Police make Manassas area man remove protest signs

David Hersch may have committed an act of civil disobedience,  but it might have been disturbing the peace.

Hersch, who stops short of calling himself an activist, regularly protests the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at the intersection of Sudley Manor Drive and Sudley Road.

On Thursday, Hersch set up his signs along the side of the road as he has done occasionally over the past eight years.

He said that about 12:30 p.m. a green van with an advertisement on the side that read “1-800-Marines” drove up to the intersection and a teenaged passenger  got out and kicked down one of his signs.

That’s when the act of  civil disobedience or disorderly conduct came into play.

Hersch said he stepped out in front of the van to prevent the driver — who he said was in uniform — from driving away.

“I guess it was civil disobedience, but what were my options?” Hersch said.

Hersch stood in front of the van waiting for people to call the police.

“There really was a stand-off and quite a few people saw it,” he said. “I needed to make some kind of scene.”

As he expected, people did call the police and a lot of them soon showed up.

Hersch said that at least 10 cruisers arrived, including state police, sheriff’s deputies and Prince William police.

According to Hersch, a Prince William police officer named L. Lewis took the lead and the outcome of the situation was not what he expected.

“I really thought that once the police were there they’d pull us both over to the side and say, ‘Alright guys, what happened?’” he said.

That’s not how things went.

Hersch said that police gave the teenager and the Marine his name, but wouldn’t give him their names.

In addition, Hersch said, the officer wouldn’t answer any of his questions.

“Every time I would ask something, she would say, ‘I’ll give you a citation right now,’” said Hersch, who was born on a farm in Manassas called the “Children’s Fun Farm.”

The officer made Hersch remove the signs, which Hersch considered an infringement of his freedom of speech. He thought he was within the law in placing his signs 15 feet from the road.

“We thought we had permission ... to place signs as long as we were in attendance,” he said. “We’ve never been challenged.”

Hersch said he would do the same again given the same circumstances.

Kent Willis of the ACLU of Virginia said he would have to to talk to Hersch to get details of what happened, but the organization is interested in freedom of speech issues.

“The key is for us to have a very precise understanding of what happened,” Willis said.

Police were not available for comment late Thursday.

Senior reporter Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.