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Police Revoke RNC Permit For Welfare Rights Group
An organization representing people on public assistance said Tuesday that the St. Paul police have revoked the group's permit to gather at a plaza near the Xcel Energy Center on the first day of the Republican National Convention.
Police spokesman Tom Walsh confirmed that police revoked the permit of the Welfare Rights Committee to assemble at Hamm Plaza at St. Peter and W. 6th Streets in downtown St. Paul.
Deb Konechne, a member of the committee, said the group applied for a permit in March and received it in June, but got a letter Friday revoking it.
She said the group reserved the plaza as a gathering place for low-income families with small children and people "with mobility issues."
She said her group had planned to gather on the plaza, then join a poor people's contingent in the war protest.
Walsh said that Hamm Plaza is too small for the number of people who might want to gather there and that the permit was granted before police knew about other activities taking place around Xcel.
He said it was also not known when the permit was granted that President Bush would be speaking at Xcel the night of Sept. 1.
Brad Meyer, a St. Paul parks spokesman, said police notified parks officials that it was revoking the permit for security reasons.
He said the city was offering the protest group alternate locations of Mears Park, Ecolab Plaza and John Ireland Triangle Park.
Konechne said her group might sue the city over it.
Staff researcher Roberta Hovde contributed to this article.
© 2008 Star Tribune
14 Comments so far
Show AllOK you liberal wingnuts, it is simple, pay attention…
Reason number one:"Walsh said that Hamm Plaza is too small for the number of people who might want to gather there"
You see, it works like this:
If you are a small group, you can protest in front of the cameras, so that the "news" people can belittle your numbers. If you are a large group, you can protest out of range of the cameras, so that the "news" people can ignore you.
Oops wait, er did I say it was a space issue, it is , er, security, yeah that's what it is.
Reason two: "He said it was also not known when the permit was granted that President Bush would be speaking at Xcel the night of Sept. 1."
Forget what I said before. You see, it works like this:
Regardless of the size of group, If you are not handpicked by the government to act as a cheering backdrop, you must protest out of range of the cameras.
I told you it was simple.
Licence...??? Licence...??? We don't need no stinkin' licence...
We wouldn't want Bush to have to see poor people. He might know that there are people out there that he was supposed to help.
Been there, done that, democracy in Tiananmen square. Yeah, sure.
who are these rabble rousers? Poor republicans? are they trying to ruin the image of the party. And protest the war? Not a real party, not a war, not in 'merica....and how if you are really poor can you get there? St. Paul nor 'merica has any really poor people asides the fact if you aren't inside you're out, you no account rabble why don't you try Denver they've got cages for your kind...
PS be careful crossing the bridge
Don't flinch. Hold the line.
When you need to get a license and police 'approval' to exercise 'free' speech.. you have a serious problem.
"They hate us for our freedoms (tm)." - George W. Bush.
Things . To . Come
"NEW ORLEANS - A judge threw out murder and attempted murder charges Wednesday against seven New Orleans police officers accused of gunning down two men on a bridge in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."
...give us your tired, your hungry, your yearning to be safe and we'll shoot them down...
Poor people are so unsightly, if they exist at all.
George is not Siddartha Gautama. It's not going to shock him to see poor, sick, old people with no place to turn except crime.
I think the fact that George couldn't care less might be picked up on by some people who are not Republicans is a chance the RNC would rather not take.
Let's not let the world see our dead soldiers, our poor, our sick, our starving. If nobody sees them who's to say they even exist?
In the eighties the USSR would put people in jail for exposing such realities in the Evil Empire, and Ronald Reagan used to talk about what a disgrace it was.
"Who fights dragons too long becomes one"---Nietzsche
AND YOU PAY FOR IT...YOU PAY THE SALLERIES OF THESE SWINE...EVERY ONE OF EM....YOU ARE GETTING WHAT YOU PAY FOR!
"THE PEOPLE GET THE KIND OF GOVERNMENT THEY DESERVE.."--ADLAI S.
Screw licenses, screw the cameras, screw the Republicans! The Poor People's Contingent WILL march right in front of the Xcel Energy Center whether they like it or not. My only question is what is the City of Saint Paul planning on doing with those nasty homeless people that live at the shelter that is literally across the street from the XEC? Something tells me the new fancy looking parking garage that is being built close by might not be just for parking cars.
All I can say is: BRING IT ON! The fascists have no idea how pissed the progressive folks of Saint Paul are. They picked the wrong city! The protests are gonna be huge, and fun! And as if that was not enough, there is a ton of amazing live music that will be happening all over the Twin Cities for that whole week!
Only once have I heard anything from the poor, thanks to corporate media and neo-cons who prefer to leave the mercy for the indigent to fate or whatever. We could really use a huge protest from the poor who have been forgotten since Reagan times. Keep up fighting for your right to gather peacefully and speak your mind.
I wouldn't be suprised if the cages in Denver are used for the Democrats themselves!!! Easy way to get rid of Kucinich and like minded Democrats.