DNC protestors' suit against Secret Service, Denver is ludicrous

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July 30, 12:35 AM

by Miranda K. Bacon, Denver Crime Examiner

 

 

Glen Spagnulo demonstrates outside a court hearing on Tuesday.
George Kochaniec Jr./ Rocky Mountain News  

Let’s call it a compromise and settle for annoyed.

Former city of Longmont employee-turned squeaky wheel Glen Spagnuolo, and a slew of others calling themselves the “Re-Create 68 Alliance” and the ACLU have sued the city of Denver and the United States Secret Service.

The groups claim a public demonstration area and parade route for the upcoming Democratic National Convention are too far away from event headquarters, and therefore restrictive of citizens’ free speech rights.

The 50,000-square-foot demonstration area, slated to be about 200 yards away from the Pepsi Center, will be surrounded by chain-link fences, and the groups say this measure is unnecessary, saying they don’t need to be fenced in.

And Auraria Parkway and Chopper Avenue – traveling around the center – will be closed for the duration of the DNC, due to security perimeters.

According to reports, protest groups had hoped to march there.

But Secret Service agents testified today that the perimeters are necessary for them to protect convention-goers and protesters alike, from a slew of potential threats.

Agents further noted that the group – whose name is believed by some to be a reference to the bloody protests during the 1968 convention in Chicago – has a 24-page ‘street tactics’ manual on its website which includes tips on forceful protest, including a “wedge charge,” in which protesters form a “V” with only one or two people out front, to protect a march if police attempt to shut it down.

But the group in court today assured listeners that they are bent upon peaceful, non-violent protest – and said their name isn’t a reference to the 68 convention, but rather a reference to the grassroots political movements of the 1960s. (Why choose the specific number 68, then?)

I find that hard to believe, coming from a man who told talk show hosts in 2005 that violence against police officers often happens as a result of oppression.

Spagnuolo is no stranger to free speech arguments. In 2005, he was fired from the city after he used a city cell phone to call into that radio program to voice his support for embattled University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill.

He later sued the city.

I think he’s just found another soap box to hoist him into the limelight for another 15 minutes.

The whole thing makes me nervous.

I don’t believe that being kept behind a chain-link fence – which last time I checked wasn’t opaque or sound proof – is oppression or overreaching restriction. And it’s not like the demonstration area is blocks away – it’s a couple of hundred yards.

Additionally, dignitaries, government leaders and celebrities will be in attendance. Those types attract all manners of whack-jobs, and who is to say one such nutter wouldn’t refocus his or her attention on some demonstrator, peaceful or otherwise?

My sentiments are on the contrary to Spagnuolo and his crew – and this is coming from a proud, albeit redistributed member of the fourth estate.

A huge area, relatively close to the Pepsi Center has been set aside for demonstrators, who can spout their beliefs in sign or verbal form as much as they want over this historic event.

Police have said demonstrators won’t be subjected to search unless probable cause deems it necessary, and they won’t be investing in any special weaponry to manage unruly crowds.

The only people who will be searched, in fact, are those coming and going inside the security perimeter.

I think these moves are all proof that Denver, the state and the federal government are doing all they can to ensure the safety of DNC attendees and of those who want to demonstrate and protest outside.

Spagnuolo and his crew are fighting a ridiculous battle, and I think it’s sullying a momentous occasion in American history.

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