KALAMAZOO, MI

-- Gordon Holdridge

says he was shocked when a police SWAT team showed up as he and a friend staged a protest in front of the U.S. Federal Building in downtown Kalamazoo.

Police were called to the scene along Kalamazoo Avenue June 13 by a federal security guard who noticed that Holdridge's bike, parked near the two protesters, had a homemade sticker that read "This bike is a pipe bomb."

Holdridge said the sticker is a reference to

and that he forgot the sticker was even on the bike. But he didn't tell police that.

"I didn't enlighten them. I was naive," said Holdridge, whose protest was part of the

movement. A 53-year-old Kalamazoo resident, Holdridge is unemployed and on disability.

Instead, Holdridge told the officers that the sign was "was just a joke" and that he prefers comedy to make a point. He also said that pipe bombs "can be purchased at Wal-Mart for $99.99."

Officers were not amused.

Holdridge was arrested on a charge of making a false bomb threat, a felony, and he spent the next 24 hours in the Kalamazoo County Jail.

The Kalamazoo County Prosecutor's Office reduced the charge to disturbing the peace, a misdemeanor.

However, Holdridge's attorney, John Targowski of Kalamazoo, said officials weren't aware until a meeting Wednesday with an assistant prosecutor that the sticker was referring to a punk band. When Targowski told the assistant prosecutor that the sticker actually was the name of a band -- and called up the band's website on his smart phone to prove his point -- the assistant prosecutor offered a plea bargain that included dropping the charge in exchange for 40 hours of community service and psychological counseling.

Holdridge refused, and wants a jury trial to prove his innocence. That trial is set for 8 a.m. Aug. 28 in Kalamazoo County District Court.

"I don't want to do this," Holdridge said. "I feel responsible to the (Occupy Kalamazoo) movement to shine a light on this. ... It's costing me hundreds of dollars and the city thousands of dollars, but I need to prove a point."

And that point is?

"The point is, we live in a police state," Holdridge said. "I didn't do anything wrong. I was well within my rights to sit on the sidewalk in front of the Federal Building. ... (They) way, way overreacted."

While perhaps Holdridge should have mentioned to the officers that the sticker was referring to a punk band, Targowski said, "he was swarmed by all these SWAT-type, ninja guys and he got intimidated. ... At that point, I think he figured he couldn't talk his way out of it.

"It was all a big misunderstanding," Targowski said.

Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Fink said he's limited in what he can say about a pending case. But, he said, "these are always difficult cases" when someone might appear to be making bomb threat.

"We have to take every threat seriously and it does involve police time and it does disturb a lot of people," Fink said. "We have to balance the impact on security concerns versus the actual actions of the person."

The

lists four incidents between 2001 and 2011 when police where called because of a bike with a sticker promoting the band, including a 2009 evacuation of a terminal at Memphis International Airport.

The Pensacola, Fla., band was formed in 1997 and broke up in 2011. They started out playing new wave music, the switched to country, but they are most associated with performing punk-folk music.

Julie Mack is a reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette. Contact her at jmack1@mlive.com or 269-350-0277, or follow her on Twitter at Twitter.com/kzjuliemack For all posts by Julie Mack, click her