Convention protesters won't be searched(Denver)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Denver Post

People who enter the public-demonstration zone outside the Pepsi Center during the Democratic National Convention won't be searched by police unless there is probable cause to do so, attorneys said in U.S. District Court in Denver today.

The disclosure came during a pretrial hearing in a case filed against the U.S. Secret Service and the city and county of Denver by the American Civil Liberties Union and several advocacy groups who plan to demonstrate during the convention.

Attorneys for the advocacy groups were concerned that police planned to search everyone who entered the public-demonstration zone, a 50,000-square-foot area that is going to be surrounded by chain-link fencing about 200 feet away from the entrance of the Pepsi Center.

The ACLU has sued Denver and the Secret Service, arguing that the public-demonstration zone and parade routes set by the agencies are too restrictive and too far away from the DNC and the delegates coming in and out of the Pepsi Center and therefore infringe on their free-speech rights.

A trial in the case is expected to begin Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. in Judge Marcia Krieger's courtroom.



Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_10023096

[babylonsister]

1. This sounds great! What am I missing? nt

[salguine]

9. It's the DEMOCRATIC National Convention. It would not surprise me if

the Powers That Be aren't searching anyone in hopes that someone does bring something and does something. It might just be the "incident" they need to suspend the election.

You can bet your ass people will be searched at the Republican convention.

[bean fidhleir]

11. How nice - they're going to partly obey the law!

I think what you're missing is the same as the rest of us are missing: the Constitution.

[Tesha]

13. You're missing the fact that it was *BLATANTLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL* to search people.

And even the suggestion that it be done is proof
of how far our country has sunk.

Tesha

[Selatius]

2. What's a "public demonstration zone"? Is that like the zones set up in Boston at the last DNC?

If so, they're going to be cages, essentially.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. President Clinton ordered them during the WTO ministerial in Seattle, 1999

As far as I know, that was the first time such things were implemented.

[Snazzy]

3. what happened to "free assembly"

Protest zones are bogus and need to get kicked up to a high court already.

[awoke_in_2003]

6. Actually, the first wound

occurred when they when it became a requirement to obtain a permit to assemble (like in most major cities). When you have to ask permission, it is no longer a right.

[MetaTrope]

5. Screw that, what's the plan for the RNC?

I expect the entire place will be ringed with tanks.

[Demeter]

7. Sounds Like a Setup For Slaughter

All the Democrats in power, ringed by fanatical GOPpers intent on disruption and unsearched.

Police told to keep hands off (after all, this is Colorado, not the most liberal state in the Union. High up on the rabid Right roster, and police have never been known as a liberal group, or even particularly law-abiding or dutiful)).

What a handy way to slip in the Blackwater brownshirts and wipe out the opposition. Then you can have a national emergency and declare martial law. How convenient! Just like those Tom Clancy novels that Dick and george and all are so fond of!

Not that I'm paranoid--just extremely cynical.


I know the Democrats thought they might pull Colorado into the Blue States by holding the convention there, but this is wartime, and being stupidly vulnerable is asking for the worst.

[mod mom]

10. I agree. With all the hate talk on right wing radio, it could make for an easy target.

They are also using this announcement to scare folks away from demonstration.

[The Wizard]

8. Of the two major political parties

which is more likely to have bigots with hand guns?

[sofa king]

12. Probable cause these days being, "I want to search that guy."