UFPJ Sues NYC for Central Park Rally

["UFPJ Alerts" <listmaster at unitedforpeace.org>]

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ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
============================================
UFPJ SUES NYC OVER CENTRAL PARK,
PLANS FOR MARCH PAST GOP CONVENTION UNCHANGED

Rallying in Central Park is a right, not a privilege! United for Peace and
Justice filed a lawsuit today in New York State Supreme Court over New York
City's denial of the use of Central Park for a rally on August 29, after
our legal, permitted march past Madison Square Garden. We are seeking a
court order to allow the rally to proceed.

The lawsuit – UFPJ vs. New York City Mayor Bloomberg, Parks Commissioner
Adrian Benepe, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and the City of New York –
asserts that Central Park has traditionally served as a forum for free
expression, and that by denying us its use, New York City is violating our
Constitutional rights to free assembly.

The filing of this lawsuit means that we probably will not know the final
destination for our march until the very last minute. (Our assembly time
and location remain unchanged: Gather at 10:00AM at Seventh Avenue and 14th
Street, for a march beginning at noon. See http://www.unitedforpeace.org
for a map and directions.)

We’ve faced this situation before: It was just days before our massive
February 15, 2003 antiwar protest that we were able to announce the details
for our event. Then, too, Mayor Bloomberg hoped that the uncertainty would
keep people away, but he failed miserably: Hundreds of thousands of you
showed up for one of the largest protests in New York City’s history.

Those of you who are not in New York City may not be aware of how bizarre
things have gotten in recent days. On Monday, Mayor Bloomberg declared that
protesting is a “privilege” that can be taken away. Then yesterday, he held
a press conference with the NYC tourist bureau to announce special shopping
and restaurant discounts for protesters. We’re not making this stuff up …
read the news articles at the bottom of this email.

So Mayor Bloomberg wants us to shop but not rally, and darkly hints that he
would rather we not protest at all.

All this comes after revelations in Monday’s New York Times that the FBI
has been interrogating and intimidating activists around the country, in a
transparent attempt to scare them away from the Republican Convention
protests. A letter writer in today’s Times responded, “I was going back and
forth about whether to come to New York to protest at the Republican
convention. But since I’ve learned that the F.B.I. has been deployed to
intimidate protesters, I no longer have any doubt about what to do. It is
no longer just a matter of political protest. It is a matter of defending
our constitutional rights. I’m coming to New York.”


The best way for us to counter the efforts to stifle our protest is to do
everything we can in these next ten days to ensure the largest, broadest
possible turnout on August 29, when we will march past the site of the
Republican Convention to call for an end to the divisive and destructive
policies of the Bush Administration.

Make sure all your family members, friends, and coworkers know that our
legal, permitted march is going forward, no matter what happens in court.

Make sure they know that – whatever the tabloids and the TV news might say
– we are committed to a peaceful protest, one that kids, seniors,
immigrants, and people with disabilities can attend, and we will march in a
spirit of nonviolence.

Make sure they know that we are NOT marching to the West Side Highway, even
if we do not win our fight for Central Park.

Make sure they tell their friends about the protest, and that they join us
at 10:00AM on Sunday, August 29 at Seventh Avenue and 14th Street in
Manhattan, to send a message so loud it cannot be ignored: We’re sick of
the lies, sick of the greed, sickened by the war and the hate, and we want
a change.

In solidarity,
United for Peace and Justice

-----------------------------------------------------------
Protest a “Privilege,” Says NYC Mayor Bloomberg
by Glenn Thrush, New York Newsday
August 17th, 2004

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, already under fire for his tough stance against
anti-GOP protest groups, yesterday suggested that First Amendment rights of
free speech and free assembly are "privileges" that could be lost if abused.

Bloomberg, speaking to Republican National Convention volunteers in
Manhattan, was trying to downplay concerns that protesters will disrupt
this month's convention - when he began articulating a broader
constitutional vision.

"People who avail themselves of the opportunity to express themselves ...
they will not abuse that privilege," he said at the John Jay College of
Criminal Justice. "Because if we start to abuse our privileges, then we
lose them, and nobody wants that."

The mayor's comments drew immediate criticism from protest groups and came
amid reports that federal agents and city police have been questioning
activists, monitoring Web sites and dropping in unannounced on
organizational meetings.

"The right to protest is not nor has it ever been a privilege - it is a
constitutionally protected right that everybody in this country enjoys,"
said Leslie Cagan, head of United for Peace and Justice, which has locked
horns with the city over its attempt to stage a 250,000-person protest in
Central Park. "I have no idea what he's talking about. I'm completely
flabbergasted."

Bloomberg press secretary Ed Skyler said, "The mayor certainly did not mean
to imply that the First Amendment was in jeopardy here; nothing could be
further than the truth, as the convention will show."

The online dictionary, Law.com, defines a privilege as a "special benefit,
exemption from a duty, or immunity from penalty, given to a particular
person, a group or a class of people." A right, on the other hand, is
defined as a "an entitlement to something, such as ... freedoms of speech,
press, religion, assembly and petition," according to the online law
dictionary.

