Wednesday, June 13, 2007
News Who's afraid of a little protest?
Posted by Alyssa Abkowitz on Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 1:30 PM
LIVESTOCK: A “picket pen†at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston
You may or may not like Mayor Shirley Franklin’s effort to slow down an ordinance that would allow the city to cordon protesters off during conventions, festivals and other events. But it remains unclear exactly who’s pushing the legislation.
Councilman Jim Maddox’s proposed ordinance would allow event organizers to obtain permits that require protesters to stay in corded-off “free speech zones.†Opponents say that amounts to a violation of the First Amendment’s free-speech guarantee.
“It empowers a private citizen to … put counterprotesters in a speech penalty box, in a corral, where they are not allowed to participate in a demonstration under threat of criminal prosecution,†the American Civil Liberties Union’s Gerry Weber said at a press conference last week.
Maddox didn’t respond to CL’s requests that he explain why the ordinance is needed. Weber said he’d heard the councilman was responding to two upcoming events. One is the June 22-24 Atlanta Pride Festival, which over the last few years has been set upon by religious hatemongers. The other is the U.S. Social Forum, which will attract more than 10,000 people from progressive groups (read: experienced protesters) to Atlanta June 27-July 1.
But Atlanta Pride Committee officials joined in Weber’s press conference to say they didn’t support Maddox’s ordinance. Hmm. Do powerful interests fear an onslaught of protests from the U.S. Social Forum? We’d be allowed to tell you … if we were in a free-speech zone.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Comments (2)
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This must be one of the Republican evil efforts to roll back our basic human rights that I keep hearing about on CL blogs. Oh wait, that was the Democratic Convention? Pretty sure Maddox is a Democrat. How can that be? I thought they were the Gilded Shield Protectors Of Our Precious Rights? I am so confused.
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