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TechnoratiSt. Paul GOP Convention Protest Dispute Returning To Court
Round 2 of the legal fight over protests outside this year's Republican National Convention is under way.
The Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War is taking its dispute with the city over a march on the Xcel Energy Center back to federal court, reviving a case originally filed when the group was frustrated with the city's sluggish response to its permit request.
This time, the organization wants a judge to force the city to change the time, location and duration of a route for an estimated 50,000 protesters expected to voice their disapproval of the war in Iraq. The coalition is accusing the city of rolling out the red carpet for the convention while ignoring the free-speech rights of citizens.
"This really is a question of whether the political discussion in this country is owned by the politicians or if the people are allowed to participate," said Bruce Nestor, a lawyer for the group.
Tom Walsh, a spokesman for the St. Paul Police Department, which handles protest permits, said the route granted by police for the Sept. 1 march - which takes protesters within dozens of feet of the Xcel Energy Center - is fair.
"Look at the access they're being given. The city still has to continue to function. This is unprecedented in terms of the access that they're being given to the venue," Walsh said.
The group originally sought a route from the state Capitol to the Xcel via John Ireland and Kellogg boulevards. Two days before a scheduled federal court hearing over the lack of a permit, police granted an alternative permit through downtown St. Paul along Cedar and West Seventh streets.
But the protesters objected to the route's start time, saying it was too early - noon - and that the march would not last long enough for protesters to adequately voice their anti-war message to conventioneers. They also prefer the original route because it is wider and more visible.
The group and its lawyers, who include private attorneys and local chapters of the National Lawyer's Guild and American Civil Liberties Union, also hired a consultant who estimates the route could handle only 28,000 marchers.
The consultant, James Benshoof of the engineering firm Wenck Associates, also concluded that for the march to keep moving, protesters would only be allowed to remain in a triangular free-speech area across from Xcel for 6 1/2 minutes. He also said a narrow intersection at Cedar and West Seventh streets would inhibit the flow of pedestrians.
A less-detailed Pioneer Press analysis concluded that 40,000 could fit along the route.
Walsh disputed the findings, saying the city comfortably accommodated nearly 40,000 for a speech by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama last week and nearly 300,000 for Grand Old Day on June 1.
He also pointed out that Benshoof is a hired consultant.
"He was selected for a reason," Walsh said.
Under federal law, the city is allowed to restrict the route as long as those restrictions are content-neutral (which the protesters dispute) and narrowly tailored (another dispute) and provide an adequate alternative.
Meredith Aby, a spokeswoman for the coalition, also said the route's restrictions, along with a requirement that marchers turn around at the Xcel and retrace their steps, raises questions about whether the march could be executed in an orderly fashion. She said that means police and other security officers may have to engage in crowd control.
"They shouldn't want that any more than we do," Aby said.
The convention leading to the expected anointment of John McCain as the GOP presidential nominee will be held Sept. 1-4.
© 2008 Pioneer Press
15 Comments so far
Show AllI am old enough to remember the "March on Selma, Alabama" and the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. The sad truth is that violent suppression of free speech and the right to petition have a long and enduring history in our country. Suppression was not invented by the Bush administration (Mayor Daley of Chicago after all was a Democrat), they have just pushed it to new heights.
There is a reason Kellog, Brown, and Root (A subsidiary of Halliburton) was given the contract to build "Detention Centers" throughout the United States in January of 2006.
Protests are now defined as (Domestic Terrorism).....There is no Right to Free Speech
Yesterday, the "Liberal Supreme Court" still upheld Guantanamo Prisoner Rights for a hearing in a civilian court. There is not one "Liberal" or "Progressive" on that court. Yet, Five Justices still understand the "Rule of Law"...Too bad they can not apply it to the Citizens of the United States and "Defend and Protect The Constitution of the United States from attacks from those in charge of the government of the United States."
Until the People of the United States are willing to deal with the alleged demolition of World Trade Center #7 with explosives and the alleged inside job which puts in question the "Official Version" of the attacks of 9/11, nothing in this country will change and what freedoms you think you have will all disappear.
