| In Trenton today, just blocks from where people protesting economic inequity are in Day 21 of their occupation, ACLU-NJ went to court to protect their freedom of speech. The occupiers were the plaintiffs before Judge Mary Jacobson. I was a couple rows behind their lawyers, ACLU-NJ Legal Director Ed Barocas, and ACLU cooperating attorneys Bennet Zurofsky and David Perry Davis.
"They're making it up!" Zurofsky said repeatedly about the restrictions the State is putting on the occupiers. Zurofsky argued that the rules the state is imposing on the occupiers didn't exist before, and were concocted when the State saw what was happening at the site, didn't like it, and is now trying to hold them to restrictions that never existed before, for anyone else. |
| Assistant Attorney General Robert Lougy, defending the State's actions in limiting the occupiers' use of the park and the confiscation a few days ago of most of their supplies, kept returning to an argument about the occupiers' ... messiness. Yes, really. It's not a campground, said Lougy, and camping is not in the parameters of the First Amendment. There were repeated references to the "aesthetics" of the war memorial, and the purpose of the memorial. And what is that purpose? "To show respect and graciousness towards those who served, which makes the purpose (of the memorial), its intent, its design and intended uses relevant" said the State's lawyer.
What New Jersey's vets fought and died for was American freedom of speech, and freedom to assemble, of course. Have we really excised that in Christie-era New Jersey?
When the raid came a few days ago, days after a letter from the Dept. of Military & Veterans Affairs that was read to the occupiers but never given to them (they asked), they had already removed some of their stuff. When the authorities showed up, the occupiers moved out of their way. As Zurofsky said, "nobody wants a confrontation". They were also trying to document on video what was happening, as Occupy cities have across the country when there may be police crackdown.
The few steps away - 20 feet, said ACLU's Barocas - was enough distance for the State to define nearly everything there as abandoned. And they took nearly everything not on the backs of the occupiers. Chairs. Tables. Signs. Coolers with First Aid and food. Books. Coats. Backpacks. