VICTORY FOR J20 PROTESTERS
Police forced to grant permits
Special to
Workers World
Washington
Organizers of the Jan. 20 counter-inaugural demonstration
scored an important victory on Jan. 9 in Washington. "We have
forced the police to reverse their position, which they
announced earlier to the media, that no protest permits have
been granted," said International Action Center Co-director
Brian Becker.
"We have always asserted that we had the permits in
accordance with existing DC law and regulations," Becker told
Workers World. "Even though we submitted our permit
applications more than two months ago, we had never heard
officially from the responsible police agencies.
"We believe the police were consciously dragging their
feet to try to create a climate of confusion, uncertainty and
fear so as to dissuade the general public from attending the
demonstration."
On Jan. 4 the IAC's attorneys at the Partnership for Civil
Justice sent a detailed letter to the Metro Police, the
Capitol Police, the Interior Department and the National
Parks Service asserting the protesters' right to the
permits.
The letter also asked for clarification on a detailed list
of questions regarding permits, access to demonstration
sites, police plans regarding demonstrations and public
access to the inaugural route and the area around the
inaugural route.
In a meeting held at the National Parks Service Jan. 9,
the various police agencies acknowledged that the IAC does in
fact hold a permit for a counter-inaugural demonstration at
Freedom Plaza (14th St. and Pennsylvania Avenue NW), the
Justice Department (10th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW) and
McPherson Square (15th St. and I NW).
Freedom Plaza is to be the main gathering site for the J20
protest, Becker said.
'A major victory'
"This reversal by the police is a major victory for the
IAC, other demonstration organizers and all those who want to
demonstrate against racist disenfranchisement, the death
penalty, in support of a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal and
other issues in contrast with the right-wing policies of the
incoming Bush administration," asserted Larry Holmes, a
co-director of the IAC.
"This victory was a consequence of public pressure,
political mobilization and legal efforts," Holmes
explained.
"Although this is a significant victory, there are other
outstanding issues that remain to be clarified, and if the
various police agencies are not forthcoming with an adequate
response guaranteeing the rights of the public to express
opinions and demonstrate against George Bush's polices, the
lawyers for the IAC are prepared to take legal action."
Following the meeting with the police agencies, the IAC
held a news conference in Washington that drew reporters from
over 20 media outlets, including NBC, ABC, CNN, Fox, Nippon
TV, USA Today, the Washington Post, the Dallas Morning News
and the Associated Press.
Speakers included Becker and Holmes representing the IAC
and Mara Verheyden-Hilliar and Carl Messineo representing the
Partnership for Civil Justice. The news conference was later
broadcast on the C-SPAN cable network.
Access to protest sites at issue
The most important outstanding issue concerns the access
of demonstrators and the public to the inaugural route and
even to the permitted sites that the IAC holds for
demonstrations and rallies.
"The metropolitan police force, in tandem with the Secret
Service, has announced that they are establishing check
points that could affect the flow of people into these
areas," Becker explained.
"At the meeting today with the police agencies, neither
the National Parks Service nor the Metro Police would tell
demonstration organizers where the check points will be
established, when they will be established, whether
identification would be required to pass through the check
points, whether people would be frisked, whether materials
would be subject to confiscation, whether people will have to
pass through a metal detector and other details."
Becker said: "Given the conduct of the police in the
Washington area in the past year, the issue of access to the
demonstration sites and police conduct is vital to the
upholding of the First Amendment rights of the
demonstrators."
As examples, Becker cited the arrests of 678 demonstrators
in an act of preventive detention at an IAC-sponsored
demonstration on April 15, 2000; the illegal raid on the
convergence center for the anti-IMF protesters in Washington,
also on April 15; the systematic demonizing of demonstrators
in the media by police officials; and the calculated effort
to create a climate of fear for those attending the
demonstration.
The second outstanding issue has to do with the disparate
treatment accorded the presidential inaugural committee and
the applicants who are seeking to protest. The inaugural
committee has been given bleachers to accommodate 42,000-plus
people along Pennsylvania Avenue.
"It is entirely in the discretion of the inaugural
committee as to who is entitled to tickets for those
bleachers," Holmes said. "The result is that Pennsylvania
Avenue, a public thoroughfare, and the inaugural parade, a
public event, have been effectively privatized.
"George W. Bush's corporate and banking donors have been
given access to a constitutionally-mandated event while
depriving equal access to those who oppose the death penalty
and Bush's right-wing policies."
Holmes said: "All those who want to demonstrate on Jan. 20
should feel that they can come and participate in a legal,
orderly and disciplined protest. This should give further
impetus to organizing in Washington and in cities around the
country. We know of more than 40 organizing centers where
buses and car caravans are being organized to bring
protesters to Washington.
"At the same time," he concluded, "important outstanding
issues must be clarified to the satisfaction of the
demonstrators in accordance with the constitutional
guarantees of free speech or further legal action will be
taken.
"Most important, our message to all January 20 mobilizing
centers is organize, organize, organize. J20 will be
remembered as a historic next step in the construction of a
new movement for social justice."
The J20 protest was initiated by the International Action
Center. Hundreds of organizations and prominent individuals
have endorsed and joined in building for the protest.
They include: International Concerned Family & Friends
of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right of Return
Coalition; All African Peoples Revolutionary Party; Anthony
Freddie, Gary Graham/shaka Sankofa Justice Coalition; Texas
Death Penalty Abolition Movement; Campaign to End the Death
Pen alty; Colo mbia Action Network; Connecticut and New
Jersey Greens; Critical Resistance; DC Coalition to Stop the
U.S. War on Iraq; Detroit Coalition to Stop the Execution of
Mumia; Disabled But Able for Mumia; Food Not Bombs of New
Brunswick, N.J., Rochester, N.Y., Richmond, Va., and Oly
mpia, Wash.; Gabriella Network; Global Women's Strike; Haiti
Support Network; INCITE: Women of Color Against Violence;
Ismael Guadalupe, Committee for the Rescue and Development of
Vieques; and Justice Action Movement.
Also: Leslie Feinberg, co-founder of Rainbow Flags for
Mumia; League of Indigenous Soveriegn Nations; Martha
Grevatt, national secretary of Pride At Work (AFL-CIO);
Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights; Monica
Moorehead and Gloria La Riva, Workers World Party candidates;
New York Free Mumia Coalition; Queers for Racial and Economic
Justice; former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark; Refuse
& Resist!; Ray Martinez Jr., chapter chair, Service
Employees Local 668, Philadelphia; the Rev. Al Sharpton,
National Action Network; San Francisco Labor Council
(AFL-CIO); Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing;
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty; and Washington
Peace Center.
Updated information, including a complete list of
organizing centers, is available on the Web sites
www.mumia2000.org and www.iacenter.org. For bus information,
call the IAC at (212) 633-6646 in New York or (202) 347-9300
in Washington.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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