CHICAGO: This Wednesday, anti-war activists will appeal the City of Chicago’s denial of their permit request to march from Oak Street down Michigan Ave. on March 19 to mark the second anniversary of the Iraq war.

As it did last year, the City has once again sought to deny peace activists their legal right to rally on Chicago's near north side and is seeking to force them instead to march down side streets with little traffic -- a move activists says isolates their message and undercuts their rights to free speech and public assembly at a time that First Amendment rights are under increasing attack.

Peace activists are appealing the denial of their permit request in a public hearing scheduled for 9:30 AM, Wednesday, February 2 at Daley Center Room CL-95, on the concourse level.

On March 20, 2003, Chicago police wrongfully detained and arrested more than 800 people in the course of a march to oppose the beginning of the U.S. war on Iraq. A number of those arrested, which included bystanders and local workers caught up in the mass arrests, have sued the City for violating their civil rights and have asked a federal judge to grant class action status to their suit.

All criminal charges against the arrestees -- who were among more than 15,000 peaceful protesters who marched with police permission down Lake Shore Drive -- have been dropped. Activists say that in being forced to drop charges against all arrestees, the City has tacitly conceded the bogus nature of the arrests -- and their inability to stand up in court.

A year later, on March 20, 2004, the City refused to grant permits to anti-war groups to march from the Gold Coast to the loop down Michigan Avenue to mark the first anniversary of the war, effectively criminalizing their message, even though the City routinely closes the same route for other commercial and public events.

Activists argue that, by denying their permit requests for the second year in a row, City officials and the police department are stepping up a pattern of open hostility to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, despite the illegality and unconstitutionality of the City's actions and strong sentiment across the area against the war.

They also charge that the City’s increasing willingness to undercut basic civil liberties represents a growing trend by City officials that parallels the Bush administration’s sweeping attack on basic constitutional rights, through mechanisms like the Patriot Act and the militarization of public spaces when peaceful protesters gather to express their convictions.

Permits are not technically required for groups to rally and march, although Chicago anti-war projects typically try to obtain permits for planned actions. Historically, Chicago police have routinely made on-the-fly decisions to allow groups to march on the street to accomodate large crowds and facilite movement. It is also illegal for police to prevent groups from marching on the sidewalk.

For the last two years, however, Chicago cops and City Hall operatives have grown increasingly hostile to any public expression, particularly when those actions are related to opposition to the war, corporate malfeasance or police wrongdoing. That growing trend underscores the political nature of City repression of public assembly and free speech, say activists, and represents an increasing threat to civic life across a range of issues.

In a related development, attorneys argued in federal court on Monday that they should be granted class action status in the civil rights lawsuit filed in the wake of hundreds of illegal mass detentions and arrests at the emergency anti-war protest two years ago. The ruling, which may be issued in the coming weeks, would affect the 500 arrestees and hundreds more who were detained but later released after cops ran out of space on buses brought in to hold arrestees on March 20, 2003.

In that case, the plaintiffs have argued that rather than refusing to disperse as police allege, cops refused to allow them to leave. Several were seriously injured by police, including one youth whose nose was broken and another teenager whose arm was broken. The protesters' lawsuit against the City of Chicago and the Chicago police department charges cops and officials with a sweeping array of abuses, from wrongful arrest to misconduct

The police action on March 20, 2003 differed starkly from a similar march a decade earlier, when roughly the same number of people marched on Lake Shore Drive and returned to the Loop in a protest to oppose the beginning of the first Gulf War. Police made no mass arrests in that action.

Plaintiffs charge that the City has opposed class action status in the civil rights case because officials refuse to take responsibility for the illegal detentions and arrests of people who rightfully opposed the war on Iraq, and refuse to admit that the actions of the police department on March 20, 2003 were wrong.

For more information, contact the Chicago Coalition Against War & Racism at ccawr(nospam)aol.com