City Will Hold GOP Protesters To Single-File Route
Demonstrators who want to march on this year’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul will have to get in line - literally.
The city police department offered a sketch Wednesday of how it anticipates handling the tens of thousands of people expected to protest the event, which will be Sept. 1-4 at the Xcel Energy Center. Marchers will be restricted to one route, with masses of protesters generally confined to a set area.
“There will be a distance,” Assistant Police Chief Matt Bostrom said. “You won’t be able to be right up on (the Xcel Center), standing there, interacting with people as they go in the front doors. But you will be close enough that people, if they were at those doors, can hear you.”
Neither the route nor the location of the stationary area has been set, Bostrom said. The city is studying four possible march routes for the convention’s first day and expects to choose one by May 31.
While demonstrations throughout the city would be subject to normal permit requirements, those in immediate proximity to the Xcel Center would be confined to the protest area.
Known as “free speech zones,” those areas have become the norm at national nominating conventions. But they remain controversial. During the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, protesters were kept behind high fences, prompting comparisons to Guantanamo Bay.
However, courts have upheld them. Judges have ruled the government can make reasonable restrictions on the
time, place and manner of such demonstrations - just not the content. They also have ruled those restrictions must be narrowly tailored to accommodate the free speech rights of protesters.
Teresa Nelson, legal counsel for the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said waiting until May 31 - three months before the convention opens - to finalize a plan for demonstrators is “cutting it close” for any potential court challenges.
“The frustrating thing is not having that information yet, not knowing what the plan is going to be,” Nelson said.
Bostrom said he sees no need for the kind of fences used in Boston. He also said not to expect police officers in riot gear lining the streets.
“Just because this is an international event, we’re not making the assumption that we’re going to deploy as if we’re going to have to fight with people,” he said. St. Paul, he added, has handled large events before.
The 2004 Republican National Convention in New York drew larger crowds than Boston - hundreds of thousands of people - mainly to protest the war in Iraq, which will pass its five-year anniversary in March. Citing St. Paul’s smaller size, local officials don’t expect that many people.
But out-of-town anti-war groups are planning to descend on the city. One of those is Code Pink, an activist group that wants to end the war and also will demonstrate at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Founder Medea Benjamin called convention free-speech zones ridiculous.
“As far as we’re concerned, the U.S. is a free-speech zone,” said Benjamin, reached by phone while demonstrating outside a Marine Corps recruiting station in Berkeley, Calif.
Local groups also are preparing for the convention, including the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War. The group has held demonstrations outside City Hall and complained city officials are dragging their feet in granting protest permits.
Monday is the first day the group can receive a marching permit. The National Lawyers Guild’s Bruce Nestor, one of the lawyers representing the group, said his client is eager to know what will be allowed.
“The issues are the time of the day and the route. I can’t say anyone’s happy, but no one’s filed a lawsuit yet,” Nestor said.
© 2008 The Pioneer Press
Man, this is going to get really ugly. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Do NOT be afraid…that is what the repugs want..is for you to stay home and not protest. I think the entire anti-war and peace movements should show up in such a massive scale that the police has no options but to let us take the streets. We need to send a message that the last 8 years should not re-occur…in so doing we are also sending a message to the Dems that they have to change course.
Change does not come form politicians but by the fire we hold to their feet. The time is now people. May is a great time to visit St. Pauls. Let’s do it!
I have family in St. Paul…..maybe its time for a trip north…..
Right on Demerara! I’m only afraid in the giddy kind of way!
I have a futon for anyone who is coming from out of town. I personally know of at least twenty people coming all the way from the West Coast to protest, and there are at least ten different groups right here in the Twin Cities who are planning large scale protests. Keeping everybody only on certain streets is very unlikely. The only thing that genuinely frightens me a little is that I don’t see how this will remain non-violent. What we need is a Ghandi-like protest. The kind of thing that just shuts down ALL the streets and causes police to just sit there are watch. That would be so powerful. However, I don’t see that being planned.
What about the City Council? They control the police and the terms of the permits, and they are subject to local pressure.
This year, it’s highly unlikely that the Repubs will be winning much of anything, so the Democratic Convention is the more important pressure point; but establishing free speech principles is always worthwhile.
Just ignoring the permit and fighting the police is always an option. Gets you lots of coverage.
Compare the reactionary plans here, in a supposed great democracy, where protestors cannot be seen or heard, with the U.S. claims about the supposed dictatorship in Venezuela where demonstrators are allowed in the streets. Which is an actual democracy and which a dictatorship? I think you know the answer.
this brings to mind unions which allow the ruling class to make laws governing their operations. and union members who claim they can’t strike because it’s against the law. a once proud nation…
I’m glad you are not all as scared as I am.
I appreciate your work, determination and willingness to demonstrate in an effort to protect our rights.
However, after my last protest and arrest at the beginning of this on-going war of aggression I nearly died of carbon monoxide poisoning while in detention in a police van.
Haven’t recovered yet from the stress and suffer PTSD.
You won’t be able to count on me for anything but moral support. I think you are right.
I think our government officials are wrong, bought off by big money and are heading us toward a dictatorship. Unless “WE THE PEOPLE” stand up against them the US as a democracy is doomed.
Sorry, ever so sorry, I can’t join you.
The fact that Americans can be restricted to “protest zones” tells me that we have already lost our democracy. What our government is allowing is “controlled assembly” not “free assembly”. We are all screwed.
