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Peaceful protests outlawed in georgia { May 24 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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State Of Emergency Allows Brunswick Police To Halt G8 Protests
Governor's Order Covers Six Counties Including Glynn, Camden, Chatham
POSTED: 10:44 p.m. EDT May 24, 2004
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- A new city law in Brunswick gives police the power to halt protests during the G-8 summit now that the governor has declared a pre-emptive state of emergency in coastal Georgia through June 20.
Activists said the change allows authorities to squelch lawful dissent without reason when President Bush meets with world leaders June 8-10 at nearby Sea Island. Brunswick's mayor and Gov. Sonny Perdue's top lawyer denied any such intent.
Perdue signed an order May 7 declaring a state of emergency in six coastal counties beginning Monday, citing "potential danger ... from unlawful assemblages, threats of violence and otherwise."
The governor's order places no limitations on demonstrations. However, the Brunswick City Council amended its laws last week to give police authority to terminate protests if a "state of emergency or disaster is lawfully declared."
Brunswick is the nearest mainland city to Sea Island, 80 miles south of Savannah, where Bush and other G-8 leaders will meet. Protest groups have been trying for months to get a permit to demonstrate in the city when the summit arrives in two weeks.
"I would hate to think they're deliberately doing that, because it's so stupid," said Robert Randall, who has sought a permit to hold a carnival-like Fair World Fair in Brunswick for peace activists during the summit.
"Our position all along has been if you're concerned about trouble, you extend a warm hand of welcome," Randall said. "All the indications are the authorities have chosen to do just the opposite."
It's rare for governors to pre-emptively declare states of emergency, normally reserved for disasters such as hurricanes or tornadoes. However, Georgia Gov. Zell Miller issued a similar order for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Perdue's executive order applies to Glynn, Camden, Chatham, Bryan, Liberty, and McIntosh counties. It coordinates the Georgia Army National Guard, state law enforcement, and public health agencies under a single office to reduce response time to any problems.
The last time a governor used such an order was during the 1996 Olympics.
Perdue's declaration for the month surrounding the G-8 summit was done to coordinate law enforcement, including the Army National Guard, under a centralized command, said Harold Melton, the governor's executive counsel.
As for limiting public protests, "you won't see anything in there does anything close to that," Melton said.
Melton said the governor did not know that Brunswick planned to amend its law to allow for suspension of protest rights under a state of emergency. And Brunswick Mayor Brad Brown said he didn't know the governor had already declared a state of emergency until after the city adopted the legal change.
"It was not the intent of our ordinance to coincide with the governor making that declaration at all," Brown said. "But it was done in case there was a true state of emergency, where something happened."
Brown said the city was not ordering police to halt summit protests because of Perdue's order, though he acknowledged the new law makes that possible.
"From a literal interpretation of it, I guess you can say that," Brown said. "From a practical interpretation of it, that's not going to be the case."
The American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of summit protest organizers, filed a lawsuit against Brunswick this month over an earlier version of its protest ordinance passed in March.
The ACLU and the city have been trying to negotiate a settlement with a federal judge, and other changes made to the law last week were intended to quiet protesters' concerns that the law was too restrictive.
Carol Bass, an Atlanta protest organizer with the Peace and Justice Coalition, called Perdue's state of emergency order troubling at best.
"The implications deeply concern me, especially with the implication for demonstrations," Bass said. "That's a huge amount of authority for someone to able to declare a state of emergency. And authority should never be used casually."
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press.
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