We’re glad the city of Denver rethought a proposal to give the government dibs on locking up city park space during the 2008 Democratic National Convention in August.
There were concerns, which we shared, that protesters would have been shut out of meaningful places to stage their views.
That would have been an unacceptable way to deal with people who have free-speech rights to express themselves.
The city’s policy on reserving parks had been a first-come, first- served basis. However, a proposed change would have given priority to events put on by state, federal or city government or their agents.
That exception was recently removed from consideration, a move that we support.
However, City Attorney David Fine wrote a letter to the American Civil Liberties Union and the protest group Re-Create 68 that said the city still has “inherent power to reserve its parks for its own purposes during the convention .”
Fine said the city doesn’t intend to monopolize city forums during the convention. Katherine Archuleta, the city’s convention liaison, said the city isn’t planning to use them during the convention.
We’ll take them at their word on this point.
The Denver City Council is planning to hold a public hearing on the proposal. And while the council won’t make security decisions, how they structure park permitting could shape where protests are held.
As the convention planning process continues, the rights of protesters must be taken into account. It would be an unforgivable irony if the Democratic presidential nominee, perhaps the next leader of the free world, were chosen in a setting where fundamental rights were not respected.
