Use of Park for Pro-Marijuana Rally Is Denied

Joe Di Nicola, the owner of a bookstore in Newport Beach, and some friends want to throw a rally in Mile Square Park in support of the legalization of marijuana.

But county officials say the rally is a pipe dream, and last week they just said no.

“It’s not any of our business what their political views are,” said Bill Secor, manager of the county’s permits division, who rejected an application for an April 5 rally at the county park in Fountain Valley. “We’re just looking at people using the facility in a responsible way . . . and last year they overran the place.”

Secor was referring to a pro-marijuana rally last September in Mile Square Park, an event that county officials say included open pot smoking, drinking of alcohol, blasting of music and other violations.

But organizers of that event dispute the allegations, noting that no arrests were made. They say the issue is one of free speech--and theirs, they charge, is being taken away.

“We’re exercising our First Amendment rights,” said Di Nicola, who owns the One World bookshop and helped organize last year’s rally as part of a group called Orange County Coalition for Environmental Reform.

“It looks like we’ll be making a federal case out of this,” he said.

Di Nicola said his group is considering legal action against the county over the permit rejection, and an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California said the group may have a good case.

In an interview, ACLU attorney Robin Toma questioned why the county could not have found a solution short of banning the rally altogether, such as requiring organizers to post an insurance bond or hire their own security.

“When you’re talking about free speech in a traditional forum like a public park,” Toma said, “I think the Constitution requires the government to look at every possible means (of accommodating the event) . . . without completely banning speech.”

Out of about 500 permit applications each year for use of county parks, only a handful or less are denied, county officials said. “This is an unusual situation,” Secor acknowledged.

Indeed, “since this issue is somewhat controversial,” the permit decision was reviewed and approved by top officials at the Environmental Management Agency, said Robert G. Fisher, the county’s director of harbors, beaches and parks. And EMA officials later sat down and discussed it with Board of Supervisors Chairman Roger R. Stanton as well.

“I supported (the decision) 100%,” Stanton said.

Stanton said his office and others got many complaints from the public about the rally last year, and he noted that “the park is designed for . . . and heavily used by families and their children.” In the view of county staff, the rally could disrupt that role, he said.

As for the free speech issues raised by organizers, Stanton said: “They’re trying to create reasons that don’t exist.”

John Sibley, chief deputy director of the Environmental Management Agency, which oversees county parks, agreed.

“If they’re going to make a constitutional issue out of it, they’re free to do that, and I’m sure we’ll see them in court,” Sibley said. “The fact is . . . that they abused the park.”

Last year’s “Hempfest,” held Sept. 22, drew several thousand people--many in tie-dyed shirts reminiscent of the 1960s--for rock ‘n’ roll music, arts and crafts and speeches urging the legalization of marijuana.

Bumper stickers such as “Partnership for a Free Drug Orange County” were common.

Participants argued that marijuana and hemp have environmental and medicinal values.

In banning marijuana use, Di Nicola said Monday: “The government assumes the power to act as parent and legislate what a person could or should do with your own body.”

Neither of two press accounts on the rally made any mention of rowdiness or illegal behavior. And no arrests were made, officials said.

But Secor said there were not enough law enforcement personnel on hand to make arrests, since organizers vastly underestimated the size of the crowd--they had predicted 300 to 500 people.

Officials said those police officers who were present decided not to make arrests for fear of “inciting” the crowd.

But in county reports filed after the rally, rangers reported seeing people smoking pot, drinking alcohol and violating vendor and leash laws. In addition, speakers used “foul language” over the public address system, offending some nearby residents and other park-goers, officials reported.

In one case, a family celebrating a birthday party insisted on getting its park fee refunded because of the “graphic” language, county officials said.

Di Nicola dismissed the allegations.

“We could challenge them on all those things. . . . It’s all hearsay and it’s ludicrous. There were no arrests,” he said. “What this is really about is politics.”