Demonstrators’ Voices Must Be Heard

The latest commotion over establishing an assembly area for peaceful demonstrators in Pershing Square adds one more shrill note to the atmosphere of panic about the Democratic National Convention.

The LAPD, the media and some of my colleagues on the Los Angeles City Council seem to believe that free speech is nice as long as it doesn’t create too difficult a situation for the police to manage.

I encountered a similar message when I was in China last year: I asked if demonstrations took place in Tiananmen Square and was told that the government supports the demonstrations in theory but that the square is too hard to police, so they don’t allow it.

There are three primary components of how to accomplish the peaceful goals of the protesters.

First, create an ad-hoc committee to oversee and ensure accountability for the myriad decisions that must be made regarding the upcoming convention.

Second, wealthy private donors who have pledged donations to the convention must be required to follow through on their commitments before additional public dollars are spent.

Third, after the council Friday rescinded its plan to designate Pershing Square as an official demonstration site, protesters should be allowed to use any public place to peacefully assemble.

The principles invoked in these proposals--the right to peaceful assembly and free speech, accountability over decision-making and the spending of public funds--spring from the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which, in 1789 was indeed an “anti-establishment handbook.”

When protesters went to Seattle, they did so with the goal of shutting down the meetings of the World Trade Organization. Here in Los Angeles, they have no such goal. Instead, protesters from Los Angeles and across the country plan to bring attention to important issues that they believe both major parties have failed to address.

Convention planners repeatedly emphasize the opportunity to “showcase Los Angeles.” While I have no objection to this, I believe it is also appropriate that the delegates understand the harsher realities of our city--that one-third of children in Los Angeles live in poverty, and the richest 50 people have as much money as the poorest 2 million.

Has the discourse around issues of free speech and freedom of assembly eroded so greatly that we can honestly argue that giving demonstrators an hourlong slot in a government-sponsored “protest pit” can possibly be what the framers of the Constitution had in mind? The fact that we even thought to designate a “protest area,” rather than realizing that peaceful assembly in public areas should always be protected, is of serious concern.

Our democracy functions best with a multiplicity of voices and when all have the opportunity to be heard. We, as elected officials, have a responsibility to protect their rights to do so, even as we ensure the safety the city.