Sheehan: I Felt 'Humiliated'

Despite Charges Being Dropped, Angry Over T-Shirt-Linked Arrest

(CBS/AP)  Capitol Police may have dropped charges against antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan and apologized, but that apparently hasn't made her any less angry over her arrest, or how she was treated as it happened.

Sheehan was one of two people kicked out of the audience of President Bush's State of the Union address in t-shirt-related incidents Tuesday night, but she was the only one arrested, on unlawful conduct counts.

She was wearing a t-shirt that alluded to the number of soldiers killed in Iraq: "2245 Dead. How many more?"

Also removed was Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young, R-Fla., whose t-shirt had the opposite message: "Support the Troops — Defending Our Freedom."

Sheehan was taken away in handcuffs before Mr. Bush's arrival at the Capitol and charged with a misdemeanor, while Young left the gallery and therefore was not arrested, said Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer in a statement.

Gainer apologized, saying, "The officers made a good faith, but mistaken effort to enforce an old unwritten interpretation of the prohibitions about demonstrating in the Capitol.

"The policy and procedures were too vague," he added. "The failure to adequately prepare the officers is mine."

But, back home in Los Angeles Wednesday, Sheehan told Linda Alvarez of CBS station KCBS-TV, "They violated my civil rights they humiliated me. They treated me like, instead of having just a t-shirt on, I had a weapon."

Sheehan was a guest of California Democratic Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey.

"I sat down in my seat," she told Alvarez. "I unzipped my jacket. They hauled me off to jail and threw me in handcuffs."

Sheehan adds she now has another reason to fight against the war in the name of her son, who was killed in combat in Iraq.

Beverly Young says she was "appalled" when she was removed. "I could not believe it."

On the House floor, her husband complained she was "kicked out of this gallery while the president was speaking, encouraging Americans to support our troops. Shame. Shame."