Back to Protecting Protest | Newswire Archives | Go Back
RNC Protests Will Be Opportunity for Free Speech
For Immediate Release
Contact: Sheila Stainback, 212-344-3005, ext. 244
Protecting Protest Storefront: 212-629-3011
August 27, 2004 -- The New York Civil Liberties Union goes into high gear in its Protecting Protest Campaign this week as activists prepare to demonstrate around the Republican National Convention.
The NYCLU has established what will be “protest central” at its Protecting Protest Storefront just two blocks from Madison Square Garden beginning Saturday, August 28th.
“Hundreds of thousands of people will exercise their free speech rights in venues around New York City, which has a long tradition of championing First Amendment rights,” said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU. “We will have more than 150 volunteers and staff members who will monitor protest activity to make sure that demonstrators at the RNC are treated with the same respect as RNC conventioneers.”
The Storefront will be a site where people can report their observations of protest activity to staff who will log the information. It has also been the site of Know Your Rights trainings for demonstrators, media, and other New Yorkers.
The NYCLU will provide daily press reports beginning Saturday, August 28th until Thursday, September 2nd to respond to the news of the day. NYCLU senior staff will be available to the press each morning at 8:30 and each evening at the end of protest activity at an hour to be determined daily. The Storefront will be opened from 8am-10pm beginning Saturday, August 28th until the end of the RNC. There is space there for the media to file reports, with advanced notice.
The NYCLU has represented 10 organizations in negotiation for permits to demonstrate and rally at various venues. The organization is also a co-sponsor of two events: The March for Women’s Lives on Saturday, August 28th which kicks-off in Brooklyn at Cadman Plaza and will proceed with a march across the Brooklyn Bridge at 12pm to a rally in City Hall Park. The NYCLU is also a co-sponsor with the Still We Rise Coalition on Monday, August 30th in a march in support of voter registration and AIDS awareness. Participants will gather at 11am on west 15th Street, near Union Square Park. The march will continue up Eighth Avenue to the designated protest site of 31st Street near the Garden.
The NYCLU has expanded its relationship with hundreds of activists through the efforts of the New York City Bill of Rights Campaign (NYCBORDC) which is a grassroots organization of 95 organizations and a project of the NYCLU. The organization has solidified its link to activists with the hiring of a Protecting Protest Coordinator with strong ties to the activist community.