though there were probably theaters closer to where _I_ live showing the film.

I do agree that the Daily Lack'o News is barely suitable for fishwrapping.

No, the truth is she didn't refuse to leave because she left. Only AFTER she left did the cops call her back and arrest her. The cops weren't "forced" to arrest anyone.

You're clearly in the wrong on this and so were the cops and theater manager.

Property rights do not trump individual rights and the lady did leave. If you think she didn't leave in an appropriate amount of time, what amount of time is appropriate? Should she have run for her life out of the building? Is 30 seconds appropriate? How about 10 minutes? Who makes that determination and by what standards? Certainly not the theater manager. So who?