From the New York Times:
An antiwar speech by Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq, was cut short yesterday after the organizer of the event was arrested and police officers confiscated his audio equipment.

The claps and cheers that had greeted Ms. Sheehan's arrival at the rally in Union Square quickly turned to furious chants of "Let her speak!" as officers ushered away the organizer, Paul Zulkowitz, who the police said lacked audio permits for the event.
From Steve Gillard:
This was cleared with City Hall, because no cop is politically ignorant enough to do this on his own. You think Ray Kelly was surprised by this? You think this was done behind Bloomberg's back?

Hell no. They have been harassing Critical Mass for two years. They have tried to block protests and shunt them to Randalls Island or the West Side Highway since 2002.

Do you want four more years of this?

Cindy Sheehan was protected by the Crawford sheriff. She was silenced by the NYPD.

That's pretty fucking shameful.

Bloomberg acts like a Democrat when it comes time to placate people. But he's a control freak Republican when it comes to Bush and national policy.

Remember, protecting the grass of the Great Lawn is more important than free speech, unless Disney wants to rent it.

So tell me again how Freddie Ferrer is a party hack. Because I think it is highly unlikely these policies would continue. Bloomberg has fought every protest which would make the GOP look bad.

I guess he wants to protect his $7m investment. The question is do you?
UPDATE: An anonymous commenter opines that "they could have just gotten the permits." According to the announcer at the event (and other accounts I've read) the organizers tried repeatedly to get them and were rebuffed by the City. That's how free speech is denied in NYC. It must be nice to live in a bubble and think the loss of our liberties is only a problem for people too dumb to do the paperwork.

- tom moody 9-20-2005 9:20 pm

he could have just gotten the permits.
- anonymous (guest) 9-21-2005 10:10 pm


They applied for permits repeatedly and were put off by the city--that's how free speech is suppressed here, or didn't you know?
- tom moody 9-21-2005 10:46 pm


Hi,

I saw on your site that you had written about Cindy Sheehan @ Camp Casey NYC and thought that you may be interested in this video footage. I was shooting from down in front. I got the whole thing close up: Cindy's Speech, zool being grabbed by cops, the crowd screaming shame as the cops take the amp, the guy playing the national anthem on trumpet, the crowd confused and more. It's all here for redistribution provided you credit the material properly. http://www.joelmoore.org

Kim Arnold
- Kim Arnold (guest) 9-22-2005 10:00 pm





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