Just flaming disgraceful

I'm not really surprised, especially after what happened the other day, but I'm still furious. From VOA News:

A New York State Supreme Court judge has rejected a last minute attempt by an anti-Republicans group to hold a massive rally in New York City's Central Park.

United for Peace and Justice, a nationwide coalition of anti-war, anti-Bush groups, sued New York last week for refusing to give the group a permit to hold a demonstration in the Park on Sunday, the day before the Republican Party Convention officially begins.

With an utterly straight face and utter contempt for logic, the city continued to argue that it could not allow the rally in Central Park because the crowd would damage the recently-renovated Great Lawn, a site that for scores of years has been host to mass demonstrations, outdoor concerts, and other large-scale activities. Now, however, the city apparently believes it can put it off limits to any protest with a "keep off the grass" sign.

Disgustingly, the courts appear ready to agree.

After months of being stonewalled, UFPJ reluctantly agreed to the city's one and only offer for a rally site: the West Side Highway, a hideously bad site. After informing people of its decision, the group was inundated with complaints about the lack of shade, the lack of shelter, the lack of nearby toilet facilities, the lack of availability of water - not to mention that the rally would be stretched out like a string with most of the people unable to hear - or, lacking binoculars, even see - what was happening on the stage.

As a result, the group withdrew its agreement and went to court.

But the city's attorney, Jonathan Pines, said it is too late to change sites and provide adequate security.

"We could have been here in June. We could have been here in July," he said. "No, we are here now with mere days left."

Which is a pile of crap. The delay was cause by the city's attempts to prevent a rally at all - indeed, I'm utterly convinced that had they been able to come up with a way, they would have blocked the march as well. You can be damn sure that if UFPJ had sued in June or July, the city would have argued that such a suit was "premature" while "negotiations are still going on." Then again, being manipulative hypocrites is what people like Pines get paid for. But that of course didn't matter to the court.

Judge Jacqueline Silberman agreed [with Pines], saying UPJ was "guilty of inexcusable and inequitable delay" in bringing the case to court.

Which just goes to show that judges can be just as much in contempt of court as anyone else - that is, contempt of the court system and the justice it's supposed to be capable of dispensing, which is what the charge is supposed to mean, rather than its more usual interpretation of "wounding the judge's ego."

I say that the first time - and I mean the very first time - the city approves a permit for use of the Great Lawn for any large-scale activity, individual members of UFPJ should institute a massive civil suit against the city for violation of constitutional rights, charging that granting the permit proves the city's basis for denying a permit for the protest was a lie and content-based, which is unconstitutional.

It's likely that a significant number of people will head for Central Park at the end of the march anyway. No doubt, the city will try to stop them. It would be an interesting - and I think very good - thing if hundreds (I can dream thousands) of people refused to obey an order to disperse, preferring nonviolent civil disobedience.

By the way, just in case you didn't know, "what happened the other day" was that a federal court refused to order the city to issue a permit for a smaller gathering in Central Park on Saturday, arguing that the city was within its rights to consider "security." Just what security threat was presented by a rally two days before the RNC opens was, not surprisingly, unexplained by a logic that would allow the city to ban any protest at any time simply by saying it had "security concerns."

Footnote: There is planned nonviolent CD - a march and die-in - at the convention on Tuesday. Information can be found at the War Resisters League site here.