Post in Major Incident at Critical Mass bike rally

2007 Sep 02 01:17 UTC

In response to Jim and Margaret's posts:

You've both received misinformation (or possibly disinformation) on the
proposed "protest permit" ordinance.  Cam DOES NOT support the ordinance and
never has.  In fact, when he and 10th Ward CM Ralph Remington heard of the
idea's existence, they made sure it would come to the Free Speech Work Group
(the group Cam pushed to form to deal with exactly these sorts of pre-RNC
issues) to be vetted.  At that meeting, Cam, Ralph and the representatives of
the ACLU and other pro-free speech groups (whom Cam included on the group from
the outset) and representatives of protest organizations (whom Cam informed of
the meeting's time and location) gave the unified message that the proposal is
unnecessary, will have dire consequences (much like what happened yesterday)
and is likely unconstitutional.

See a fuller outline of this issue on Cam's blog:
http://secondward.blogspot.com/2007/08/proposed-ordinance-to-license-protests.html#links

The Free Speech Work Group isn't Orwellian, it's doing exactly what it's
supposed to do: intervene when bad ideas like the "protest permit" ordinance
come up, try to shoot them down or mold them into something constructive and
constitutional (such as a voluntary registration system, with no requirements
and no penalties).  Without it, these sorts of ideas would go straight to the
Council, with no input from civil liberties groups or CMs on the side of
protecting civil liberties.  In fact, I would argue that cynically labeling it
"Orwellian" does those of us who want to protect civil liberties next year a
grave disservice.  If it was set up as some sort of Bush-like "clean skies"
initiative, then there's no point in engaging with it or organizing around it.
If, on the other hand, it was pushed for by a civil libertarian Council Member
at the suggestion of civil libertarian constituents, is the locus of real work
and debate, and constitutes a possible lever we can use to protect
constitutional rights next year, then it demands work, organizing, showing up.
One of those assumptions will lead Minneapolis in a positive direction.

On to the incident at Friday's Critical Mass.

Cam has been a vocal supporter of Critical Mass since before he was elected.
He hired a frequent Critical Mass participant as his Aide.  When the MPD and
Hennepin County Sheriff's office pulled a similar stunt (albeit seemingly less
well-coordinated than yesterday's), I was there.  Cam empowered me to give my
firsthand account on this list and elsewhere of the event.  To my knowledge, we
were the only Council office to make any public response, and one of two (with
CM Gary Schiff) to ride in the next Mass.  Our office took some heat for that,
from within the MPD, including a veiled reprimand that Cam "needs to control
his staff better" from the Sheriff's office and a note from an MPD
administration higher-up stating that my message to this list was "bad for
Police-Council relations."

With all due respect, it is the MPD and the Sheriff's Office who need to better
control their staff, and nothing is worse for the relationship between the MPD
and at least one Council office than events like this.