Politicians, Protesters, Police: Charlotte Braces
August 9, 2012
Politicians, Protesters, Police: Charlotte
Braces
By KIM SEVERSON
CHARLOTTE,
N.C. — The variety of demonstrators planning to invade
this Southern city for the Democratic National Convention is wide and deep.
When the
party gathers on Sept. 4, both anarchists bent on bringing down government and
radical evangelical groups bearing down on homosexuals and abortion doctors
will be here.
In
between, others will protest a range of issues that includes war, increases in
college costs, immigration reform, labor
practices, antigay laws, the nation’s policies on marijuana and the jailing of a
soldier accused of leaking classified material.
There
will be the “UndocuBus,” filled with illegal
immigrants, and the Values Bus, sponsored by the Family Research Council and
the Heritage Foundation.
Counting
a Muslim day of prayer that begins before the convention starts and a
conservative country music concert and rally that starts a day after President
Obama is expected to accept the nomination on Sept. 6, the numbers of people
showing up to protest in Charlotte will most likely be in the tens of
thousands.
Even with
6,000 delegates and another 30,000 estimated associated visitors, it will not
be the largest gathering ever in this city of 760,000, but it certainly
promises to be the most difficult to manage.
“We have
not seen anything like this, no,” said Carol Jennings, the city’s liaison to
the convention. In true Southern fashion, she added, “We welcome all our
visitors.”
But it
won’t be all barbecue and bourbon. The city will spend $50 million in federal
money on security, the same amount the Republicans gathering in Tampa, Fla.,
have received. It will be used to hire as many as 3,400 officers from outside
departments, build about five miles of nine-foot fencing and pay for, among
other things, steel barriers strong enough to stop a 15,000-pound vehicle
traveling 30 miles per hour.
The city
is also relying on a recent law that gives its manager the power to declare a
large-scale gathering an “extraordinary event.” When that happens, a section of
the city is marked off and the police have wide powers to search and possibly
arrest people in that zone who carry items capable of hiding weapons or
inflicting injury.
On the
long list are backpacks, hammers, coolers, chains, glass bottles and water guns
known as Super Soakers. Face-concealing scarves could also be tagged.
Since the
law was put into place in January, the city has used it a handful of times,
including the annual shareholders’ meetings for Duke Energy and Bank of America
and for Speed Street, a May street party featuring Nascar drivers and food booths that in 2011 resulted
in more than 100 arrests. The police said arrests were down by half this year.
On
Wednesday, the city and the Secret Service announced the perimeters of the
security zone, which covers about 60 percent of the city’s Uptown commercial
district and dips south to cover the special areas the city has set aside for
protesters.
The
extraordinary events measure has rankled enough people
that the city offered reassurances in a news release.
“For
example,” it said, “residents will be able to walk their dog within the
extraordinary event boundaries without fear of arrest.”
People
were not appeased.
“We’ve
never had anything of this caliber, and they didn’t know how to handle it so
they over-handled it,” said Timeka Moore, 24, a
waitress at a Mexican restaurant who has to travel through Uptown to get to her
job.
Tampa has
its own version of an event zone, and both cities have grappled with trying to
prevent concealed weapons inside them despite state laws that allow people to
carry permitted weapons. They have also set up special protest and parade
areas, even providing a stage and microphones for demonstrators.
In both
cities, people organizing protests have criticized the areas as being too far
from the action, too restrictive and not particularly comfortable or conducive
for expressing opinion to the people attending the convention, although city
officials say the areas and the permitting process meet legal standards for
such public expression developed after protests in other cities.
Not so,
says Michael Zytkow of Occupy Charlotte. The security
zone covers “every part of Uptown that anyone would normally walk through,” he
said. And the area set aside for the so-called free speech zone is so remote
“we’re calling it a parking lot tour,” he said.
Having
free speech zones implies the rest of the city is not, critics say. Issuing
permits for people to protest and using special event zones as a regular part
of convention business concern some who believe such controls border on
selective oppression of free speech.
“The
biggest problem is the use of seemingly neutral laws to control protests to
restrict certain kind of protests or keep inconvenient protests out of the
public eye,” said Gabe Rottman, a policy adviser and
legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. “How they are going
to use these laws is absolutely of concern.”
A similar
law was used at the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver. That convention, as
well as the Republican convention in St. Paul, were marred by hundreds of
arrests and violence and resulted in a series of lawsuits over the government’s
attempts to investigate protest groups and its use of arrests to quell
demonstrations and journalists covering them.
All of
which party and city officials have on their minds.
“It has
been a growing issue for folks every four years,” said Stephen Kerrigan, chief
executive of the Democratic National Convention Committee, who also ran the
event in Boston in 2004. “Our approach from the very beginning has been about
increasing the engagement of people all across the board.”
Unlike
Tampa, two major events in Charlotte — a kickoff festival and the final speech
by President Obama at the Bank of America Stadium — will be open to the public,
he said.
By many
accounts, the crowds could be greater here than in Tampa, too.
For one
thing, Charlotte will have a sitting president. And it is the second-largest banking
city in the nation, home to Bank of America and the East Coast division of
Wells Fargo — a designation that is driving at least 80 national groups, many
from the Occupy movement and organized loosely as the Coalition to March on
Wall Street South, to show up for a Sept. 2 protest.
Conversely,
conservative Christians are planning a conference called Charlotte714, a
reference to a biblical passage that promises God will forgive sins if people
turn from their “wicked ways.” An estimated 40 churches will gather in the
20,000-seat Verizon Wireless Amphitheater the night before the convention for a
church service.
That
event is being organized by David and Jason Benham,
twin sons of Flip Blenham, a well-known antigay and
anti-abortion protester whom the city has battled in court over public
assembly, noise and picketing regulations.
“In many
ways, both Flip and the Occupy movement in Charlotte were really good
preparation for the D.N.C.,” said Robert E. Hagemann,
the city attorney. “Legally, I’m totally unconcerned. From a policy standpoint,
we have to make sure we respect different perspectives.”
For some
residents who plan to have nothing to do with the convention, however, the
tightening of security has gone too far.
“It seems
like they are going to turn it into a concentration camp around here,” said
Malachi El-Bui, 56, who moved to Charlotte from New York City several years
ago. “They act like we are the ones to arrest. They’re talking about we can’t
have backpacks or they could arrest us? They’re tripping.”
