The ANNOTICO Report
For the first time in 14 years, it will be possible this
fall for people of
goodwill in Denver to feel good about the Columbus Day
parade.
The city of Denver has finally passed two ordinances that
make it very
likely that Native American radical protesters who directly
interfere with
the parade can be successfully arrested, prosecuted and,
where appropriate,
fined and put in jail, as opposed to last year when the
Native Americans
not only disrupted the Columbus parade for 45 minutes,
but then though the
Native Americans violated Police orders, and were arrested,
they escaped
penalty, because of a technicality.
Some Italian Americans may be aware of last years battle,
BUT are not
familiar with the decades long battle that culminated
in the Columbus Day
parade having to be abandoned in the early 1990's, and
only reinstated in
the early 2000's.
And they are probably not aware that Mayor John Hickenlooper
and the Denver
City Council were encouraged by Native Americans to say
that city would no
longer welcome Columbus Day celebrations.
Hickenlooper, in something less than a profile in courage,
responded that
the city would neither endorse nor oppose an official
state or national
decision to end the holiday. In a later session with
some parade
organizers, Hickenlooper actually suggested the name
of the fall
celebration be changed to eliminate any reference to
Columbus. He went on
to give his not very helpful opinion that the parade
was simply generating
"bad publicity" for the Italian community each year.
These kinds of misguided comments fit all too neatly into
a familiar
pattern of city conduct. During the previous administration
of Wellington
Webb, there were actual attempts by the city to have
the parade organizers
effectively waive their First Amendment rights and give
to the protest
groups the right to define what could and could not be
celebrated.
Even last year, Denver police allowed protesters to hold
up the parade for
45 minutes, telling them that when they were ordered
to disperse, they
should disperse. They, of course, didn't and more than
200 were eventually
arrested. But what about that initial decision to conditionally
permit the
parade to be disrupted?
That decision is simply more evidence of the city's underlying
assumption,
evident for more than a decade, that the Italian-Americans
organizing the
parade have fewer free-speech rights than other groups
and that the
protesters somehow have more. [hmmm!!???]
=========================================================================
Commentary
A SPECIAL COLUMBUS DAY 2005
Denver Post
By Al Knight
Denver Post Columnist
July 20,2005
For the first time in 14 years, it will be possible this
fall for people of
goodwill in Denver to feel good about the Columbus Day
parade.
The city of Denver has finally passed two ordinances that
make it very
likely that protesters who directly interfere with the
parade can be
successfully arrested, prosecuted and, where appropriate,
fined and put in
jail.
The ordinances were approved last month with far too little
fanfare, given
the sordid history that has attended the annual Columbus
Day event.
It would be nice now if the city's belated action could
be given three
cheers. As it turns out, one cheer is probably enough.
The city, you see,
was more or less compelled to act.
Local judges last year had invalidated the ordinances
that were used in the
unsuccessful attempt to prosecute more than 200 people
who had disrupted
last year's parade. Inaction wasn't really an option.
The new ordinances prohibit the intentional disruption
of lawful
assemblies, such as parades, and the obstruction of streets.
A new standard
is also outlined for police and firefighters in dispersing
a crowd.
Defendants from last year's parade, it should be remembered,
claimed they
didn't know or couldn't be sure they were disobeying
a police order to move
on. The new standard punishes anyone who knows or "reasonably
should know"
that the person ordering them to disperse is a "peace
officer, a
firefighter, or a person with authority to control the
use of the
premises."
One might suppose that free-speech organizations like
the American Civil
Liberties Union would be celebrating the passage of these
ordinances. One
would be wrong. The ACLU has refused prior requests to
support the Italian
organizers of the annual parade and the free-speech interests
of the
participants. The organization instead has fretted for
years that the
Denver Police Department has been paying too much attention
to some of the
most well-known parade protesters, like college professors
Ward Churchill
and Glenn Morris. Both men were among eight defendants
acquitted earlier
this year, putting an end to the city's attempts to prosecute
the other
cases.
Not surprisingly, Morris used the occasion of his acquittal
to call on
Mayor John Hickenlooper and the City Council to say that
city would no
longer welcome Columbus Day celebrations.
Hickenlooper, in something less than a profile in courage,
responded that
the city would neither endorse nor oppose an official
state or national
decision to end the holiday. In a later session with
some parade
organizers, Hickenlooper actually suggested the name
of the fall
celebration be changed to eliminate any reference to
Columbus. He went on
to give his not very helpful opinion that the parade
was simply generating
"bad publicity" for the Italian community each year.
These kinds of misguided comments fit all too neatly into
a familiar
pattern of city conduct. During the Wellington Webb administration,
there
were actual attempts by the city to have the parade organizers
effectively
waive their First Amendment rights and give to the protest
groups the right
to define what could and could not be celebrated.
Even last year, Denver police allowed protesters to hold
up the parade for
45 minutes, telling them that when they were ordered
to disperse, they
should disperse. They, of course, didn't and more than
200 were eventually
arrested. But what about that initial decision to conditionally
permit the
parade to be disrupted?
That decision is simply more evidence of the city's underlying
assumption,
evident for more than a decade, that the Italian-Americans
organizing the
parade have fewer free-speech rights than other groups
and that the
protesters somehow have more.
What was nonsense then is nonsense still.
Attorney David Sprecace, who represents the parade organizers,
put it best
in a recent letter when he said, "Imagine the public
outcry that would take
place if a group of protesters violated Denver's ordinances
and stopped the
Martin Luther King Parade, interfered with a Cesar Chavez
celebration,
blocked Federal Boulevard during Cinco de Mayo, or blocked
a 4 Directions
March?"
The question answers itself.
And yet, given recent history, the passage of the new
ordinances finally
gives hope that after a very long time, the city of Denver
will finally
stop bargaining away the free-speech interests of some
of its citizens.
Al Knight of Fairplay (alknight@mindspring.com) is a former
member of The
Post's editorial-page staff. His columns appear on Wednesday.