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While there are only a few days left to submit public comments on a proposal by the National Park Service to change the handling of protests in the district, civil rights advocates have launched urgent appeals for s & # 39; to oppose these measures, claiming that they would violate the rights of the First Amendment.
The proposal, introduced in August, introduces more than a dozen changes in how the parks service facilitates demonstrations, including the number of protesters who can congregate on national park lands without permits, areas in which which demonstrators can manifest and the choice to protest or not. obliged to reimburse the agency for the support and security provided.
Experts in constitutional law immediately questioned the possibility of charging fees to groups who exercise their rights to the first amendment, but organizers of the protest said that paying fees would deter people from protesting. .
The lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union are looking at other points in the proposal, including the restrictions on street sidewalk protesters outside the White House. The organization has issued a public response to the Parks Department that includes a point-by-point removal of proposals.
"The heart of the problem is clear: President Trump might not like the protesters at his door, but the First Amendment guarantees their right to be there," said Arthur Spitzer, co-legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington. a blog post on Tuesday explaining the opposition of the organization.
"Expense requirements could make mass events such as the March 1963 March Luther King Jr. March Washington historic and his" I have a dream "speech too much expensive. "
Starting on Friday, three days before the end of the public comment period, more than 10,000 people expressed their views on the rule changes. Nearly 15,000 had signed an ACLU petition against the restrictions.
Among the proposed rules that caused the most anger, there is a recommendation that the Parks Service limit the area outside the White House where protesters can gather. The proposal suggests that the agency closes 20 feet from the sidewalk 25 feet wide beyond the White House gate on Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
The ACLU has already filed a lawsuit against the federal government and won after trying to limit the areas in which protesters could gather near the White House.
Several activists, including Ben Wikler, director of MoveOn.org in Washington, said the Trump administration was trying to "curb the protests" and move protesters away from the White House fence.
However, the Parks Service cited the concern over the degradation of historic sites, monuments and the territory to limit the number of protesters in certain areas.
The agency has not made an estimate of the annual amount spent on demonstrations and rallies, but spokesperson Mike Litterst said licensing fees cost an average of $ 700,000 in staff per year. Parks Service.
The number of protests in Washington has increased dramatically to an average of 750 a year, and their size is also growing. Last year, the district organized 714 authorized demonstrations, including the women's march, in which tens of thousands of people invaded the shopping center and streets of the city.
So far this year, the Parks Service has helped coordinate hundreds of events, including the vast gathering of the March for Our Lives, the rallying of families, for each other and the white nationalist demonstration Unite the Right, which has attracted thousands of counter-partisans and demanded complex security plans as well as agents of many organisms.
The agency and its budget are subject to heavy constraints, which have not increased to account for rising civil unrest, said Litterst.
"These costs can quickly reach six digits," he said. "We do not have an extra budget. Nobody says, "Oh, the First Amendment events at the National Mall have really gone up, so here's an increase in your base budget to support that kind of stuff."
Organizers wishing to organize large events in the district parks must already cover some costs, including the provision of toilets, emergency on-site medications, preparation and withdrawal services, etc., according to the organizers.
"According to the new proposal, the park department plans to load demonstrators for tasks such as" sanitation and waste disposal "and" ground damage, "Spitzer wrote of the 39. ACLU. "But of course, the parks department does not plan to charge the 45 million non-protesters who visit the National Mall each year for the closure and remediation that their presence requires or for the damage caused to the turf that they cause. "
The public comment period for the 14 proposed amendments ends Monday.
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