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Chicago Tribune: Federal Plaza closed to Rallies

Reposted from Tuesday's edition of the Chicago Tribune.
Federal Plaza closed to rallies

Security is cited; ACLU protests

The Federal Plaza in the Loop, a popular place for political protest, has been declared off-limits to public events because of security concerns in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

The American Civil Liberties Union, already embroiled in a lawsuit over government restrictions on handing out leaflets in the federal plaza, raised concern that heightened security is limiting space for public forums.

A spokesman for the General Services Administration, which manages federal property, said Friday that building management officials at the adjoining Kluczynski Federal Building canceled all activities on the plaza.

The plaza, home to a Calder sculpture, is along Dearborn Street between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard.

The ban was to last until mid-October, but it was extended through the end of the year, said David Wilkinson, the GSA spokesman in Chicago.

A weekly farmers market and handicrafts bazaar also have been barred.

With security increased at the Kluczynski building and the neighboring Dirksen Federal Building, management decided that weekday events on the plaza would distract guards monitoring X-ray machines and checking identification of visitors. They thought it would be a particular problem at the Kluczynski building, Wilkinson said.

Concrete barricades now ring the plaza to prevent vehicles from entering.

The GSA is concerned that the barricades could be unsafe if a large crowd gathered in the plaza and a disturbance broke out, Wilkinson said.

When the ban was imposed, officials had to cancel permits already granted to at least two groups, including one protesting U.S. policy in Colombia, Wilkinson said.

Another group, protesting gun violence, canceled on its own, he said.

Since then, an average of two to three groups each week have sought permits to hold rallies on the plaza but have been turned down, Wilkinson said. However, a coalition of about 30 groups opposed to the attack on Afghanistan staged protests at the plaza on Sunday and Monday as Chicago police watched.

On Friday, Harvey Grossman, legal director for the ACLU of Illinois, promised that the ACLU would look into the closing of the plaza.

Grossman didn't question the security concerns, but said, "This is the time when we need as much speech as possible, and the federal government ought to be allowing expressive activities."

Although Daley Plaza and Grant Park are also used for public gatherings, Grossman said the federal plaza "is particularly critical to free expression in Chicago" because it represents the federal government.

An ACLU lawsuit in May alleged that a GSA requirement for a permit to distribute leaflets on the federal plaza was unconstitutional.

The suit also challenged the constitutionality of requiring approval of all material distributed on the plaza.

The suit alleged that the ACLU was barred from distributing "bust cards"--which explain what to do if stopped by the police--at a rally at the federal plaza in October 2000. The GSA refused to let the ACLU distribute the cards because of its policy that only one group at a time can use the plaza, according to the ACLU.

"I just think it's absolutely undemocratic for the federal government to be taking the position that if one speaker has use of that large plaza someone else can't be leafleting," Grossman said Friday.

U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo, who is presiding over the lawsuit, expressed his displeasure Thursday over the failure of the lawyers in the case to reach a settlement.

 
 

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