For Immediate Release: November 14th, 2003
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Legal Groups Raise Serious Concerns Over Miami Ordinance as a Tool for Further Harassment of Anti-FTAA Activists
Miami, FL -- Public Citizen Global Trade Watch and Miami Activist
Defense (MAD), a legal support group for anti-FTAA activists, denounced
yesterday's passage of the controversial Miami ordinance that bars the
possession of various harmless items and could be abused by law
enforcement to harass and unnecessarily arrest activists in Miami
exercising their rights to assembly and protest. The ordinance, which
was originally written by Miami Police Chief John Timoney and later
revised by the City Attorney and Community Relations Board, would outlaw
possession of items such as glass bottles, some signs, water balloons,
and any plastic, metal or other "stiff" material thicker than 1/4 inch.
Also included in the ordinance is restrictions on puppets that will be
used to convey protest messages during the FTAA meetings.
"The ordinance is sufficiently vague and broad in its scope that we are
very concerned police will use it as a tool to haphazardly deny people
their first and fourth amendment rights," said Amanda Frost, legal
counsel for Public Citizen Global Trade Watch, who will be represented
at the anti-FTAA protests later this week. "We will hold the city of
Miami and its police accountable if they use this ordinance to profile
protestors and unlawfully stop and search them."
The passage of the ordinance comes after numerous incidents of police
harassment of activists occurring around the anti-FTAA "Welcome Center"
where activists will gather and "drop in" over the next week to meet and
seek information on protest activities. Most recently, three activists
intending to provide medical and safety assistance to those in need
during the protests were arrested Tuesday while walking down a busy
street in the middle of the day. "The stop and arrest of the activists
near their 'welcome center' appear to have been without sufficient
probable cause," said Andrea Costello of MAD and a National Lawyers
Guild attorney. "We intend to be vigilant in monitoring, documenting and
taking any necessary action on similar police conduct, including using
the ordinance as a way to target, harass and arrest protestors."
The ordinance was passed less than a week before tens of thousands of
people will come to Miami from all over the country to protest
closed-door discussions between Trade Ministers from North and South
America around an hemispheric trade agreement called the Free Trade Area
of the Americas. "It is chillingly ironic that the ordinance, with
rules which have the risk of limiting people's freedom of _expression,
is passed less than a week before the clearly undemocratic FTAA meetings
which will affect the lives of people in almost three dozen countries,"
said Kris Hermes, a legal worker with MAD.
One of the details of the ordinance is to limit the thickness of wood
that can be used for signs and placards. "This type of restriction poses
serious problems for people who are coming to Miami with free speech
materials that do not conform to the requirements of the ordinance,"
said Hermes. "The timing of the passage of the ordinance was well
orchestrated by the city and police to maximize confusion for activists
and to make legal challenges difficult. Having said that, legal groups supporting
the rights of protestors are still more than willing to fight the use of
this ordinance to infringe on people rights."
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