Let Freedom Ring
By John
Davis
An important lawsuit was filed
against the City of Los Angeles recently. A request for a preliminary injunction
to prevent the City from further eroding freedom was also filed with the
courts.
Venice Beach is on the forefront of
the Constitutional right to free speech.
A scheme by the City Council of Los Angeles
to thwart those rights mimics the recent “protest pens” erected by
local authorities during the last presidential election
cycle.
Apparently the Los Angeles City
Council felt they could not physically gag or cage artists, performers,
religious and political activists in chain link fence pens so they enacted a
City Ordinance that had the same invisible effect.
The City proposes that in order to
exercise what the U.S. Supreme Court considers the most important Constitutional
right, people must now pay for a permit and not move beyond a certain boundary.
That area, if you can get in it, is
about the size of a solitary confinement cell in the harshest of
maximum-security prisons. If you cannot afford to get in the City will not allow
you to speak freely at Venice
Beach.
Thomas Jefferson said that
sometimes the tree of freedom must be watered with the blood of Patriots. In
this case Patriots have arisen. Luckily bloodshed is not necessary this time.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of those who choose to speak freely in the United
States and California has gotten the City’s
Attention.
The injunction was filed
because according to Attorney Carol Sobel, “I was concerned that the
City’s process for reviewing and considering the claims raised by this
lawsuit was not speedy enough given the First Amendment rights at
issue.”
There are already signs
the City knows when it is whipped, by Venetians and a knowledgeable and
good-hearted Attorney.
According to
Sobel on July 26th, “This afternoon I received another call from the City
Attorney’s Office advising me that the City Attorney intended to submit an
emergency ordinance to the City Council, hopefully for passage on Friday or
Monday, suspending the enforcement of the Boardwalk ordinances while they are
written.” This will open the door to further refinements of the ordinance
which must bring it in line with the Constitution of the United States. Let
Freedom forever ring!
Posted: Mon - August 1, 2005 at 06:17 PM