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Judge inspects protest zone { July 22 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/07/22/judge_inspects_protest_zone/http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/07/22/judge_inspects_protest_zone/
Judge inspects protest zone
Activists compare the area to a prison
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | July 22, 2004
US District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock walked under coils of razor wire and heavy black netting yesterday for a firsthand look at a ''free speech" protest zone across from the FleetCenter that prompted a lawsuit from activists who liken the space to a prison.
Followed by a throng of police, Secret Service agents, lawyers, and journalists, Woodlock inspected the 28,000-square-foot area under abandoned elevated Green Line tracks and raised a series of questions, including whether the area could safely contain protesters with only two exits.
''Are there any state building code requirements about the number of exits for a space for 4,000 people?" asked the judge, who carried a map and a pad during his 90-minute tour of the area under the hot afternoon sun.
Police Superintendent Robert Dunford and Boston police legal adviser Mary Jo Harris, who has guided many of Boston's preparations for next week's Democratic National Convention, promised to get Woodlock an answer.
But Harris told a reporter afterward that she was sure the site was safe. ''I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't," she said.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild have filed two lawsuits against the city challenging the protest zone and a parade route outside the FleetCenter. Hours before the tour, the judge held a hearing on one of the suits, which challenges the city's decision to alter a parade route so that it would end at the demonstration zone, rather than a spot closer to the FleetCenter. He will hold a second hearing this morning on the protest zone itself and is expected to issue a combined ruling shortly.
Yesterday, Woodlock asked particularly pointed questions inside the enclosed protest zone, which is located under downward-sloping tracks and is filled with obstructions, including crisscross green metal girders and a horizontal beam 5-feet, 9 inches off the ground.
Woodlock also asked how much space protesters had between a line of girders and a fence abutting a parking lot where delegates are expected to arrive by bus. (Nineteen feet, replied an official.) And the judge asked whether protesters would have much freedom to move inside the enclosed rectangle.
''Once they come in . . . they can go anywhere they want," Dunford said. ''This is an area that we're providing."
But Neil McGaraghan, an ACLU lawyer for activists who have filed a separate lawsuit challenging the city's refusal to let them march on Causeway Street across from the FleetCenter Sunday through Thursday, said the hemmed-in protest zone contradicted the city's rationale for rejecting the application.
The city contends that Causeway is off-limits to large groups of marchers because emergency vehicles have to be able to get through to evacuate the convention site, if necessary.
''They're talking about evacuation problems on Causeway Street," McGaraghan told a reporter. ''What do you think this is?" he said, as he appraised the fences, netting, and razor wire in the area. ''This is a disaster."
Among those objecting to the city's proposed parade route is the Coalition to Protest the DNC, a group of activists, union members, and two city councilors. The group is suing the city over denial of the request to march past the FleetCenter.
The coalition has permission to hold a rally for a projected 2,000 people on the Boston Common at noon Sunday. The city has offered to let the protesters march toward the FleetCenter after the rally, but they would be diverted a block or two before their destination and funneled into the protest zone. After exiting it, they could return to the Common.
''We're not going anywhere near this thing," Steven Kirschbaum, a member of a union that represents Boston's school bus drivers, said of the enclosed protest area. ''This is part of our protest."
The activists who are suing over the zone include United for Justice with Peace, the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, and the Bl(a)ck Tea Society (a self-described antiauthoritarian group).
Before the afternoon tour, Woodlock heard lawyers for the city and the US Secret Service and from the ACLU and National Lawyers Guild deliver arguments about the parade route sought by the coalition of activists, union members, and two Boston city councilors.
Lawyers for the activists said it is crucial for symbolic reasons to march to the FleetCenter because it will serve next week as the ''doorstep of the Democratic Party."
Many of the activists have denounced leading Democrats, including the presumptive presidential nominee, Senator John F. Kerry, for initially endorsing the war in Iraq.
But Woodlock questioned the value of the symbolism given that the FleetCenter will be largely empty at the time of what is expected to be the biggest march, on Sunday. The convention starts the following day.
Woodlock also questioned Harris and Assistant US Attorney George Henderson, who represented Secret Service agents who insist that Causeway Street be off-limits to marchers.
Woodlock seemed particularly interested in Harris's comment that a 20-foot-wide sidewalk across the street from the FleetCenter is open to pedestrians and groups of up to 20 protesters, but not to a march of 2,000 activists.
At one point, he asked Harris if it would be possible to stagger the protest march into groups of 20.
No, she said, because protesters were unlikely to be ''operating with military precision."
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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