UFPJ Sues NYC for Central Park Rally

ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
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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

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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 http://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!' "

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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
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Visit the RNC mobilizing section of our website for resources and to endorse the
August 29 demonstration:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/rnc
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We need your financial support to make the August 29 protest a success:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/donate
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To receive email updates on the August 29 RNC protest, visit:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email
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ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
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