http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpdun093885112jul09,0,7638932.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlinesNY Newsday
Right to protest is being stomped on
Official obstinacy threatens to turn anti-GOP convention demonstrations into one big mess
BY CHRISTOPHER DUNN AND DONNA LIEBERMAN
Christopher Dunn is the associate legal director and Donna Lieberman is the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
July 9, 2004
In about seven weeks, hundreds of thousands of people may descend on midtown Manhattan for the Republican National Convention. Some will be delegates, most will be demonstrators, and one will be the president of the United States, there to accept his party's nomination.
While the convention at Madison Square Garden may be a political event for some, for many it will serve as a key gauge of the extent to which 9/11 security concerns have eroded America's commitment to civil liberties. And the right to protest is one of the most important of those civil liberties. After all, what separates our country from those our government so freely criticizes - indeed sometimes attacks - is our constitutionally protected right to take to the streets to protest our leaders and their actions without fear of persecution or worse.
Two events loom large over the protests likely to swirl around the convention. First and foremost is the attack of September 11, which not only prompted unprecedented security worries about the convention but also set the stage for the Iraq war, which has proved so unpopular and divisive that it alone will bring hordes of protesters to New York in late August. And as we learned from the police-protester clashes during the 1968 Chicago convention, the combination of an unpopular war and police efforts to stifle dissent can be disastrous.
Also casting a shadow over the upcoming convention is the debacle of the February 2003 anti-war demonstration here in New York City. Invoking 9/11-related security concerns, the NYPD banned a proposed peace march and limited organizers to a stationary rally on First Avenue, which was an unprecedented restriction that the federal courts supported. On the day of the rally, police barricades prevented tens of thousands of people from reaching First Avenue, police horses terrified crowds simply trying to get to the event, and those who made it to the demonstration found themselves penned in.
..more..