A lone Occupy Wall Street–affiliated protestor interrupted Congressman Bob Turner’s inauguration Sunday before being dragged by the collar out of the building.
Adam Weissman, an Astoria resident, began shouting at about 2 p.m. as the Republican congressman placed his hand on the Bible held by his wife, Peggy, and began to repeat the oath of office.
Weissman only squeezed out about 10 words before Kevin Hiltunen, a former NYPD officer and Marine, ripped a sign from his hands, slammed him into a pair of double doors and dragged him along the ground out of the building.
“All I was doing was trying not to have a distraction from something that everyone in this room worked very hard for,” Hiltunen, who supported Turner’s campaign, said. “There is a time and there is a place to exercise your First Amendment rights, and this wasn’t one of them.”
Outside of Queens Metropolitan High School in Forest Hills, police escorted Weissman off the property. He then stood on the corner for the rest of the ceremony, talking to media and handing out information.
“Bob Turner has only been in office for two months, but he’s already sold out Queens and Brooklyn voters by voting to send our jobs to sweatshops,” Weissman said he was trying to shout during the ceremony.
The coalition Weissman represented, Trade Justice New York Metro, opposes Turner’s support of South Korean, Panamanian and Columbian free trade agreements, which they say will cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs and open up a backdoor route for goods from sweatshops in China.
Weissman said he sustained some bruising and a twisted ankle from his removal.
“I think the level of violence there is really indicative of the fact that Bob Turner thinks he has something to hide, that he’s already gone to Washington to send his own voters up the river on behalf of the super rich,” Weissman said.
New York Supreme Court Justice John Ingram continued with the ceremony while Weissman was being tossed.
Afterward, Turner addressed the Occupy Wall Street movement. The crowd chuckled when he said he had wanted to give protestors a lesson on the free enterprise system.
“This system, which is now under attack in a few areas, works. It works very well, and it needs to be understood and protected — Wall Street protestors not withstanding,” he said. “They’re on the wrong track. Socialism has been tried and tried again. It doesn’t work.”
Turner said the Obama administration is also on the wrong track, arguing it did not respond strongly enough to the Iranian Green Movement and is not aggressive enough in fighting Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
A balanced budget amendment, however, he said, is the “single most important thing” he and his supporters can push for during his term because the current one has no chance of passing.
“Our job is not ideological purity, it’s getting the job done,” he said to a round of applause.
Campaign issues also resurfaced in his speech; he cited overregulation, health care and the Dodd-Frank Act as issues to be fixed.
Turner won office in September through a special election after Anthony Weiner resigned because of a scandal sparked by sexual pictures he posted on Twitter.
Former Mayor Ed Koch provided a boost to Turner’s campaign when he crossed party lines to back the Republican, citing his support of Israel.
Koch said he and Turner have become close friends in the short time they’ve known each other. “We don’t agree on a host of political issues, but that’s not terribly important,” he said. “What you want in a friend is someone who has integrity. It doesn’t make any difference whether you agree on every issue.”
Turner will be up for reelection in 2012.
“I’m going to be in the fight in ’12,” he said. “I think this election is probably the most important in my life and will determine the direction of this country for the next 10 or 20 years, culturally, economically and in terms of security as well.”
By Jeremiah Dobruck
