Broward County Park boots anti-war group

[mia]

By Kevin Smith
Staff Writer
Posted January 16 2005

A group promoting an anti-war rally was asked to leave a Broward County park Saturday morning after the park manager said political statements were prohibited on park property.

Members of the group, Democracy for America, said they were stunned by the news, and a review of the Broward County Code showed no ban on political discussion in parks....

Ron Silberberg, who coordinated vendors for the festival, said he refunded the group's money after being told of the law by the manager. He also noted both the ACLU and Green Party remained at the festival....

Officials at the park declined to comment Saturday, but Broward County Administrator Roger Desjarlais said he would try to learn more about the incident. "I'm not familiar with such an ordinance, though
that's not to say it isn't there," he said.

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Kevin Smith can be reached at [e-mail] or 954-572-2009.

Please call or email Kevin Smith and ask for a follow-up of this story. Our local DFAM group is the one promoting the anti-war rally on January 20th. Our members were booted from the event!

Is this legal?

http://grassrootsmiami.com/

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

1. I don't know the answer to your question, but I'll try to help keep this

kicked until someone who knows for sure gives an answer.

Thanks for posting this!

[mia]

2. Thank you, Tom

I hope someone can give us some answers.

[struggle4progress]

19. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the ...

... the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them." -- Frederick Douglass

[Lizzie Borden]

3. kick

:kick:

[madfloridian]

4. I don't know but will keep it kicked...what a power group that is.

I know some of those guys sort of, and they are very organized.
Webmaster did a good job.
http://grassrootsmiami.com/

[GetTheRightVote]

5. kicking it as well

:kick:

[goddess40]

6. the fascists are getting bolder

they see their 'fearless' leader lie to get what he wants and they follow suit. For fascists the ends always justify the means.

Just like the jerk city attorney here two weeks ago has some poor cop issue a ticket to a protester for obscene language for the word bushit - the ticket has been dropped and the ACLU is looking in to the bogus charge and harassment.

[mia]

8. Here's the offending flyer...

Thanks to all for keeping this kicked.

[madfloridian]

9. Nothing offensive about that flyer.

Unreal.

[Rose Siding]

18. Do they have any permits they may need for that rally?

Looks like they are an open target now. I'm glad they got local coverage for this.

[mia]

21. Yes, the permits are ready to go.

and the police will be there too.

[ixion]

7. so, you wanna bet that if it had been a pro-war rally

(that is, a barbarian orgy) that this park person wouldn't have had a problem with that particular political statement?

Any takers?

Yeah, I know, the odds suck, because we all know that creep is just one of a million emboldened fascists that just can't wait to give it to us anti-war folk. :grr:

[Politiclo8]

10. Isn't it interesting that................

..........now that all of the torn bodies and caskets are coming back from Iraq that you don't see any of those happy pro war gatherings as we did before the war. Where oh where is Clear Channel when the troops really need them??????????
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMm

[soup]

11. Apparently, not all Broward County parks

'prohibit political statements'.


Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., waves to the crowd as he arrives at a rally Sunday, Oct. 17, 2004, at C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines, Fla. (Photo: AP)

---

and yet the Green Party was allowed to stay? There's something really, really screwy there.

[madfloridian]

12. Here is a link to the Parks and Recreation website.

http://www.broward.org/parks/welcome.htm

Just for interest.

Here is the County website:
http://www.broward.org/welcome.htm

[mia]

13. Thanks for the links.

[mia]

14. Daily Kos: Anti-War Protest Promoters Kicked Out Of Folk Festival

by iamatlas
Sat Jan 15th, 2005 at 17:46:05 PST

The headline sounds bizarre but that is exactly what happened today to Democracy For America Miami-Dade's (DFAM) President Charles and me, the DFAM Media Director, at the Ft. Lauderdale Folk Festival.
We paid to be vendors at the event, set up our unassuming table where we had our postcards and flyers for an anti-war protest we are sponsoring at Bayfront Park on January 20th in Miami. (www.grassrootsmiami.com)

It was raining and I decided to put some cards back in the car. As I walked back, I passed a gentleman and causally handed him a card.

He yelled out to me, "You cant pass this out here."

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[DoYouEverWonder]

26. They got the name of the festival wrong

It is called the 'South Florida Folk & Acoustic Music Festival' which is run by the Broward Folk Club.

Makes googling them a lot easier to have the correct names.

http://www.southfloridafolkfest.com/

[Erika]

15. I've sent an email n/t

[mia]

16. Your email will help to keep this story alive

and also promote the cause of protesting this unjust war. Our fallen soldiers deserve so much.

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. Oh my, I just came back from attending this festival

and lo and behold here they are making national news. Too funny.

I got there fairly early Saturday. I did see the Greens and the ACLU but had no idea about this little brouhaha with the anti-war folks.

Whatever happened none of us attending the festival even knew there had been a problem.

I do know some of the people who run this festival and a few of them are major jerks and a couple of them are very pro Bush so not all of the people involved with this event are necessarily pro free speech. I'll have to check into my sources for local gossip and see if I can find out more about this tomorrow.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

20. Is this a public park? Did you pay for a booth?

If yes to both, this is blatently illegal.

[DoYouEverWonder]

22. You pay $1.00 per person

to go in. I believe the park in owned by Broward County.

However, there was an additional fee to attend the Festival.

[mia]

23. $50. was paid for the booth,

and the Folk Festival coordinator returned the fee.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

24. User's fees do not negate the fact the park is public property

Are the people who work there county employees?

and the Festival could not enforce rules which were counter to the laws governing the park... ie public law

so, if there is not a specific ammendment against anti-war information then, yes, it was grossly illegal

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. The Broward Folk Club ran the festival

and yes I agree this was grossly illegal. I hope the anti-war folks that were involved go after the park and the club on this.

Just because these people are promoting 'folk' music, doesn't mean they're nice people or that they even understand what 'folk' music is supposed to be all about.

[Massachusetts]

27. And Ol' Jeb is Governor of what state?

[mia]

28. From 'The Volokh Conspiracy'...

http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2005_01_14.shtml#1106072238


Government-owned parks are considered "traditional public fora," in which the government may not restrict speech based on its content (unless the content falls within the narrow First Amendment exceptions, such as deliberate falsehood, obscenity, threats, and the like). The government gets no extra power over such speech because of the government's ownership of the property.

It thus seems pretty clear that the park manager's actions were unconstitutional. It's possible that a city may temporarily rent out its property, including perhaps a park, to a private entity, which could then impose its own rules on this temporarily privatized space; but it seems pretty clear that this isn't what happened here.

My sense is that the government officials who organize events at parks sometimes want to get rid of material that they see as too controversial, since they fear that such material will make the event-going experience less pleasant for some people, and thus drive away potential attendees. (I don't know whether this was this particular park manager's real reason.)

I remember, for instance, a case from when I was clerking, Capital Area Right to Life, Inc. v. Downtown Frankfort, Inc., in which a city-run festival excluded "controversial groups," including a pro-life group and two pro-choice groups. The Kentucky Supreme Court actually upheld this restriction, concluding that the policy was permissible because it was viewpoint-neutral (though the court erroneously called it "content-neutral"). Unfortunately, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case — the Court agrees to hear only 1% to 2% of the cases it's asked to hear, and a refusal to hear the case doesn't mean endorsement of the lower court decision. But Justice O'Connor wrote a dissenting opinion that correctly criticized the lower court's decision. If this matter goes up to the Court again in the future, I'm quite sure that the Court will hold as she urged; and I think that most lower courts (though as we saw in the CARTL case, not the Kentucky Supreme Court) would likewise strike down such policies.

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