Susan "Medea" Benjamin on the "free speech zones" at the DNCC:
"We don't deserve to be put in a detention center, a concentration camp," said Medea Benjamin of San Francisco. "It's tragic that here in Boston, the birthplace of democracy, our First Amendment rights are being trampled on."
Two fellow protesters from the anti-war group Code Pink, who dressed in pink Statue of Liberty garb, taped their mouths shut. Some activists said while they understand the need for security, organizers went overboard.
"We are on high, high red alert for the protection of our civil liberties," said Claryce Evans, national coordinator for United Peace and Justice. American Civil Liberties Union and National Lawyers Guild attorneys asked a federal judge to open up or move the zone...
The ACLU? The NLG? The guy on my left shoulder says they should go back to Russia. The guy on my right shoulder says they should be allowed to protest in such a way that both safety and their First Amendment rights are protected. Right-shoulder-guy wins. I just wouldn't call it "a concentration camp."
ThePeaceMovement · Sun, 07/25/2004 - 10:22 · · Importance: 1
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Comments
From what I heard (at the Bl(a)ck Tea Society's press conference on C-Span), the judge who visited the protest pen before ruling on its legality actually said it was *worse* than a concentration camp. FWIW.
Concentration camp or no, I think "abomination" is a pretty safe term for the so-called free speech zone. "Have your free speech -- just keep it inside the razor wire."
Surely that's what the authors of the Bill of Rights intended...freedom of speech and assembly -- inside the fenced area, a safe distance away from the intended target of the protest. ;-(
Posted by: Lance Brown at Jul 26, 2004 9:32 AM