GLAA supports Patterson Demonstration bill and ACLU-endorsed amendments
Related Links

Bill 15-968

D.C. Council

GLAA testifies on genetic information bill 07/07/04

GLAA testifies on budget for Office of Human Rights 04/05/04

GLAA submits testimony on Office of Human Rights 02/23/04

GLAA on Human Rights

GLAA on Public Safety


GLAA is a Lambda Rising Affiliate! Click here and we'll get a commission on every item you purchase.

GLAA supports Patterson Demonstration bill and ACLU-endorsed amendments


GAY AND LESBIAN ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE OF WASHINGTON
Fighting for Equal Rights Since 1971
P. O. Box 75265
Washington, D.C. 20013

Monday, November 15, 2004


The Honorable Kathy Patterson
Chair, Committee on the Judiciary
Council of the District of Columbia
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20004

Dear Councilmember Patterson:

We are writing today to endorse Bill 15-968, the "First Amendment Rights and Police Standards Act of 2004," and to commend the recommendations of the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area (ACLU/NCA). As defenders of civil liberties in the District for over three decades, we are grateful to you and your staff for drafting it, to your co-sponsors for supporting it, and to our friends in ACLU/NCA for reviewing it so carefully and making good suggestions for improving it.

In particular, we commend the amendments supported by ACLU/NCA that would:

We also agree with ACLU/NCA that you should not delete the bill's statement that "persons and groups have a right to organize and participate in peaceful First Amendment assemblies [in] the District of Columbia, and to engage in First Amendment assembly near the object of their protest so they may be seen and heard, subject to reasonable restrictions designed to protect public safety and accommodate the interest of [others]." As ACLU/NCA has noted, police here and elsewhere have too often violated the spirit of the First Amendment in recent years by confining peaceful demonstrators to "free speech zones" far away from the object of their protest. You should therefore resist the suggestion by the Office of Attorney General to delete the above policy statement.

We were as troubled as you in September 2002 when four hundred peaceful protesters and bystanders in Pershing Park were arrested by MPD officers without warning or just cause. But perhaps more disturbing than the incident itself was the long refusal by the MPD and the Williams Administration to acknowledge wrongdoing. MPD Chief Charles Ramsey, with whom we are happy to have worked closely and cooperated on many matters, repeatedly said that the police had nothing to apologize for, and was initially praised by Mayor Williams for his handling of the arrests. Only a year later, after the report of the internal police investigation was ordered released by a federal judge, did the Mayor admit that there were "lessons to be learned," and did the Chief acknowledge, "There are some things at Pershing Park that we could have done better."

Those events demonstrate not only the value of the courts, but the difficulty of getting even well-intentioned public servants to police themselves. Your bill, with ACLU/NCA's recommended changes, will help force our police to follow procedures that respect First Amendment freedoms without compromising public safety.

Thank you for your attention to this and for your continued defense of our civil liberties. We urge the rest of your colleagues, whom we are copying on this letter, to join you and your co-sponsors in supporting Bill 15-968.


Sincerely,

Richard J. Rosendall
Vice President for Political Affairs

cc: All D.C. Councilmembers
American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area


Page not found – GLAA

Nothing Found

sad-outline
Sorry, the page you tried to access does not exist or has changed address