Constitutional Law
Vietnam Vet Arrested After Pointing Finger at Town Meeting
Posted May 2, 2008, 02:22 pm CST
By Martha Neil
In the midst of a contentious town meeting in a small Chicago suburb earlier this year, resident Greg Kachka committed a criminal act, officials contend: Wearing a custom T-shirt with a Marine Corps insignia that states "Don't Move. If You Run, You'll Only Die Tired!!" the 60-year-old Vietnam veteran pointed his finger at an Island Lake village trustee.
"Trustees allege Kachka's thumb was raised and his index finger extended, as though he were firing a gun," reports the Chicago Tribune.
Trustee Debbie Herrmann, one of two officials who complained to police about Kachka's gesture at the March 13 meeting, says she had no choice but to take the situation seriously, given violence earlier this year at Northern Illinois University and at a suburban St. Louis town meeting.
However, some fellow residents view the two disorderly conduct charges against Kachka as ridiculous. Citizens for Better Government in Island Lake has posted Kachka's $500 bail, and plans to try to fund his legal defense by selling T-shirts with the same slogan.
"What they're doing to him is retaliation because he made statements and asked questions at board meetings that caused embarrassment to this administration," Laurie Rabattini, who heads the group, tells the Tribune.
If convicted in the disorderly conduct case, Kachka faces a maximum sentence of 30 days in jail, 2 years of probation and a $1,500 fine.
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Comments
Posted by Todd Rainer - 7 months, 4 hours, 53 minutes ago
You know, people have got to get past this… what pathetic schmuck feels threatened by a cocked finger??? Are they afraid it might go off??? Whatever happened to the “reasonable man” test?
Posted by Glen G. Mayberry - 6 months, 4 weeks, 2 hours, 16 minutes ago
Most Vietnam Veterans are full of beer and a lot cigarettes. They usually are dirty and don’t know how to take care of themselves. This Vet gets up at 5 A.M. and goes for a walk, has coffee, picks up teh paper and goes home. I am at my computer at 8 A.M. each morning doing my work? A federal Court fficer asked/told me to read the law and do some writing into a notebook. I am clean and haven’t changed my waist size in fourteen years.. I wrote my memoir-“Memories of Myself” and now I’m concentrating on a book of my poems which I’ll peddle myself.
Posted by Leon Richard - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 19 hours, 53 minutes ago
Don’t know many Vietnam vets apparently. The ones I know don’t run around everywhere screaming about it. That’s why you think most of them are “full of beer and cigarettes”, and “are usually dirty and don’t know how to take care of themselves”.
An awful assessment of your brothers in arms, from my seat. Like I said, the ones I associate with, and there have been quite a few, don’t talk much about it. I’ve had some conversations, seen their photo albums.
The ones wrecking their lives over the years, “because of the “Nam”? It was an excuse to screw themselves up. The most orderly and best years of their lives were spent in the military and it’s been downhill since.
Posted by Leon Richard - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 19 hours, 52 minutes ago
That said. The man has an absolute right to wear whatever he wants to for a t-shirt. He has an absolute right to go to a town meeting and point his finger, and say whatever is on his mind.
Proud Maine tradition, the town meeting. Some of us have been known to “vent a little” from time to time at them.