The Chicago Tribune, 9/30/06
By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons
A judge in Chicago is expected to rule early next week on a dispute
between the city and a group planning a downtown march in protest of
the Bush administration next Thursday.
Members of the Chicago chapter of “World Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush
Regime” submitted an application Sept. 15 for an afternoon march
between Grant Park and Federal Plaza. The group planned for 10,000 to
15,000 protesters to assemble at Jackson Boulevard and Columbus Drive
in Grant Park around noon and end up in Federal Plaza at Adams and
Dearborn Streets around 4 p.m.
The Chicago march is one of 103 expected across the United States that day, according to the group.
On Sept. 22 they received notice that the city was denying a permit for
a march along their requested route, which would have taken protesters
from Grant Park up Michigan Avenue, west on Ontario Street and south on
Clark Street to Federal Plaza.
A march along that route would last about two hours, according to
Michael Simon, assistant director of the city’s traffic management
authority, which is part of the Office of Emergency Management and
Communications.
Instead, the city suggested an alternate route that would take
protesters directly between Grant Park and Federal Plaza along Jackson.
A march along that route would last about a half an hour, allowing the
protesters to arrive in Federal Plaza around 2 p.m., Simon said.
Simon said the permit for the original march was denied because of its effect on rush-hour traffic.
“We looked for a direct route with the least amount of impact to
traffic and CTA services,” he said during an administrative hearing
this afternoon before Judge Raymond Proffer.
But members of the group said the alternate route makes them less
visible to Chicagoans and impinges on their First Amendment rights.
“It’s a suppression of our right to assemble,” said Jessie Davis, a spokeswoman for the group’s Chicago chapter.
Proffer, a judge with the city’s Department of Administrative Hearings,
has two business days to decide if the city’s alternate route is
acceptable. He is expected to issue a ruling on Monday or Tuesday.
If the judge affirms the city’s plan, group members plan to appeal in federal court, Davis said.
A prior protest by the group, in January, brought out about 500
protesters chanting for Bush to resign at Chicago’s Federal Plaza and a
march that followed.
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