According to Chicago mayor Richard Daley, the
police department, and a federal judge, peace activists
have no protected constitutional right to free
speech or public assembly along Michigan Avenue
-- one of the City’s busiest streets and a powerful
venue to take our anti-war message directly to the
people. Since the City has refused to grant anti-war
activists a permit to rally and march on Michigan
Avenue south to a legal, permitted rally at the Federal
Plaza -- even though the City allows both commercial
groups and the Chicago police to parade
along this route each year -- if you elect to leave the
area, we’d urge you to consider taking these
leaflets (leaflet here - pdf file).leaflets and hand them out to passersby as you
travel to today’s technically legal, technically permitted
2pm rally at the Federal Plaza, at Dearborn
and Adams in the south Loop.
We think the federal judge, who worked as a prosecutor
for Chicago’s mayor while Daley was Cook
County State’s Attorney, got it wrong. But the timeline
of the court does not allow us to press this critical
constitutional question in the courts until after
March 19.
The federal court has gotten other constitutional
questions wrong, as well. For many years, federal
judges ruled that it was ‘legal’ for government authorities
to deny women and people of color the
right to vote, ‘legal’ to enforce racial segregation,
and ‘legal’ to prevent people from organizing in
unions. Ultimately, Chicagoans will have to fight to
change the Chicago ordinance that effectively declares
parts of our city a “No Free Speech Zone” –
an important part of the battle to exercise our constitutional
rights to freedom of speech and freedom
of assembly along a prominent public way.
We hope you join us in this upcoming battle.
Your rights under City Ordinance 10-8-330, which
regulates ‘parades’ and ‘public assembly’, allows
people to walk on the sidewalk and flyer -- and
even protest! (a) (2) "Public assembly" means (i)
a company of persons which is reasonably anticipated
to obstruct the normal flow of traffic upon
the public way and that is collected together in one
place, or (ii) any organized march or procession
of persons upon any public sidewalk that is reasonably
anticipated to obstruct the normal flow of
pedestrian traffic on the public way, but which does
not meet the [Ordinance's] definition of parade.
So avoid obstructing other pedestrians and traffic.