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Hearing out veterans in Nassau County

Bob Keeler | bob.keeler@newsday.com

November 12, 2008

Among the many messes that confronted Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi when he took office in 2002, there was the county's approach to serving veterans.

Then, clients' records were in shoe boxes, and the office manual was 11 years out of date. Now, the operation is computerized and efficient. Two counselors work full time in the social services building, making sure vets get helped. And the county agency serving them has seen to it that they get all the benefits they deserve.

Still, at a protest outside Nassau County District Court in Hempstead on Monday - the day before Veterans Day - one of the signs bore the familiar yellow ribbon saying "Support Our Troops," plus this wry caveat: "Offer Not Good in Nassau County." Ouch.

That's not the kind of image Suozzi would like for Nassau, after all the work his administration has done to help vets. But the sign had nothing to do with services. It was about the arrest of 15 demonstrators - vets and others - on Hempstead Turnpike, outside the Oct. 15 presidential debate at Hofstra. In the fray with mounted Nassau police officers, a vet named Nick Morgan suffered injuries to his face and eye.

At this week's demonstration, before the 15 were arraigned and pleaded not guilty to disorderly conduct, another sign read: "Taliban and Al-Qaeda Couldn't Do What the Nassau County Police Did to Nick Morgan." Double ouch.

Among those protesting at the courthouse on Monday was Elaine Brower, a member of Military Families Speak Out. Her son James, a New York City police officer, is serving his third tour in Iraq. "I was there when Nick got trampled," she said, holding a huge photo of Morgan's injuries, taken after the incident. "You can see the hoof print on his face."

Morgan can't remember anything about the rendezvous with a horse that rendered him unconscious, but recalls clearly what brought him to Hofstra.

"I wasn't protesting anything," said Morgan, 24, who served with the 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq for a year, ending in February 2005. What he and other vets wanted was simply to get answers from the two candidates. They wanted to ask John McCain why he had such a poor voting record on vets' issues, and to find out what Barack Obama's attitude might be toward soldiers "who refused to fight in this illegal war," Morgan said.

One of those soldiers is also one of the defendants, Matthis Chiroux. He joined the Army in 2002, to get some money for college and to learn discipline. In 2007, after extensive overseas service, including Afghanistan, he left with an honorable discharge and entered the Individual Ready Reserve.

That status used to mean that you were done with military service. But not in this war, which is sending people back for multiple tours and reaching out to those who have already been discharged.

Earlier this year, while Chiroux was attending Brooklyn College, the Army notified him that they want him back, to go to Iraq. He refused.

As he awaited prosecution for that refusal, Chiroux joined those who wanted answers from the candidates - but they couldn't get assurances in advance that the questions would be asked. A few, including Chiroux, planned civil disobedience, but not Morgan. At the time of his injury, other witnesses say, he was on the sidewalk, which was where mounted police were trying to move others, to get them out of the street.

Since the invasion of Iraq, the meaning of "Support Our Troops" has been debated by supporters and critics of the war. But it should at least mean: Don't step on their faces when they are trying to exercise free speech.

"It doesn't matter how many times they step on us," Chiroux said. "We have a right to be heard."

Whatever the disposition of the disorderly conduct charges, Morgan plans to sue Nassau. It will take time for that suit to explore issues such as the proper use of horses in crowd control. As they should, police are examining tapes of the event and evaluating their procedures. Even if they find they did nothing wrong, they should at least reach out to Iraq Veterans Against the War and express regret that a vet got hurt.