N.Y. Mayor Bloomberg thinks first amendment is a priviledge

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> Tue, 17 Aug 2004 16:14:37 -0700

> Subject:Bloomberg thinks first amendment is a

priviledge

>

>

> Mayor suggests free assembly a 'privilege'

>

> By Glenn Thrush

> Staff Writer

>

> August 16, 2004, 10:14 PM EDT

>

> Mayor Michael Bloomberg, already under fire for his

> tough stance against

> anti-GOP protest groups, Monday suggested that First

> Amendment rights of

> free speech and free assembly are " privileges " that

> could be lost if abused.

>

> Bloomberg, speaking to Republican National

> Convention volunteers in

> Manhattan, was trying to downplay concerns that

> protesters will disrupt

> this month's convention -- when he began

> articulating a broader

> constitutional vision.

>

> " People who avail themselves of the opportunity to

> express themselves

> ... they will not abuse that privilege, " he said at

> the John Jay College

> of Criminal Justice. " Because if we start to abuse

> our privileges, then

> we lose them, and nobody wants that. "

>

> The mayor's comments drew immediate criticism from

> protest groups and

> came amid reports that federal agents and city

> police have been

> questioning activists, monitoring Web sites and

> dropping in unannounced

> on organizational meetings.

>

> " The right to protest is not nor has it ever been a

> privilege -- it is a

> constitutionally protected right that everybody in

> this country enjoys, "

> said Leslie Cagan, head of United for Peace and

> Justice, which has

> locked horns with the city over its attempt to stage

> a 250,000-person

> protest in Central Park. " I have no idea what he's

> talking about. I'm

> completely flabbergasted. "

>

> Bloomberg press secretary Ed Skyler said, " The mayor

> certainly did not

> mean to imply that the First Amendment was in

> jeopardy here; nothing

> could be further than the truth, as the convention

> will show. "

>

> The online dictionary, Law.com, defines a privilege

> as a " special

> benefit, exemption from a duty, or immunity from

> penalty, given to a

> particular person, a group or a class of people. "

>

> A right, on the other hand, is defined as a " an

> entitlement to

> something, such as ... freedoms of speech, press,

> religion, assembly and

> petition, " according to the online law dictionary.

>

> City officials have granted permits for a

> 50,000-person protest in

> Central Park and have offered Cagan's group a route

> that passes Madison

> Square Garden and culminates on the West Side

> Highway, which the group

> accepted, then rejected. The parties met yesterday

> but failed to reach a

> new agreement, Cagan said.

>

> As Bloomberg arrived at John Jay, he was greeted by

> a now-familiar

> contingent of off-duty police officers hectoring him

> for a raise.

>

> In previous demonstrations, protesters were allowed

> within a few feet of

> the mayor. Monday, they were ushered behind steel

> barricades 20 yards away.

>

> " We're offending the mayor, and now we're being

> forced into pens, " said

> Walter Liddy, a Patrolmen's Benevolent Association

> official who led the

> protest.

>

> 2004, Newsday, Inc.

> <http://www.nynewsday.com/>

>

>