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July 21, 2006
Ever on Guard Against Scary Parades
The NY Times
By Clyde Haberman
Two days ago, Gothamist pointed out that the public hearings for the new NYPD guidelines for public gatherings and the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement are on the same day. Somehow, we figured that wouldn't be the last time the two issues would be linked.
Today's Clyde Haberman column, about how the NYPD is making a mountain out of a molehill by proposing to severely restrict public gatherings, is illustrated by this photo from last week's rally with the following caption:
People gathered at Grand Army Plaza, where the Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn group held a rally against the Atlantic Yards project on Sunday.
Haberman makes a good point about these absurd rules:
Bicyclists traveling in groups of 20 or more must first get a parade permit from the police. The same goes for groups of 35 or more people walking together on sidewalks. For that matter, a group of merely two people — that’s right, two people — will be defined as a parade if they walk or cycle “in a manner that does not comply with all applicable traffic laws, rules and regulations.”
Be honest. Have you never, while strolling or biking with a companion, crossed the street against a red light? Have you never, while strolling or biking with a companion, crossed the street against a red light? It would seem that the two of you will now, technically speaking, qualify as a parade. And since you probably will not have first asked the police for a parade permit, it appears that you will — again technically — be breaking two laws.
...
PRACTICAL considerations also come to mind. Will 20 people on a routine bike tour have to get a parade permit? How about 35 kids walking as a group on a class trip? Or a funeral procession? [Or a handful of Atlantic Yards opponents en route to another Ratner press conference?]Paul J. Browne, a Police Department spokesman, dismissed all this as “grasping at unrealistic scenarios.”
article (online, Times Select subscribers only)
NoLandGrab: In the meantime, when is the NYPD going to scrutinize the feasibility and impacts of building glass-&-steel high rises and an arena over the third-largest transportation hub in the region?
Posted by lumi at July 21, 2006 10:28 AM