Fencing off free speech

This article and an article in the Chicago Tribune (protest sites for Olympics) that talks about how the Chinese are creating "free speech zones" for people who want to protest in public during the Olympics made me wonder

How can you say you are for freedom of speech on one hand and then insist that if people want to protest in public they must do it in a designated area far away from major political events?

Just as Chinese officials are trying to keep the Olympics from becoming to political officials in Denver and the twin cities are trying to keep the conventions from becoming to political and unpredictable. Denver wants to use the conventions as a world stage to showcase what so great about their cities and the great states of Colorado. They want people to visit Denver. Which is good idea, considering you can travel hundreds of miles to an exotic city without having to change you currency.

The thing is these great cities can still get a good PR boost without having to wall off free speech and keep their plans control the protesters a secret.

It is disturbing to hear about the increased secrecy over what the way the police plan to deal with protesters and what equipment they are planning to purchase to control crowds that could grow as large as the crowd that met Obama in Berlin yesterday.

The refusal of the Denver police to turn over records of the equipment they plan to purchase for crowd control and what they plan to do with unruly protesters have created an atmosphere that is ripe for rumor s and speculation.

This atmosphere has given credence to ridiculous rumors like the police are planning to buy devices that use sound waves to causing them to lose control of their bowels. This system was called the "brown note" in some corners.

Why would anyone believe a rumor that police would resort to using a "Brown Note" against protesters? How could they possibly clean up the mess?

Apparently Denver city officials were afraid that someone would. On Wednesday they told Rocky Mountain News that these rumors were false and insisted that the equipment that they are buying would not include "microwave or sonic waves or weapons that use "slime" or "goo" to immobilize protesters" according to a Fox News article.

Now that we known they are not planning on hiring the GhostBusters, or that Marc Summers from the Nickelodeon's Double Dare. Unfortunately we still cannot rule out if they plan to use sharks with laser beams on their heads.

Until the police realize the details to the public they will never be able to escape the rumors and speculation that will fly all over the internet and eventually leak out into the mainstream media.

"Free speech zones" weather they are in Beijing, a city known for keeping secrets or Denver is a violation of our freedom of speech because it creates a physical barrier between the people and the politicians and the media covering the event.

In the case of the DNC convention, Denver is planning to keep protesters couped up in a cage made of chicken wire and chain link fences that are more than 600 yards from the convention.

Those who attempt to exercise their First Amendment rights outside this makeshift cage, which is partially obscured by trees and sculptures, will be arrested.

According to an editorial in the White Mountain Independent (a small Colorado paper)
John W. Whitehead,

Whitehead points out that even some members of the media are so scared that protesters could disturb their broadcasts or endanger their reporters that they are using Denver officials to keep protesters away from media tents.

It is the job of the media to cover protesters to brave unruly situations and cover all sides of the story of the convention. They must cover the protesters outside of the convention center and keep the Democratic party from dictating the coverage of the event.

Protesters are only perceived as dangerous because their message challenges the status quo. It's the message that is feared. Thus, efforts to confine and control the dissenters are really efforts to confine and control their political messages, whatever those might be.

Free speech zones and all the secrecy that goes with them are not only unconstitutional by unpractical for Denver. By restricting where protesters can go to a few areas far from the action you are enticing them to do more in a desperate attempt to grab the attention of the press.

If you make them feel like they voice cannot be heard because they are physically kept hundreds of feet away from everyone that is participating in the conventions some protesters are more likely to protest in ways in more extreme and even violent ways. Some protesters will come to the free speech zones with the attitude that the only way to get reporters to bring their cameras over and take a peek at what they are doing is to get on the nerves of the police.

Fencing off protesters and keeping them out of the action sends the message to people all over the county that they are really two Americans. ( to steal a line from a famous speech of John Edwards) The connected: politicians who claim to represent the people, corporate tycoons and really rich people and the unconnected; everyone else who lack the money and fame to get their voice heard.
If protesters felt like someone in the convention was willing to listen to their cries if they felt like they did not have to create a chaotic situation to get the attention of the media they might be more likely to corporate.

The protesters need to a reason to believe that some of the politicians did not come all this way just to grandstand and preach from their bully pulpit. They did not come from all over the country and all over the world to be treated like terrorists suspects and extremists.

When political protest is caged, it's not just the rights of a few protesters that are at stake. The very definition of freedom is in danger.

Putting physical barriers between protesters and everyone that has a ticket to the convention endanger the definition of freedom that this country was founded on. The bill of rights was written to give freedom to the people that could only be restricted in extreme circumstances.

Citizens were given the freedoms that are guaranteed in the bill of rights to make the government fear the people. Thanks to the paranoia of terrorism in the wake of September 11 terrorists attacks citizens fear the government more then ever before.

In Beijing the International Olympic Committee's chief coordinator, Hein Verbruggen believes that by creating "free speech zones" the IOC is "Showing that Beijing is serious about human rights."

According to Olympics security director Liu Shaowu "free speech zones" give Chinese citizens an opportunity to exercise their freedom of speech that they were given by Chinese law.

"Chinese law guarantees the legal rights of demonstration and assembly," Liu said.

By fencing off protesters Denver officials are lowing themselves to the standards of the Chinese by caging protesters. In China any sign of lowering restrictions on freedom of speech is sen as a sign that the government is giving in to public pressure and actually listening to the people. In American where are freedom of speech is guaranteed by the constitution any sign that the government is trying to cutoff the average citizens from public debate and keep them out of the political process.