The concept of "free speech zones" boggles the mind. We used to have one free speech zone in this country - it was bounded by the Canadian and Mexican borders, and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
GERALD1948: Yup, that's the complete satiric article that caught my eye too. And it just keeps on getting worse every day. Read, for example, NSPD 59 (HSPD 24) entitled Biometrics for Identification and Screening to Enhance National Security:
The contextual data that accompanies biometric data includes information on date and place of birth, citizenship, current address and address history, current employment and employment history, current phone numbers and phone number history, use of government services and tax filings. Other contextual data may include bank account and credit card histories, plus criminal database records on a local, state and federal level. The database also could include legal judgments or other public records documenting involvement in legal disputes, child custody records and marriage or divorce records.
WAKE UP AMERICA, indeed.
Why march on the RNC? Everything is the Democrat's fault. Everything. We should be waving flags of gratitude at the RNC-Go Commom Dereams! (Anti-Democrats that you are!)
There is no Kucinich, Obama, Wellstone or Walters-they are Republicans! Or Ralph, tired old Ralph-go vote kiddies-vote your 'consciensce' (against the dem's, cool!)
ARVY http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20066.htm
WAKE UP AMERICA.
FUCK THE PERMIT
Lets get it [right] money is speech So those inside get the majority of the speech because they have the most money. God , I hate that single ruling by the supreme court!
"Meredith Aby, a spokeswoman for the coalition, also said the route's restrictions, along with a requirement that marchers turn around at the Xcel and retrace their steps .."
40-50,000 people "turn around and retrace their steps" ???
THAT IS INSANE !!!
Could we PLEASE put an end to all the silly nonsense about 'freedom and democracy'. The United States of America is a CAPITALIST country and it's capitalism that has made it great! Democracy and elections and all that other ridiculous, whining, cry-baby, liberal nonsense about the rights of non-corporate persons are not capitalist concepts.
The U.S. makes a show of campaigns, elections, the voting process and the political theater of peaceful transfer of power from one politician to another, but who still believes in this fantasy? And who, other than the truly stupid or delusional, needs to? U.S. society tends to continue doing things out of a sense of tradition, but this entire voting process is anti-capitalist and just hinders progress. Come on. Really. It doesn't matter which candidate anyone votes for, just as long as they vote. How quaint. It's a nice feel-good kind of thing, but it's not necessary anymore. The joke's worn off and the time and money would be better spent on something more productive.
The business of America is business and if you don't like that you can, as they say, love it or leave it. Wealth and accumulation of property, for the few with connections to succeed in reaching out and grabbing the brass ring, was and remains America's manifest destiny. America fought as a nation united under the banner of noble capitalist purposes and defeated fascism and communism. The noble fight continues today against those socialists whi would restrict corporate profits in the interest of things like universal healthcare, rights for workers or the un-capitalistic notions of some vague sense of fairness or skewed concept of ethics. There are no ethics in capitalism.
This is a distinct improvement - the protesters will at least be in the same time-zone as who they are protesting.
Try protesting Bush. You won't get within visual/auditory range without being arrested. Kind of reminds me of Mel Brooks "History of the World, Part I" - It's good to be the King!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE- Everyone who can possibly demonstrate in St. Paul in Sept.,please do so. This should be an historic demonstration at this pivotal moment in history.
"She said that means police and other security officers may have to engage in crowd control."
Ah, an ulterior motive. Give the police a chance
to try out all those new tasers the City of St. Paul
got (with a grant from homeland security?)
American's freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution have now become "illusions" promoted by the MSM as the pundits toe the corporate/administration lines and exercise their "freedom of speech" by lying to the American public. TPTB give Emmys to pigs like Bill O'Reilly, while the truth seekers like Palast and RFK Jr. are forced in to the background. Go out in the street and speak your mind. See how far you get. Sure hope you have a good lawyer.
Isn't it interesting the here in the "democracy" of the United States we have more restrictions on Free Speech than in some "communist" countries ie. China.
Obviously we aren't as "FREE" as our government officials claim.
First we have to get a "permit" to have free speech then they limit where we can have that free speech.
NICE FREEDOM we have here!