NYC Denies Permit for Huge Anti-War Rally (march permit pending too)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=718&e=10&u=/ap/20040429/ap_on_re_us/gop_convention

An anti-war group planning a massive demonstration at the start of the Republican National Convention has been denied a permit to use Central Park because the crowd would be too large.

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The city parks department denied the group's request to rally on the park's Great Lawn after marching from 23rd Street and Eighth Avenue. A permit request for the march, submitted separately to the police department, is pending.

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In its appeal, the group plans to state that numerous events with more than 80,000 people have taken place on the lawn, including a 1981 Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel concert that drew at least 400,000 fans and a 1982 anti-nuclear demonstration attended by more than 750,000 people, considered the largest protest in city history.

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Another group denied a parks permit during the convention also is considering legal action.

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Separately, a coalition of unions representing police officers and firefighters has requested permits to demonstrate during the four-day convention, beginning Aug. 30. Union members claim they are underpaid compared to their counterparts in other cities and are underfunded for fighting terrorism — complaints they plan to voice when Republican come to town.
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like not having a permit is going to keep us away!

Although it probably wouldn't be as effective, it certainly stresses the point that there are so many people coming out to protest the convention that they can't handle them all.

NYC you get out there and protest!! It's your right!! Get mad as hell and not take it anymore!!! L.A. is with you in spirit!

and the police always talk to you in a very sympathetic manner like "Hey, we're union too". But when it comes down to getting the orders, they will not hesitate to swing the clubs and arrest you.

with open arms as the saviors of the free world after 9/11.

The GOP convention in NYC may well make Chicago in '68 look like a picnic. They really are a bunch or incredibly stupid M-F'ers.

I don't really know why we'd be protesting there...

Also, those huge crowds really tear up the park. I'd prefer we stick to the streets personally. It is going to cost us so much money to have that convention here (for which I think the RNC should reimburse the city).

New Yorkers are already starting to grumble about the convention--some about the politics, but most about the goddamn inconvenience this is going to bring vis a vis security fences, closures, etc. They were thinking about closing down Penn Station for a couple of days. Hundreds of thousands of people pass through each day. So now they are just going to inspect trains as they pull into the station, merely delaying that number by several minutes/hours each day.

on edit: I know cops and firemen who are going to protest. We'll be throwing flowers at them when they do. I don't think the rest of the country can imagine the high regard in which firemen are held in this city.

My son is one of them.

between following the orders of his superiors (restraining, beating or arresting protestors) and doing the right thing. If he's got the flu, he won't have to worry about such a moral dilemma.

emergency" and say you need your son to come over to the house immediately. When he gets there, you can tell him the "emergency" was that you put too much starch in your shirt. Point is, sometimes cops are given orders which are unethical (especially during protests and strikes), and if they want to keep their jobs, they must follow orders.

but a few bad apples over the years have earned them lower respect than firefighters in the city as a whole. This is unfortunate, because I imagine that being a NYC cop is probably one of the hardest jobs on the planet.

FWIW: I've protested several times in NY and the cops have never been anything but cordial and downright helpful in many cases.

Finally, I was talking to a cop during a Gay Pride parade several years ago (he ran over to hug his captain, who is a lesbian and was marching in the parade). He said that all cops had to work either St. Patricks Day or the Pride Parade (two biggest parades). He said people always prefer Pride because the crowds are less rowdy.

because very few cops seem to know anything about it these days.

The cops know as much about the Constitution as most of us,but some Constitutional lawyers even interpret it in different ways.It's tough to interpret the Constitution when you may only have a split second to do so.

Not much love for the police here at DU. I'm new around here so I'm a bit surprised.

All I know is that if I have to call 911 in the middle of the night I want someone to be there.

Our beef is with the mayor of NYC.

having to fix a lawn or getting america back from the bloody hands criminals?

it is miles away and hidden by trees. It is a stupid choice for a protest.

and "Fixing the Lawn" costs millions and millions of dollars. It is the one green refuge for city residents. NYC is already a donor city in a donor state. We can't afford it.

And it is too far away from Madison Square Garden.

in the interest of a "peaceful and orderly" demonstration. Peaceful and orderly demonstrations are rarely effective, since the powers that be and the media just ignore them. The Democratic Convention of 1968, the Civil Rights marches of the 60s, the anti-Vietnam protests, the marches of the Unemployed in the 30s, and the Battle of Seattle all involved large-scale confrontations with police. This is what made these demonstrations effective. The absence of large-scale confrontations in the pre-Iraq anti-war marches is what made them ineffective. There were some confrontations in Miami, but they were sporadic and the protesters were isolated due to the inaction of other protesters and the tendency of constituent groups and coalitions to go their own way and avoid confrontation at any cost.

The fear of confrontation must end. Also, having four separate marches/rallies-- AFL-CIO, UFPJ, ANSWER, Black Bloc-- must end. People need to be united and prepared to confront police.

with AFL CIO and the mainstream orgs the "organinizers" of the radical contingent (i think the same self appointed leaders form cancun who made things a bit too centralized for alott of my compadres) made a deal saying we would have seperate marches a few steal workers did take part in the direct actions though . Alotta ocf us were turned away from "the peoples" rallly because we looked fringe the cops told us we werent offical protesters.The AFL-CIO needs to stop turning in proteseters and working with the cops.The ANSWER "peace keepers" are the same fucking way.

only cause we were alloweed with a permit