It sounds like a simple request, but we’ll make it anyway: No cages.
When protesters convene in Denver late next summer for the Democratic National Convention, they can’t be caged behind razor wire like they were at the Boston convention in 2004.
With the Denver City Council considering a plan that allows government — any government agency — to have first dibs on reserving city parks, we’re beginning to wonder what’s going to happen to those who want to dissent. Where will they gather?
Security decisions won’t be made by Denver’s council, but their actions, such as sealing off choice locations, will have an impact.
The City Council next week will discuss some changes to the city’s permitting process. The idea was to head off some disputes with protesters and the American Civil Liberties Union, but so far it’s only made matters worse.
Under the proposed changes, Denver officials could lock up reservations at prime city parks and deny requests from protesters or other groups.
“A system that universally grants so-called government events preferential treatment over the free speech of private citizens is both unwise and unconstitutional,” attorney Taylor Pendergrass of the Colorado ACLU said last week.
“At the DNC, Denver or any other federal, state or local government can simply co-sponsor any event it favors, monopolizing Denver’s public parks and streets for government-approved activities,” Pendergrass said. “We don’t believe that is what the constitution allows, nor frankly is it what we expected from city officials who have repeatedly pledged to respect free speech rights.”
The ability to stage peaceful and law-abiding demonstrations outside conventions is an important exercise of free-speech rights. It’s practically an American tradition.
Denver officials need to be very careful about trampling on the rights of dissenters. Their right to express themselves outside the convention is just as important as the rights of those inside.
When Democrats convened in Boston in 2004, protesters were confined to a fenced-in area topped with razor wire. At the Republican National Convention in New York, there were no cages, but more than 1,800 people were arrested and held for days without arraignment or access to a lawyer.
David Fine, Denver’s city attorney, told The Post earlier that the city looked to a similar ordinance change that Salt Lake City adopted to prepare for its hosting of the 2002 Winter Olympics, and that the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals found the priority structure nondiscriminatory.
Protesters need some place to go where they will be visible. The city shouldn’t lock up every venue.