City officials have granted permits for a 50,000-person protest in Central
Park and have offered Cagan's group a route that passes Madison Square
Garden and culminates on the West Side Highway, which the group accepted,
then rejected. The parties met yesterday but failed to reach a new
agreement, Cagan said.

As Bloomberg arrived at John Jay yesterday, he was greeted by a
now-familiar contingent of off-duty police officers hectoring him for a
raise. In previous demonstrations, protesters were allowed within a few
feet of the mayor. Yesterday, they were ushered behind steel barricades 20
yards away.

"We're offending the mayor, and now we're being forced into pens," said
Walter Liddy, a Patrolmen's Benevolent Association official who led the
protest.


N.Y. Mayor to Protesters: Go Shopping
by Michael Powell, The Washington Post
August 18th, 2004

Why worry about antiwar views, anarcho-syndicalist politics and "Dump Bush
Now!" placards when something serious is at stake -- like money?

The billionaire media mogul who happens to be New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg has decided that if antiwar protesters are to descend on his city
by the hundreds of thousands for the Republican Convention, he may as well
turn them into shoppers.

So with just a hint of the sardonic, Hizzoner announced Tuesday a "Peaceful
Political Activists" visitor program modeled after the one offered to
Republican delegates.

Affix a "Peaceful Activist" button and a protester can claim a free glass
of Montepulciano wine with dinner at La Prima Donna, rent a room at the
boutique Dylan Hotel ($150 a night) and get dibs on discounted theater
tickets. Perhaps "42nd Street" for the Quakers from Kansas and "Naked Boys
Singing" for the South Beach set?Cowboy-booted Republicans and nose-ringed
demonstrators: Everyone's welcome.

If this sounds like marketing to Royalists and the Jacobins who would like
to behead them, that's pretty much the idea. "New York is the place to get
your message out, any message," Bloomberg says. "It's no fun to protest on
an empty stomach. So you might want to try a restaurant." Hizzoner offers
another example: "Or you might want to go shopping, maybe for another pair
of sneakers for the march."

The program to welcome radicals comes backed by the full marketing power of
the city's tourist wing, NYC & Co. Link to a Peaceful Political Activists
home page through www.nycvisit.com, (we're not kidding), and find pages of
events and every legally permitted demonstration. Stuck with time to kill
between the Planned Parenthood demonstration and the Ukuleles for Sanity
Concert? Take the "Bohemians and Beats of Greenwich Village" tour, walk by
Stonewall Place (where the Gay Liberation Movement took militant wing), and
end up with another tour: "Radical and Immigrant Heritage of the Lower East
Side. Walk the streets where . . . socialists, anarchists and free-thinkers
gathered."

Some of the lists prepared by the tourism agency are tailored to political
tastes, but a certain ecumenicalism is assumed. The Museum of Sex offers
the same $5 discount to Republicans and protesters.

Few protesters seemed amused. They note that their people are more likely
to sleep on church floors, in hostels or on friends' couches than seek a
$189 junior suite at the Avalon Hotel. Terrible cynics all, they assume
Bloomberg wants to divert attention from his politically unpopular battle
with United for Peace and Justice, the largest of the antiwar groups.
Organizers want to end their Aug. 29 antiwar march -- which is expected to
draw a quarter-million or so people -- in Central Park. But Bloomberg
rejoins that so many feet would chew up the grass.

He has offered the organizers, take it or leave it, a spot along the West
Side Highway. They've refused and called him "Mayor Meanie." Polls show
about 80 percent of New Yorkers agree with the demonstrators.

Word about the discount plan no sooner leaks out on Tuesday than Beka
Economopoulos of Code Pink: Women for Peace ("Not an organization but a
phenomenon") dresses like a pink-swathed Statue of Liberty and stands
outside the midtown headquarters of NYC & Co. "If the mayor wants to
welcome us, then he should do more than get us tickets to a play," she
shouts. "Give us a permit to rally, not a discounted dinner we can't
afford."

Upstairs, Bloomberg stands flanked by two former mayors, David Dinkins and
Ed Koch. Koch, a famous gourmand who is happiest when in conversation with
almost anyone, plans to walk the floor of the Republican Convention handing
out palm cards listing his 20 favorite restaurants. But he has a certain
affection for protesters, too -- he argued for so long with so many when he
was mayor.

"I remember the good old days when I'd come into City Hall around 7:30 in
the morning and there would be two groups of protesters setting up their
picket lines, and another group that had slept overnight in the park," Koch
says. "I would walk over and say: 'Good morning, protesters!' ""And they'd
respond: 'Hello, Mayor!' "

============================================
AUGUST 29, THE WORLD SAYS NO TO THE BUSH AGENDA!
Massive Protest at the Republican National Convention, New York City
* Assemble at 10:00AM, Seventh Avenue @ 14th Street
* March steps off at noon
============================================
Visit the RNC mobilizing section of our website for resources and to
endorse the August 29 demonstration:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/rnc
============================================
We need your financial support to make the August 29 protest a success:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/donate
============================================
To receive email updates on the August 29 RNC protest, visit:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email
============================================
ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
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