DENVER—A protest group vowed to occupy one of Denver’s most prominent parks with thousands of demonstrators during the Democratic National Convention after the convention’s host committee won a permit to hold an event at the same park.
Recreate 68 members said they were angry that the host committee obtained its one-day permit to use Civic Center park. The protest group was awarded two other days at the same park.
Permits to hold events at 12 downtown parks during the Aug. 25-28 convention were awarded by a lottery drawing held Thursday.
Recreate 68 organizer Glenn Spagnuolo said demonstrators would take over Civic Center the day the host committee uses it—Sunday, Aug. 24.
“The DNC is setting up a very dangerous situation,” Spagnuolo said. “When things blow up because the police have to enforce a permit that the Democrats got, don’t blame us for that, blame the Democrats.”
Recreate 68 also won permits to stage events at other city parks. But that wasn’t enough for activists who expressed outrage that the organizing committee that brought the party convention to Denver could win access to a public park.
“They’ve got the Pepsi Center (the convention site) and now they want Civic Center?” Spagnuolo said. “That’s an embarrassment.”
Spagnuolo said his group is expecting some 50,000 protesters and plans an anti-war march on Aug. 24.
“If there is a 50,000-pound gorilla walking through the streets of Denver, you try to keep him in a cage,” he said.
Recreate 68 consists of local activists who serve as coordinating group for several national protest organizations.
Facing threats of lawsuits from interest groups, Denver officials wrestled for weeks to find a way to distribute permits. The solution was Thursday’s random drawing from a barrel.
A few organizations—including Recreate 68 and two anti-abortion prayer groups—submitted multiple applications for the same permits.
More than 10 affiliates of Recreate 68 applied for a permit to user Denver’s Civic Center park on Aug. 26. The Colorado Democratic Party applied once for the park on that day. An art festival won.
The Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee overcame those odds by winning its permit for Civic Center—a central park between the Denver City and County Building and the state Capitol located just over a mile from the Pepsi Center.
Recreate 68 affiliates won permits for Aug. 25 and Aug. 27, but Spagnuolo wasn’t satisfied.
Katherine Archuleta, Mayor John Hickenlooper’s convention liaison, emphasized that the host committee is a separate entity from the national party. The group is a nonprofit charged with raising money for the convention.
“As any other nonprofit in the city, they have the same right to apply for any of the parks that were in the lottery system,” Archuleta said.
She said the city would enforce the permits issued for all groups.
Host committee spokesman Chris Lopez said the organization won the permit fairly and will use it.
“We have a whole host of other ways to welcome people to Denver,” Lopez said.
Recreate 68 originally associated its name with the 1968 Democratic National Convention and encouraged visitors to its Web site to make that convention’s demonstrations and violent clashes with police “look like a small get together in 2008!”
The group has since edited the Web site. Member Barbara Cohen says it now draws from what she called the “optimism” that existed among protesters in 1968.
