Take that!

Something else I just found out about via an ACLU press release, this one from May 2:

The American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area today welcomed a new law approved by the D.C. City Council that strengthens the First Amendment rights of peaceful protesters, and limits police use of "protest pens" and mass arrests. ...

The new law declares that people have a right to demonstrate "near the object of their protest so they may be seen and heard," and makes clear that people do not need police permission to exercise their constitutional right to freedom of speech. The law also prohibits police from arresting an entire assembly when only a few people are breaking the law, requires police to display visible identification when handling demonstrations, restricts the use of police lines to entrap demonstrators who have not broken any law, and prohibits the use of tear gas and pepper spray on peaceful protesters.

The press release goes on to say that the law arose from a two-year investigation of police treatment of protests, which found that

police had violated the free speech rights of hundreds of demonstrators, had engaged in unjustified police surveillance of political organizations, and had acted preemptively against demonstrators in an apparent effort to hamper the exercise of First Amendment rights.

Personally, I think the most significant part of the law is the statement that people have a right to protest where they can be "seen and heard" by the target of the protest, an acknowledgement that protest rendered invisible is meaningless and turns the rights of free speech and public assembly into empty shells. At the same time, it's truly a sad commentary on our times that such a law, a law that says police can't violate First Amendment rights, is apparently necessary - but we can take some solace in the fact that at least in Washington, DC, there is such a law. May it spread far and wide.