GUILDERLAND — A peace walk at the local mall Friday was a victory for free speech and a chance to protest the war for some of the two dozen who participated but, for some of the bystanders, it was an annoyance or even an insult.

Wendy Dwyer, an organizer of the just-before-Christmas event, now in its fourth year, believes the war is wrong and protesters are helping to right that wrong. She said the mall walk is a reminder that the nation must work to create a foreign policy that values peace on earth.

Dwyer, who grew up in Guilderland Center, has become increasingly active in protests in recent years, she said.
Brian Perazone of Roxbury said he came to the mall to shop and enjoy some time out with his sons. "If I wanted to hear protest songs, I’d go to a peace rally," he said. "That’s not what I came for here for."

Perazone told The Enterprise he had recently spent a year in Afghanistan with the 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division and a year in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne.
"They offend me," he said of the protesters. " These people have never set foot in Iraq or Afghanistan. They say, ‘Support the troops; bring them home.’ That’s like saying you support your high school team by hoping they lose."
"A big change"

Some of the walkers gathered at the Bricklayers Hall on Centre Drive near Crossgates Mall at 5 p.m. last Friday to talk to the press before going to the mall.

Dwyer recalled for The Enterprise the first peace walk in December of 2002. "Twenty-some of us went," she said. "We had three messages — ‘Drop toys, not bombs,’ ‘Peace on earth,’ and ‘Don’t attack Iraq.’
"We were quickly accosted by mall security and asked to leave. We said, ‘Why" We’re wearing T-shirts and shopping.’ They got Guilderland police involved and threatened us with arrest. They physically removed us."
Stephen Downs, a lawyer, learned about the December, 2002 incident, Dwyer recalled, and about two months later, in March, he went to Crossgates and had a "Peace on Earth" T-shirt made, which he wore as he shopped.
"He refused to remove his shirt and was arrested," said Dwyer. "That galvanized the national media."
For Downs, who was at the Friday peace walk with his 94-year-old mother, Eleanor Downs, the walk was a "reminder of the primacy of civil liberties in the face of the Patriot Act and the climate of fear of dissent fostered by Bush’s ‘war on terrorism,’" he said.

There were no arrests or threats of arrests at Friday’s Crossgates gathering and the press was not stopped from covering the event, unlike at some earlier rallies.

Al Doney, head of security for Crossgates Mall, did not return a call from The Enterprise this week.
"This is a big change," Stephen Downs told The Enterprise during Friday’s rally. "The whole atmosphere has changed."
He went on about the war, "People have caught on to Bush and aren’t afraid anymore. The troops will be coming home soon I think."
Downs also said, "I’m very humbled by my small role."

Downs, at the time of his arrest on March 3, 2003, was an attorney with the New York State’s Commission on Judicial Conduct. He has since retired from his state job.

Asked about his pending suit, Downs told The Enterprise that there had been difficulties deciding whether it belonged in state or federal court and it had been decided it was a state case.
"It impacts exactly what we’re doing here today — free speech in the mall," said Downs.

In the wake of Downs’s arrest, the New York Civil Liberties Union pledged its support for a bill to protect free speech in malls. An amendment to the state’s civil rights law, the bill would make malls into a public space. Currently defined as private property, shopping malls would be required to define themselves as places of public accommodation.
The NYCLU campaign included a billboard on Route 90 West featuring a photograph of a gagged person and the message, "Welcome to the mall. You have the right to remain silent." This is a reference to Miranda rights, which are read to a person under arrest.

New York assemblymen John McEneny and Steven Englebright sponsored the bill. Dawn Dugan in McEneny’s office told The Enterprise this week that the bill died in committee in 2003 and was re-introduced in 2004; it has no companion bill in the State Senate, she said.

Melanie Trimble, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told The Enterprise this week, "It’s just languishing. It gets re-introduced every year."

She referred The Enterprise to Christian Smith-Socaris who said of the bill, "It hasn’t moved...We had a lot of hope at the time that the story would put momentum behind the legislation.
"It’s really difficult to get legislation passed that affirms First Amendment rights. If there’s an uproar, a window of opportunity opens up, but then it closes again."

Mark Mishler, a lawyer working pro bono for the NYCLU on Downs’s case, told The Enterprise Wednesday that the suit is pending in New York State Supreme Court.
"Our position is both the mall, through its security personnel, and the town of Guilderland, through its police department, violated Mr. Downs’s rights in that he was arrested for wearing a peace T-shirt," said Mishler.

Crossgates Mall, however, has said that Downs and his son, Roger, put their shirts on and then argued with and bothered customers who did not agree with the messages.

Downs and his son told The Enterprise at the time of the arrest that the only contact they had with customers was when they were approached by shoppers who agreed with their messages of peace, complimented them, and asked where they could purchase similar shirts.
"We haven’t seen any documentation of disruptive conduct," said Mishler on Wednesday. "And, even if there was a complaint, it would not have justified being told he had to remove the T-shirt, leave the mall, or be arrested.
"He was given three options," said Mishler. "We believe his rights were violated."
If the lawsuit is successful, on the "immediate level," Mishler said, "Mr. Downs’s rights will have been vindicated."
And, Mishler went on, "Potentially, it could have quite a profound impact on how malls operate in New York State...Individuals would be assured they could exercise their constitutional rights."

"Diligent work"

Downs said on Friday that a lot of people at Crossgates had been supportive of the peace walkers’ messages.
"My mother talked to security [officers] about it," he said. Asked if she had raised her son to be an activist," Eleanor Downs smiled and told The Enterprise, "No, he got me into this. This is my first protest."
Dwyer said, since participating in the Crossgates demonstration in December of 2002, she has been in protests where she has been arrested, but at the first Crossgates peace walk, she said, "I wasn’t ready then. I was new to this."
Gene Kotrba, a friend of Dwyer and an activist from Ohio, said, "It needs to be strategically planned."

The plan for last Friday, they said, before heading over to Crossgates, was to walk through the mall wearing messages of peace.
Both Dwyer and Kotrba wore black T-shirts with messages written in white. Kotrba’s said "Peace" in large capital letters. Dwyer’s had a picture of a dove carrying an olive branch and said, "Proud Supporter of Veterans for Peace."
Then, Dwyer said, the walkers will converge at the food court at 6:15 p.m. "We’ll sing, ‘All we are saying is give peace a chance," said Dwyer, noting the 25th anniversary this month of John Lennon’s death.
"Our diligent work is paying off," said Dwyer. "The government is being exposed for the liars and snoops they are...People have felt unpatriotic and afraid to speak out with a war on. That’s changing."
After the peace walkers sang John Lennon’s song on Friday evening, they moved on to another sixties standby, derived from an African-American spiritual: "Gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside...Ain’t gonna study war no more."
They clapped in rhythm to the music as they sang some new words: "Gonna wear any shirt I want, down by the Crossgates Mall...Ain’t gonna study war no more."
Beyond the shirts, the outfits of some of the protesters were colorful. One man wore a top hat, festooned with bows, that said, "Imagine Peace."
Patricia Beetle of Castleton, wore a bright red elf-like hat and a hand-lettered shirt, with a rainbow on top, that said in many colors, "Peace on Earth — Yes!"

A Quaker who attends the Albany Friends meeting, Beetle has been a peace activist for decades. She participated in a seven-year-long vigil in front of the state capitol against the Vietnam War, she said, and she currently stands in front of the capitol every Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m., protesting the war in Iraq.
Noting a shift in public opinion over the current war, Beetle said, "The woman who hands out the flyers on Wednesdays says people are friendlier now than they were in the early days."