Center For Constitutional Rights
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a complaint on behalf of the International Action Center and the Troops Out Now Coalition on Wednesday March 16 challenging the City’s policy of refusing new permits for marches on Fifth Avenue. CCR called for a reversal of the policy and for the City to allow the march this weekend to proceed on Fifth Avenue, arguing that the City is silencing dissent by refusing permits for demonstrations on Fifth Avenue.
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5 comments:
I agree. You either have the right of assembly or you don't.
I'm constantly amazed at these kinds of situations occuring in "the land of the free and home of the brave"
...and yet, some people still brag about how it's such a free country. We still have a long way to go to deserve that statue we received so graciously from the French.
Just as a point of personal reference...
back during the Bush Sr. administration,
an organization I was in arranged a dual purpose demonstration for Amnesty International and a march against the KKK who had decided to go door-to-door pamphleteering in the dorms. At first, when it was just thought to be an Amnesty Int'l march, we were approved, but then, when they discovered it was a dual protest against the KKK, they revoked the license and police escourt. Not only that, but rumors were then dispersed that the KKK was going to march against us...some people panicked and dropped out, but the rest of us marched anyway. The KKK never showed, there were no problems, and those that dropped out of the march, plus by-standers and witnesses who spontaneously joined the march all showed up at the meeting room on campus for a amazing standing-room only meeting.
Of course...this was a small town...with a fairly tame student body...not New York City, where there's the possibility of thousands showing up, and the situation turning violent (usually thanks to police)...but spontaneous numbers visible in a public place, regardless of "licenses" are the power of protest.
Civil disobedience is a powerful tool, as long as it's peaceful.
Funny how, despite a constitutionally guaranteed right to assembly and free speech, one still has to apply for a "permit."
Yeah...this from the introduction of Thomas Paine's Rights Of Man "men must be free to say, to read, and to print what they think about existing governments and to make any proposals to change or modify them without let or hindrance by civil authority, Such rights 'cannot without invading the general rights of the country, be made subjects for prosecution.'"
Key words being, "...without let or hindrance by civil authority..."
who dropped the ball on this one?
Thanks for that.
I don't think it is a case of dropping the ball. Rather it is a conscious effort to throw the ball in the trash to end the game.
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