2-3 blocks away allows someone “at the doors” to
hear you? Over the traffic noise in downtown St.
Paul? Give me a break. Absolutely no reason at
least being allowed across the street shuoldn’t
be possible. Just gotta watch out for those new
tasers.
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Problem with “Amendment 1″? Congress is not doing
this, it is local governments, police, politicians
albeit supported by national politicos.
“free speech zone” means rest of the country does not have any freedom of speech.
Welcome to the land of the free (really?) and home of the brave (really?).
The Xcel Energy Center front doors are on Kellogg Blvd., near 7th Street. The nearest “free speech zone” is the red dot on the map — more than three city blocks away.
peoplefirst writes, “Problem with ‘Amendment 1′? Congress is not doing this, it is local governments, police, politicians
albeit supported by national politicos.” True, but this does not in fact create a “problem with Amendment 1.” It is well settled jurisprudence that the terms of the First (among others) Amendment apply fully to state and local government.
First Amendment - then what is our problem? The
fact they are not actually passing laws (locally),
just taking actions that infringe on our “supposed”
rights? Why does this have to be fought over and
over again? I’m just so TICKED!!! We as a country
have so many other important things to do rather
han fight over basic rights. Of course that could
be said about so many things this treasonous
administration has done.
Maybe we need another amendment saying anyone who
violates/infringes on our rights is sentenced to
prison for a guaranteed minimum of 20 years with
no chance of parole or pardon. GRRR
Wear American Flag lapel pins. You’ll be fine.
The last time I heard the term “single file” was in grade school when the education dictators controlled the unruly mob of overly rambunctious, free spirited, children.
So all you troublemakers shut up and get in line, or you’ll get detention!
I fear for the lives and safety of the protesters. Tasers will be in full force along with batons and spray.
“The only thing that genuinely frightens me a little is that I don’t see how this will remain non-violent.”
The protests will remain _exactly_ as nonviolent as the police will be. Let me remind people that in Chicago in ‘68, it was the police that rioted against the protestors, who then did what they could to defend themselves. Same in Philadelphia in 2000.
“What we need is a Ghandi-like protest. The kind of thing that just shuts down ALL the streets and causes police to just sit there are watch.”
No, dear leobixby; in the face of any nonviolent action big enough to “shut down all (even a few) streets” the police most assuredly will not “just sit there and watch.” Been, there, done that. Has everyone already completely forgetten Seattle - and that was before the Great Excuse of September 2001.
Curious, who among the various commenters above, have actually been to a mass protest?
The ‘Free Speech Zone’ is supposed to be from San Diego, CA to Big Twenty, ME; Port Angeles, WA to Key West, FL in a place called America. St. Paul police are about to issue Tasers to all 370 officers on the force. Welcome to democracy in the USA. The shining city on the hill…
Oops…
There are probably enough old-time left wingers in the Twin Cities that would be willing to show up in wheel chairs to protest. (I’m quite sure my 92 year old mother would, for example.)
Let the police try to contend with a militant gray panther protest.
For those who do not know St Paul let me help with a few points. Firstly, it is known for being a Democratic party city. Secondly, there are some long forgotten facts of the American Communist Party having roots here. Next, if you come and have no place to stay there is an inactive tunnel where many homeless people sleep. It is located in the top part of the “J” in “John Ireland”. Also within walking distance further south past Harriet Island on Wabasha are the caves. Again many homeless sleep there often. One can see the Green steps on the bluff from the downtown side of the river, near the steps are many of the caves. These caves are deep and for about 3/4 mile along the bluff. Do not attempt to swim in the river, please.
BillB,
Surely, I hope a network people with places to stay are being put together so people don’t have to sleep in damp abandoned tunnels or caves with the homeless (the homeless people aren’t the probelm, it is the absence of sanitary facilities and feces and pee everywhere). Not all of us are are up to living like Peter Maurin…
Sorry mate but there are some who will come who will have no place to stay. It is merely a sugguestion, I cannot take anymore than I have promised. I know there are many looking so tell all where to sign up for what you hope to happen.
greatbear215 Said on February 29th, 2008 9:22 am: “I fear for the lives and safety of the protesters. Tasers will be in full force along with batons and spray.”
We have to be brave in the face of fascism. Yes, some people will be arrested, some will be peppered/tased/bashed… but we can’t let the fear prevent us from demanding to be heard. That is WHY they use brutal tactics… to deter others from protesting out of fear of arrest or injury.
USAn asked: “Curious, who among the various commenters above, have actually been to a mass protest?”
I have… APEC in Vancouver… got some peppers in me eyes.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0011768
As a registered Democrat, I’m allowed to speak in this forum, right??? With all the talk of rights, when does the talk of responsibility begin? Am I immediately going to be labeled “facist” if I bring in the concept of honor, duty, and loyalty to ones’ country? Never has there been the right to yell “FIRE” in a crowded theater, so why do we boggle at the concept of responsible protests being non-disrupting to anothers’ business? Surely with the concept of respecting diversity so strong in the USA today we will respect the rights of those Repugs to have their assembly be peaceful?? Also, am I missing something? When/where have there been non-violent, responsible protests suppressed in the last 20 years in any big city?? Please be specific, with verifiable sources. I really do want to know the REAL truth, not the “1984″ truth…..