World Can’t Wait Chicago applied for a permit to march from
our permitted noon rally at Grant Park north on Michigan Avenue, west on Ontario and south on Clark Street to Federal Plaza
for a permitted rally at 4:30 PM. This march route would take us through major
sections of the downtown business district and end before rush hour starts at 4
PM. The City rejected our proposed route on September 21 and instead ordered
that we be consigned to a four block route leading directly from Grant Park to Federal Plaza, what one attorney described as a
“non-march.” World Can’t Wait immediately filed an appeal of that decision.
1. All last week, people responded on an emergency footing
to the City’s denial of World Can’t Wait’s proposed march route for October 5th, following the noon rally in Grant Park. A
press conference at City Hall on Tuesday featured Judge R. Eugene Pincham;
Reverend Greg Dell (Broadway United Methodist Church, for identification only);
Ali Khan (Executive Director of the American Muslim Council); Father Bob Bossie
(8th Day Justice
Center), and many other
voices, including college and high school students. (Video at
www.chicagoworldcantwait.org)
2. On Friday, the City had scheduled an administrative
hearing to hear World Can’t Wait’s appeal of the denial of our route. This
hearing is conducted and the decision made by an attorney who is hired by the
City on a per diem basis; in other words, this is not an independent judicial proceeding
such as in court. It puts the attorney in a position where if he/she rules
against the city, the city could simply cut back their hours.
We had a lively group of supporters and people outraged by
the denial at the hearing, and we got press coverage of the issue on CLTV, WGN
TV and the Chicago Tribune.
3. Before the hearing, the attorney for the City initiated
negotiations. He and a representative of the city traffic management and a CPD
officer for the Loop were involved in these
negotiations. A proposal for a march route was agreed to by World Can’t Wait
steering committee representatives present and the people representing various
City agencies, who characterized it as (paraphrase) “something we can take
back.”. Then the City negotiators made a call “downtown” and came back with “no
deal.” So we immediately went into the administrative hearing. Could this
impasse have anything to do with the Mayor Daley’s stated opinion that “you
stand by the president, you stand by the men and women in the military”? (cbs2chicago.com,
11/30/04) The only ruling the attorney hearing the case can make is to either
uphold the denial or to grant the route we originally requested.
4. Mike Radzilowsky, the attorney for World Can’t Wait,
got the City bureaucrat who signed the denial to admit that he had decided on
the alternate “non-march” of a few blocks because it was the shortest route
from point A to point B, thereby posing the least interference with traffic. He
essentially admitted he had given no thought to the issue of “comparable public
visibility” that the City’s own ordinance requires of an alternate route the
City must provide when denying an applicant’s route. Back pedaling, he tried to
claim that there would be visibility by being in Federal Plaza
(not a march) and through coverage by the press. We all know what
(non-)coverage the opinions of millions about this administration get, not to
mention protests against it.
5. Mike, our attorney, also pointed out numerous other
instances where traffic had been shut down to accommodate events, like a
private fundraiser for Republican candidate for governor Judy Barr Topinka that
involved closure of part of Michigan Avenue and Lake Shore Drive in the middle
of a business day.
6. World Can’t Wait steering committee members and our
lawyer made a strong case to the press, the public and in the hearing about the
gravity of the denial of the permit to conduct a protest march when we have
just witnessed two weeks of unprecedented new laws that legalize torture and
severely restrict habeas corpus, the basic right to legal redress first
established in England with the Magna Carta in 1215, as well as authorizing
warrantless searches and further ballooning the bloated war budget.
7. We are asking everyone to send the following statement
to their aldermen, their ministers and union reps, newspapers and representatives,
the ACLU and any other people with a platform, to urge the City to negotiate in
good faith.
City of Chicago
Should Lift Restrictions on March Permit for World Can’t Wait’s Oct 5
Mobilization
I am concerned about the severe
restrictions the City is attempting to place on the World Can’t Wait – Drive
Out the Bush Regime’s right to march through the streets of Chicago on Oct 5th as part of a national mobilization against the
Bush Administration that will occur in over 150 cities. In Chicago, World Can’t Wait objects to the
City’s attempts to limit the march route to a few blocks and a very short time
period. This is a form of extreme restraint on free speech. I understand that World
Can’t Wait desires to secure a legally permitted march route, one that allows
for reasonable visibility for their message. Further I have been informed that
the City’s representatives and World Can’t Wait had negotiated a route
acceptable to both sides prior to the hearing on the permit on Friday, when the
City pulled the rug out from under the compromise. Whether one agrees or not
with all or part of World Can’t Wait ‘s message and purpose in marching, it is
important to protest the City’s attempts to seriously restrict the public’s
right to free speech and assembly.
I urge the City to negotiate a permit
with the public visibility its own ordinance requires.
* * * * *
8. The hearing officer has until the end of the day on
Tuesday to issue his decision but it could come as soon as tomorrow, Monday. At
that time, we’ll decide on our next step. If the City’s route is upheld, it’s
on to Federal court.
As we say, “Face it. The Bush regime is remaking the world, very quickly, in a
fascist way and for generations to come. Denial won’t help. And the Democrats
aren’t stopping them. But WE must. And we can. There are millions of us. …
” Thousands contributed to publish a full-page ad in USA Today on Sept.
20, reading in part: “Endless wars. Torture. Katrina. Theocracy. … This
regime does not represent us and we will drive it out.”