DENVER—A group that claims to be planning the largest anti-war protest the week of the Democratic National Convention is upset by a protest route released by the city Thursday, saying the end point is vague and excludes them from the presence of delegates.
“We’re hoping that what they sent out was a mistake,” said Glenn Spagnuolo, head of Recreate68.
The protest route, called a “parade route” by city officials, was part of an agreement reached last month between the city and the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on May 1 on behalf of 12 groups planning marches and demonstrations while Democrats meet Aug. 25-28 at the Pepsi Center to choose their presidential candidate.
The designated protest route city officials released will be accessible each day of the convention between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Mayor John Hickenlooper said the route is intended to allow access while minimizing disruption to traffic, downtown businesses, residents and visitors.
But Spagnuolo said the hours allotted for the parades guarantee delegates won’t see or hear protesters.
Damon Jones, a convention spokesman, said delegates will be at the Pepsi Center daily beginning at 4 p.m.
Spagnuolo also said the Sunday before the start of the convention wasn’t included in the schedule . That’s when Spagnuolo said his group plans to hold “the largest anti-war protest in the city’s history.”
Mark Silverstein, an ACLU attorney, said the city agreed in court this week it would release the parade terminus, along with the parade route.
Sue Cobb, a Hickenlooper spokeswoman, said she thinks the city complied with what they promised in court. A spokesman for the Secret Service, the lead agency in charge of security, did not immediately return a call.
“We’ve always said that basically the end of the route is going to be in the public viewing area but we have more details to finalize,” she said.
The so-called public viewing area will be a 50,000-square foot zone within a 350,000-square foot parking lot next to the Pepsi Center, Silverstein said.
“The critical piece of information is how close the march will be able to pass by the Pepsi Center,” he said.
He said city officials have not said where the demonstration zone will be within the parking lot or what it will look like, only that the fence surrounding it will be transparent and that sound would be able to pass through it.
Silverstein said he doesn’t think city officials complied with what they said in court. As part of their lawsuit, he said ACLU and the protest groups will now discuss whether to challenge the city based on information it has released so far.
“It’s disappointing and it’s definitely something that will need to be challenged,” said Zoe Williams, a convention coordinator for Codepink, a national anti-war group. “It’s a sign that Denver wants to hide a critical part of democracy from the delegates,” Williams said, referring to the route.
The protest route starts on the north side of Colfax Avenue in the westbound traffic lanes at Bannock Street, goes west toward Speer Boulevard, and north on the southbound lanes of Speer to Larimer Street.
City officials said they would announce on June 19 which groups would get parade permits. The agreement between the city and the ACLU also called for at least three time slots each day for marches along the parade route.
