[*BCM*] Parades vs. travelling on a bike

[Anne Wolfe]

You know Jym, I think we have yet to hear from you what YOU consider a parade.  Mostly we
just hear how you don't like Smolka.  True, he does indeed sound like a jerk, but the "he
was in charge when someone else shot Diallo" is starting to really be a stretch, unless
you've got evidence that Smolka shot, gave orders to shoot, was present or anything else
to do with the Diallo shooting.  You're just being inflammatory.  They guy may be a jerk,
but unless you've got an actual better argument for defining parade (and demo according
to the way I read the NYCLU pamphlet is a static entity not utillilzing the public
streets, just sidewalks, etc) then I suggest you either give the guy a better way to do
his job, or go find such a way.  Not that I like the guy, but even a broken clock is
right twice a day, so how are you going to prove that this isn't one of these two times a
day he's on to something?

It may indeed be a profound civil rights issue, but unless you can prove he's
discriminating against some citizens who are parading in groups as small as CM's, you're
going to have a hell of a time proving it.  Public officials have unfettered discretion
ALL THE TIME.  Loads of statutes.  Cops have discretions against cars, and they use it. 
Cops have discretions against bikes.  It was announced in the run up to the RNC that even
before it started that the crackdown was in place.  CM had a bunch of options:
1) for once, and only once, change the date/time of their mass or alternately not have
it.  At least in Boston, in the cold people don't show so it isn't ALWAYS held the last
Fridasy of the month.  Some months it just doenst' happen.
2) Apply for the parade permit and go by its terms.
3) Utilize the CM as civil disobedience and accept the consequences.

CM did none of these things.  The cutting of the bike locks is related, but separate
fromt he parade issue.  And you haven't come up with an instance of what YOU would call a
parade, even with the guidelines issued by the NYCLU.
--- Jym Dyer <jym at econet.org> wrote:
> >> How many vehicles/pedestrians must be travelling together
> >> (communally agreeing to travel in the same direction, and
> >> going the same place) before a permit is necessary?  2, 4,
> >> 10, 50, 100?
> > X where X is less than the number of morons who had to ruin
> > it for people by doing it during the RNC.
> 
> =v= Forgive me for making another attempt to interject some
> actual facts here.
> 
> =v= August 27, 2004, was not during the RNC; it was two days
> before the RNC started.  It also happens to be the last Friday
> of the month.  Chris Carlsson _et_al_, in San Francisco, were
> the ones who came up with the "last Friday of the month" idea.
> They failed to forsee that, 12 years later, NYC would have a
> Republican mayor who'd inflict the RNC on the city an schedule
> it for the last Sunday of the month.  I guess they're the real
> morons.
> 
> =v= NYC law defines a "demonstration" as 20 or more people
> (and does not require a permit).  The definition of "parade
> or procession" (which do require permits) specifies no number.
> In Chief Bruce Smolka's testimony he admits there's no number
> and claims he can decide any amount he wants, even seven:
> 
> http://www.cars-suck.org/trans1208.txt
> 
> For a public official to assert so much discretion to commit
> prior restraint is a profound civil rights issue.
>     <_Jym_>
> 
> P.S.:  Smolka has a history of trouble with numbers.  The
> unit he led in 1999 apparently felt it was necessary to put
> 41 bullets into Amadou Diallo, who was unarmed.
> _______________________________________________
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> 


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