NY: Queens Progressives Prepare A Not-So-Warm Welcome For GOP

[G_j]

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1861&dept_id=152382&newsid=12357258&PAG=461&rfi=9

Queens Progressives Prepare A Not-So-Warm Welcome For GOP


by Keach Hagey, Eastern/Southeastern Queens Editor July 15, 2004

Activists from all over the country will be coming to New York City during the RNC in August to voice their opposition to the Bush Administration’s policies.

When the Parks Department denied activists a permit last month for approximately 250,000 people to protest the Republican National Convention on the Great Lawn in Central Park on August 29th, it offered up Flushing Meadows Park instead, arguing that less damage would be done to the grass in the larger park.

Organizers for United for Peace and Justice, the coalition of local and national groups arranging the protest against the Bush Administration and its policies, took the rejection in stride.
“We indicated that if the RNC were moved to Queens, we would be delighted to go to Flushing Meadows Park,” said Bill Dobbs, spokesman for the coalition.

But now that the city has turned down five of the group’s proposed locations for the march and rally, the Queens suggestion is beginning to take on a mythic quality, held up on activist chat rooms across the country as a symbol of the lengths the Bloomberg Administration will go to keep the protesters out of sight.
“This is not about lawn care, this is about politics,” Dobbs said. “It is about the mayor who continues to attack the right to dissent in the same tradition as the Bush Administration.”

On June 21st, the City Council passed a resolution calling upon the mayor and other city officials to protect the First Amendment rights of protesters at the RNC, demanding the immediate granting of permits and the end of “protest pens” constraining demonstrators to certain areas.
..more..

[skooooo]

1. ..this is crap...

no one will see the protests in queens

[BillZBubb]

2. Uh, isn't that the idea?

This is to protect the Bush* not the grass.

[Philosophy]

3. Do they really need a permit?

If 250,000 people intend to go to Central Park who's going to stop them?

[Literate Tar Heel]

5. that's what I was thinking

I would think 250,000 people could pretty much just march through Manhattan right to the door of MSG if they wanted

[skooooo]

6. they could also get arrested and get the ..

...crap beat out of them for unlawful assembly.

[ret5hd]

7. wow...250,000 - 1,000,000 beaten and arrested...

where do ya think they'll put us?

[skooooo]

10. Do you want to be the example??

..of course they can't get everyone . THey just have to scare everyone into a stampede and hundreds will get hurt. No thanks, I'll pass.

[ret5hd]

15. good...we need people not afraid to use the rights granted them...

in the constitution.

we don't need those that feel it is a priveledge, "granted by the powers that be", to assemble and have our voices heard by those running for election.

so stay home. i hear that popcorn and soda goes well with watching tv coverage of others standing up for your rights.

[skooooo]

17. ...oh you are so politically correct..

...don't presume to tell me what to do, please. Just because I have half a brain, and won't give the cops an excuse to bust my head doesn't mean you are somehow "more liberal" or "freedom-loving" than I. Be my guest if you want to take part in illegal demonstrations and get beat up or worse.

[peace4all]

4. Flushing Meadows park is the old World Fair grounds I think

WAY far away! what a joke

worried about the grass?

[Lerkfish]

8. what? Earth day and the simon/garfunkel reunion were ok to the grass?

..I mean, I'm constantly amazed at the transparency of this administration's preemption of the right to peaceably assemble and dissent.

[G_j]

9. the authors of the Constitution would love that

lawn care after all is what this country was founded on. :shrug:

[porphyrian]

12. "...the pursuit of life, liberty, and a lawn untrampled..." - n/t

[G_j]

11. they hate us for our lawn care n/t

[porphyrian]

13. Maybe someone should offer to pay to replace the sod...? -n/t

[Mizmoon]

18. lol!

[Moderator]

14. G-j

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
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Thank you.

DU Moderator

[G_j]

16. oops sorry

too late to edit, my bad :(