Defend the Mall Jan 12 10 am

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**Important alert: Please circulate as widely as possible**
Defend Free Speech Rights on the National Mall!
National Park Service Public Hearing on Demonstrations

Join us this Saturday, January 12 at 10 am

Old Post Office (12th and Pennsylvania NW)

Room M09 Washington, DC
Let your voice be heard!

This battle was fought successfully over the great lawn in New York Central Park. The people WON!!!!

The Partnerhip for Civil JUSTICE IS GOOD AT WHAT THEY DO

500,000 rally on January 18, 2003 at the National Mall.

The Partnership for Civil Justice urges activists and organizations to attend the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) public hearing on demonstrations this Saturday, January 12 at 10 am.

The National Park Service ----- (those f'ing NAZIs, I told yall about the one who gave me the big mason speech (they built america, all this stuff belongs to them look at all their nifty seals) as I rode the elevator in the Washington Monument. He was so obvious that everyone was staring at me wondering what or who the fuck I was .... that he should be talking directly to me ... ASSHOLES !!!!!!! anyway ... these guys are not right in the head and are NOT Americans --- also it's hard for them to deny after all the attention they give the Heiress that my property is among the most valuable in FLORIDA and certainly is currently the most valuable in Tampa) --------- has launched an initiative, much like that launched to exclude protests from New York City's Great Lawn, that will be used to further restrict or ban protest on the Mall from current levels.

This is a component of a nationwide campaign of corporate-sponsored organizations working in partnership with government entities that claim that protests, rallies and demonstrations harm grass or "green space" or "natural resources" and must therefore be restricted or banned or shunted off to designated protest pits.

The National Mall has been associated for decades as the site for mass assembly protest and gatherings. On January 18, 2003, the ANSWER Coalition organized a demonstration of 500,000 prior to the invasion of Iraq. The Nation of Islam led the Million Man March in 1995 on the Mall. The National Organization for Women sponsored the March for Women's Lives bringing more than a million people to the Mall in 2004. A huge gathering for immigrant rights took place on the Mall in 2006 as part of a nation-wide outpouring. From the Bonus Marchers of the early 1930s, to Dr. King's Poor People's March of 1968, and the anti-war Moratorium of 1969, the Mall is the historic anchor for the exercise of free speech rights in the United States.
Everyone who cherishes free speech and the right of mass assembly protest must organize to stop the efforts by the NPS to limit the use of the National Mall. Under whatever pretext, it must be recognized that the government is attempting to prevent the people from using public space for mass assembly and free speech protest in the heart of the capital of the United States.

The NPS proposes three alternative plans for its “vision” of the future of the National Mall. The following would be imposed within all alternative plans:
New, as yet undefined, regulations to limit use of the Mall by protests and other activities ostensibly to “protect natural resources.” This is a catch-all provision to expand the list of restrictions and bans currently existing.
New, as yet undefined, regulations to limit use of the Mall ostensibly to protect “views” of and from the National Mall. The protection of “views” includes banning temporary structures that would obscure view along the East-West axis of the Mall, including sound and staging that is typically required for large protests to establish a visual presence on the Mall, to maintain communications with event participants, and to have a protest that can be seen and heard by others.
New, as yet undefined, regulations to impose “mandatory rest periods between events.” Where mandatory rest periods were sought to be imposed in New York City’s Central Park, ostensibly to protect grass, it meant an arbitrary fixed limitation on how many protests or events could occur within a given year or month. The requirement of mandatory rest periods means that demonstration permits can be denied simply because on a different day there is the occurrence (or mere permit application) for a different event. In other words, protest on the weeks on either side of July 4th could be banned from the Mall. Likewise, protest could be banned on the weeks on either side of Laura Bush’s annual book fair on the Mall.
Each of the three alternative proposed plans is identified as emphasizing a particular focused use of the Mall:
Plan A, which focuses on the historic landscape, in addition to the above would ban the use of all temporary staging or structures that interfere with the East-West view along the Mall.

Plan B, which purports to focus on special events and demonstrations, in addition to the above would establish protest pits (or “sustainable sites for demonstrations”) and limit or ban protest outside of these government established sites.

Plan C focuses on recreational use of the Mall and, like all others, authorizes new restrictions to protect “views” and “natural resources” and imposes “mandatory rest periods.”
Take action
All those who care about their right to mass assembly and the First Amendment should attend this meeting and demand that there be no new restrictions on protest on the National Mall or District of Columbia sites. The government should not impose any new regulations that restrict where and when or how protest may occur. The government may not constrict protest to government approved and designated sites. Don't let the government use the pretext of protecting blades of grass to trample on your free speech rights.

The government is hoping to push through their plans as quietly and with as little resistance as possible to claim that there is "consent" by the public to new restrictions. The time to act is now.
National Park Service Public Hearing on Demonstrations This Saturday, January 12 at 10 am Old Post Office (12th and Pennsylvania NW)Room M09
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