Protesters threaten to sue city
Permits, trash, time rile groups
Just six weeks before the Democratic National Convention, civil rights groups are threatening to sue the city of Boston because a "free-speech zone" near the FleetCenter remains piled high with twisted steel and hunks of Big Dig concrete, no protest groups have received demonstration permits, and the city is enforcing its rule against afternoon marches.
The threats of legal action followed a meeting yesterday between the city and the American Civil Liberties Union and National Lawyers Guild, where activists were told of a Boston ordinance that bans marches from 3:30-6:30 p.m. Those are hours when evening commuter traffic is heaviest.
But the civil rights groups complain that the rule effectively bars them from parading in streets when delegates will be arriving at the FleetCenter for convention activities.
The civil rights groups were also told demonstrators may not be allowed to carry signs on sticks for security reasons, and that the use of battery-powered bullhorns will require special permits.
Those rules don't appear on the city's website guide to demonstration permitting.
"Here we are, six weeks before the convention," said Jeffery Feuer, a National Lawyers Guild attorney who took part in yesterday's meeting. "The DNC has been planned for more than two years. We've been meeting with them since last July, so it's not acceptable anymore. Unless we hear imminently that the procedures have been changed and the constitutional issues are addressed and people can take part in the process, then we're going to file a lawsuit."
Merita A. Hopkins, corporation counsel for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, said that some of the civil rights groups' complaints appear to have merit, including one that permits are not being issued quickly enough.
She said she will meet with permitting officials tomorrow to determine the cause of delays. But she said the city won't back down on its plan to enforce the no-march ordinance during evening rush hour.
"With the shutdown of the Central Artery, we are totally dependent on the surface streets; you start shutting those down, where do you put emergency vehicles?" Hopkins said. "I can't imagine them not hearing about that until just now. These are rules and regs on the books for years. They've been public for years."
The civil rights groups have been sparring with city officials for months over issues ranging from the location of the so-called free speech zone that will be reserved for protesters to the city's permitting process for convention protests.
The free speech zone has been moved to a 29,000-square foot site that is closer to the FleetCenter to ensure that it meets court-mandated requirements that demonstrations be allowed within sight and sound of their intended audience. But the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority site remains piled with construction debris.
Boston police officials have promised the site would be ready for inspection by civil rights groups by July 1.
But a contract signed last week by the city and Turnpike Authority, obtained by the Globe, says the city will not take control of the area until June 28, leaving just three days for city crews to grade, pave, and fence off the site after Big Dig crews have cleared it.
"Given how on-time and sticking to its schedule the Big Dig has been, we'll believe it when we see it," Feuer said.
Sean O'Neill, a spokesman for the Turnpike Authority -- which oversees the Big Dig -- said yesterday that he is "highly confident" that work crews will cart off the steel and concrete debris in time for the June 28 hand-over to the city.
"It will not be a problem to achieve clearing that area for that date," O'Neill said.
Carol Rose, executive director of the Massachusetts ACLU, said a suit would be prompted if the area isn't substantially cleared of construction debris by July 1, or if her group and others determine that the zone is deficient in some way, that alone could prompt a lawsuit.
She said civil-liberties groups may ask that all of Causeway Street in front of the FleetCenter be open to protesters.
In Boston, protests are likely to take place at multiple locations during the convention, which will run from July 26 to July 29.
However, the free-speech zone, which is bordered by Causeway and Canal streets, is the only spot near the convention arena set aside specifically for protesters. The spot will be able to hold about 4,000 people at a time.
As of yesterday, five groups had applied to the city to use the protest zone during the convention. No permits have yet been issued.
City officials expect a flurry of additional permit applications in the coming weeks and have made plans to block out time in the zone to groups in 50-minute intervals, to ensure that all who want to are able to have their say.
Groups that have applied for permits include United for Justice with Peace, the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, a Florida-based liberal group called Oral Majority, the anti-war group Eyes Wide Open, and the Westboro Baptist Church, a Topeka, Kan.-based organization that speaks out against gay rights.
In New York, where the Republican Party will hold its nominating convention at the end of August, United for Justice with Peace has sought a permit to march 250,000 people up Eighth Avenue by Madison Square Garden, but have been told by police that that street is off-limits. 