President Bush's "First Amendment zones" were not a new development for Knoxville. Police and Secret Service agents have been restricting protesters across the country to zones variously called "protest zones" or "free-speech zones" or, as in Knoxville, "First Amendment zones" for the president's appearances.

The fact that they're not new, however, doesn't make them any more palatable. In a country that reveres free speech as a basic tenet, it is an insult to limit that right to particular areas or zones. To paraphrase a comment made by a protester in Pennsylvania, we thought all of America was a First Amendment zone.

When Bush visited West View Elementary School on Mingle Avenue in Knoxville Jan. 8, the announcement was made that protesters would be kept at a state building parking lot at Middlebrook Pike and Mingle Avenue several blocks - or about one-third of a mile - from the school.

Bush also attended a fund-raising luncheon at the Knoxville Convention Center, and another zone for protesters was designated at the intersection of Henley Street and Cumberland Avenue, across the street from the center.

Darrell DeBusk, a spokesman for the Knoxville Police Department, said the zones were for the safety of the protesters. He said police were concerned they might be hit by passing cars.

Although the parking lot of the State Plaza Building at Middlebrook and Mingle originally had been designated as a First Amendment zone, about 30 minutes before Bush's motorcade arrived, police ordered the protesters to move some 150 feet west, out of sight of the motorcade.

Within minutes, however, state employees and Bush supporters lined the parking lot armed with signs, American flags and video cameras. Police didn't bother them.

This action begs the question of whether the First Amendment zones are for the safety of the president and the protesters or whether they are to protect Bush from the sight of people who don't agree with him.

There have always been restrictions on free speech - one can't shout "fire" in a crowded theater, and neither can one talk for an hour during a crowded agenda at a City Council meeting.

Although we value the security of the president, we believe the creation of First Amendment zones goes too far. There must be a better way to bridge the gap between the need for security and a First Amendment right. As one of our readers commented in a letter to the editor, this indeed is beginning to sound Orwellian.

Citizens have not allowed the creation of First Amendment zones to go unchallenged. In September, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Secret Service in a Philadelphia federal court requesting a nationwide injunction forbidding the designated areas. The lawsuit lists dozens of examples in 11 states where protesters were herded to designated areas.

The lawsuit alleges officials kept protesters further away from the president than those who supported him or kept all people expressing an opinion in protest zones, while those who merely observed were allowed closer.

"It's unconstitutional to protect the president from criticism," said Vic Walczak, a member of the ACLU legal team that filed the lawsuit. "How does it advance security to put people criticizing the president a mile away while allowing people with pro-Bush signs or no signs to be much closer?"

We think that's a good question, and we're pleased to see that Walczak and the ACLU are not the only ones asking it. We have heard from a number of our readers who have asked the same thing and have expressed outrage that free speech would be restricted to a designated zone.

Americans are on a first-name basis with free speech, and Knoxvillian Brent Ashe expressed that sentiment succinctly during Bush's visit, while he stood among the rows of protesters with dozens of anti-Bush signs across from the convention center.

Ashe was one of three Bush supporters, and he held up a tattered "Bush/Cheney" sign that had been in his yard during the 2000 election.

"We're all Americans out here, and we're all expressing our opinions," he said. "That's what America is all about."

What a shame those establishing the zones don't understand that.

Copyright 2004, Knoxville News-Sentinel

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