John Kerry forcibly took over a Pennsylvania neighborhood for a campaign appearance-Fiction!

John Kerry "Took Over" a Neighborhood in Pennsylvania for a Campaign Appearance-Fiction!

Summary of the eRumor
The eRumor says that John Kerry came to Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, on Labor Day, 2004, and commandeered a neighborhood for a "front porch" meeting.
The writer claims that none of the residents of the neighborhood was allowed to attend, that the Kerry campaign brought 90 people from out of town, that Kerry claimed "imminent domain" to clear the street for a full block, and that residents were required to remove Bush-Cheney signs from their front yards.

The Truth
John Kerry did hold a "font porch meeting" in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, but we have not been able to find any evidence of anything more than typical crowd control by the police.
A reporter we spoke with and who was on the scene for the porch meeting says there were Bush supporters across the street, one of whom he quoted in his story about the Labor Day event, and that there was a Bush-Cheney sign in her front yard.
Also, a visiting candidate does not have power of eminent domain (the eRumor calls it "imminent domain").
That is the power of a government to force the sale of property for the public good and takes months or even years to accomplish.

Last updated 10/8/04

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

Hey everyone...... Received this from a very good friend in PA. she wants
everyone to know what she saw.

Good Tuesday morning! John Kerry brought his "front porch
meeting" to our Canonsburg, PA neighborhood on Labor Day morning.
Since you will never hear the truth from the TV or print media I
thought that you should know from someone who was `almost' there.

The residents who live on the street where the event took place
were not allowed to attend.

Kerry shipped in approximately 90 invitation only VIPs. In
addition, there was a hard luck case who was about to lose her job at
USAIR and another was an elderly woman who was having health care
problems. Neither one was from this neighborhood. The street was
closed to all traffic the night before and all residents on the street
were REQUIRED to remove their Bush/Cheney signs.

The sympathetic police officers on duty told us that! Kerry used
imminent domain to claim the street for his purposes. Residents who
have homes within the perimeter (approximately 1 full block) were kept
behind a line away from the partisan crowd. The rest of us were not
allowed within the 1 block cordon. A neighbor from across the street
came to the line where we were being kept and asked us to come onto
his property. The police told us that we could stand on this mans
FORMERLY private property! This was set up so that Kerry's views
could be heard - but not the neighbors. About 30 peoples (mostly
neighbors) shouts echoed down the street "Let the neighbors in."

We could barely hear Kerry speaking with his microphone because
press buses were used to block us off from view! This mornings
papers are reporting hecklers tried to interrupt Kerry as he spoke to
the neighborhood gathering, but he turned our chants to his favor by
calling us rude. Even though most of the media! was there to record
our stories of not being included in the neighborhood forum, not one
of them printed or aired the truth. This is what America will look
like if Kerry becomes president.

Get registered and get all of your friends registered to vote if
they have not already. Kerry thinks that he is better than the rest
of us and he has the media on his side to make him out to be what he
is not! Finally, last night as I drove down the street where the
rally was, I was shocked to see Bush/Cheney signs in almost every
yard on the street! Please send this e-mail on to as many people as
you can.

LET FREEDOM RING!