Reply #3: Protesters seek more inauguration permits

[dzika]

Protesters seek more inauguration permits
Accuse government of blocking them out
By Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Correspondent | December 25, 2004

Antiwar activists are accusing the National Park Service of trying to block mass demonstrations along the route of President Bush's inaugural parade next month, opening a new front in a simmering dispute between anti-Bush groups and the government over access to visible public space.

International ANSWER, an umbrella group of antiwar protesters, yesterday contended that the Park Service is bending its own rules to deny anti-Bush demonstrators a permit to gather directly on Pennsylvania Avenue, the main promenade between the Capitol and the White House. The group, which applied for a permit last January, expects "many thousands" of people to participate in the planned demonstration.

"They're trying to make it a sanitized and pristine route and to disaggregate protests so that there is not a mass assembly of opposition sentiment that flows along the parade route," said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a lawyer for ANSWER, which stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.

Link:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/12/25/protesters_seek_more_inauguration_permits/