Convention protesters get a lot - a parking lot

Rules to come for 50,000 square feet near Pepsi Center

By Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published June 10, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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A football field-size area now used for Pepsi Center VIP parking will be turned over to protesters at this summer's Democratic National Convention, an attorney for protest groups said Monday.

The 50,000-square-foot section of Lot A will be surrounded by a "transparent and sound-transparent fence" and converted into a public demonstration area, said Steven Zansberg, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Proximity to the Pepsi Center has been a hot issue for protest groups leery about a possible repeat of what happened at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston, where cagelike areas made of concrete barricades, netting and razor wire were established for protesters.

Denver officials have said since last summer that protesters will get closer to the Pepsi Center since it is not next to a freeway and railroad tracks as was the Boston site four years ago.

The protest area will be just southwest of the Pepsi Center's main entrance, Zansberg said.

Attorneys for the city did not disclose the precise location within Lot A, which is about 350,000 square feet, Zansberg said.

The city has said it will release that information by June 23 and any restrictions to be placed on protesters, such as the number of people allowed in the area at one time, the size of signs or banners or the hours when a public address system may be used.

But the city and the U.S. Secret Service want to keep two bits of information secret for security reasons: the height of the fence and how close the demonstration area will be to delegates entering and exiting the convention.

Lawyers for the protesters oppose that idea, and U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger on Monday set a June 30 hearing, if needed, to consider whether those details may remain secret.

The ACLU and protest groups including the American Friends Service Committee, CODEPINK and Troops Out Now Coalition filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the Secret Service last month.

They asked Krieger to order the city and Secret Service to release information about the public demonstration area, as well as the route that protest groups and other members of the public will use for parades during the convention, scheduled for Aug. 25-28.

The two sides have reached an agreement on disclosure of most of those issues.

On Thursday, for example, the city is expected to release the parade route. It also will begin processing applications from those wanting to participate in a parade. It is scheduled to release its decisions regarding the permits by June 19.

But both sides and Krieger are anticipating a continued legal fight over any restrictions that the protesters contend violate their First Amendment right to free speech.

Krieger set July 29 for an all- day hearing on any challenges to the restrictions.

An attorney for the ACLU said Monday the group will wait to form any opinions about the public demonstration area, or the parade route, until it has all the information.

burnetts@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5343

Planning protests

Some of the groups expected to protest during the Democratic National Convention, and that are suing the city and Secret Service over First Amendment issues:

* American Friends Service Committee: Founded by the Quakers, promotes "social justice, peace and humanitarian service." Has called for an immediate withdrawal of all troops in Iraq.

* CODEPINK: Started by women, now includes men as well. Opposes the war in Iraq and wants resources put into health care and education. Name is a play on President Bush's color-coded terror alert levels.

* Americans for Safe Access: Advocates for safe and legal access to marijuana for medical and other scientific use.

* Escuela Tlatelolco Centro de Estudios: A Denver private school for young Chicanos, also active in issues affecting immigrants and indigenous communities.

* Citizens for Obama: Formed by a volunteer from Vermont who wants to hold a parade to show delegates the "broad-based grass-roots support" for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

• June 10, 2008

  7:16 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  LingLingfor_prez writes:

  There is still time to build a cage.

• June 10, 2008

  9:04 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Katoom writes:

  How big of a parking lot will they need for all their SUVs with the "No War For Oil" bumper stickers? I doubt very many, if any, will ride the bus or a bike to their protest.

• June 10, 2008

  10:57 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Alive writes:

  Imagine all that body odor in one place! For once, Greeley will smell Denver! It's payback time.

• June 10, 2008

  11:38 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Scott writes:

  For old timer Denver residents it will bring back memories of the stockyards ... only worse! Nothing but a collection cattle and sheep all lowing and bleating together ;-)

  We could load up a slurry bomber with soap and water and give them a shower while they're chanting their mantra.

  Scott

• June 10, 2008

  12:27 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  TheDenverB writes:

  "I doubt very many, if any, will ride the bus or a bike to their protest."

  really?

• June 10, 2008

  1:19 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Johnvet writes:

  FONDA FACTOR: There should be demonstrations and a store front exhibit,Liberal Agenda House of Horrors. Obama, Hillary and others like Al Franken, running for senate MN, all part of Fonda Factor, can be cast as Frankenstein monster of liberal agenda (His obscene writings noted in Mpls,MN papers) Fonda and Hillary as witches and Obama perhaps as Dracula. The Telegraph, of London, if you search for title Hillary Struggles in Wayne's World shows sign Hillary's House of Horrors, weak natl defense.

• June 10, 2008

  1:47 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  davies writes:

  I'm surprised that the DNC planners don't seem to understand the nature of protesting. People don't want to protest in a designated area. Where's the spontaneity in that?

  Now you'll have a few hundred "good" protesters staying in their designated area, listening to bluegrass and smoking a little pot; meanwhile the Rebel Protesters will angrily protest the protest area and various other sundry matters elsewhere, to prove they're from the street.

• June 10, 2008

  2 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Scott writes:

  STOP THE PRESSES!

  The latest from FoxNews tells why Denver is going to pen up all of the unreconstructed hippies at the DNCC! http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/06/...

  This reaffirms my previous suggestion about using a slurry bomber to wash down the unwashed geriatric hippies ;-) Do all of the libs check under their beds at night for a lurking conservative? What a paranoid bunch!

  Scott

• June 10, 2008

  5:32 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  daRock writes:

  The Pepsi Center is a private venue rented to a private organization. The protesters have NO right to be on the grounds at all. It would not matter who rented the venue, the KKK, the Repubs, Dems, Libertarians, Librarians, Christian Book Sellers, Larry Flynt...you get my drift.

  Freedom of speach does NOT demand that anyone has to listen. Nor does it give anyone a right to enter space leased by others. Nor does it give anyone a right to get in the face of someone who does not want their interaction.

  This would be the same even if the Pepsi Center was owned by the city, which it is NOT. That is trespassing.

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