4/23/09
A tax day protest at the Plaza de Española’s gazebo was cut short over a dispute with city officials over a $10 permit.
The would-be protesters claim the city violated their First Amendment rights when Plaza Director Andrew Herrera shooed them away from the gazebo for lacking the permit. City officials argue the group could have bought a permit on the spot and resumed the protest.
Lee Hickerson, of Española, said he and a group of “Republican Party members and John Q. Citizens who just plain resent the spending going on under (President Barack) Obama” met at the Plaza gazebo the morning of April 15 to join the so-called “Tea Party” protests against federal tax policies that were held that day in cities throughout the country.
The protest lasted only minutes before it was disrupted. Hickerson said Herrera told the group they could not congregate on the Plaza without a permit. When they said they would instead walk to the City Hall parking lot and protest there, he allegedly replied, “You’ll need a permit there, too,” Hickerson said.
“Our constitutional right under the first amendment to freely assemble and to file our grievances was denied to us,” Hickerson said. “That is a public area, paid for by public funds and taxpayer dollars. As individual citizens of the United States, we have the right to be there. And I’m a veteran, my name is on that cotton-picking wall right there, and we were told we absolutely could not assemble.”
City ordinances require a $10 payment and prior approval from the city manager and the police and fire chiefs for any gathering on city property — including protests.
Herrera said he approached the protest only after noticing a large group setting up speakers and equipment at the gazebo.
“I was mostly concerned about the speakers, since we had another event right there at the Misión,” Herrera said. “But they wouldn’t tell me what they were doing, so I told them they needed a permit.”
Acting City Manager Veronica Albin said the dispute was not a free speech issue, but just a matter of following city ordinances.
“Protesting is fine,” Albin said. “They just needed a permit, and they could’ve come in and gotten one for ten bucks.”
Diane Wood, director of public policy for the New Mexico office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said it’s not unusual for cities to require protesters to obtain a permit.
“It is acceptable as long as the (permit policies) treat everybody the same way, and as long they’re not so onerous that they keep people from being able to protest,” Wood said.
In Santa Fe, the organizers of a similar protest in that city the same day were required to obtain a permit beforehand, special events administrator Barbara Lopez said. Santa Fe charges $450 for protest permits, she said.