Speech Protesters Granted Spot
Capitol Area Allowed for State of Union
By Karlyn Barker, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 27, 2006; B02
Organizers
of a planned protest during President Bush’s State of the Union address
next week reached an agreement yesterday with law enforcement officials
and will now be allowed to use the area around the U.S. Capitol
Reflecting Pool for their demonstration.
The demonstrators had
initially been offered the Reflecting Pool area on the west side of the
Capitol as a protest site but then were told that the site had been
reclassified as part of the security perimeter for the day of Bush’s
speech.
Organizers of the Tuesday protest, called “World Can’t
Wait — Drive Out the Bush Regime,” filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday
seeking a court order to let them hold the gathering at the Reflecting
Pool. They met yesterday with police and government representatives to
resolve the issue.
“The Capitol Police reassessed its security
concerns regarding the area around the Capitol Reflecting Pool and
withdrew its request to the U.S. Park Service to close that area during
President Bush’s State of the Union address,” said Channing Phillips, a
spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, which participated in
discussions to settle the dispute.
Phillips said the nearby
grassy areas on the Capitol grounds are fenced off because of turf
renovation. But he said the amended permit, which will be issued by the
National Park Service, will be sufficient for the group’s needs.
James
R. Klimaski, an attorney for the demonstrators, said the lawsuit will
be withdrawn as soon as the group receives the amended permit. A
hearing was held before U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina yesterday
to tell him that the matter had been resolved.
The protest group
said it was told Jan. 10 that it could use the area around the Capitol
Reflecting Pool for a demonstration timed to coincide with Bush’s 9
p.m. address to Congress. But on Jan. 19, organizers were told that the
U.S. Capitol Police had expanded the security area to include the
Reflecting Pool and that they would have to confine the demonstration
to the gravel walkways between Third and Fourth streets on the Mall.
The other option was to gather at Seventh Street, about a mile from the
Capitol.
“A protest not seen and a protest not heard is not a
protest,” said Travis Morales, one of the organizers of the
demonstration, who accused the Bush administration of trying to keep
demonstrators far from the Capitol. He said yesterday that the
Reflecting Pool area “will hold thousands more people” than the gravel
walkways.
Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a spokeswoman for the U.S.
Capitol Police, gave no explanation yesterday for the change of
position. The department, she said, “constantly re-evaluates security
requirements leading up to large events.”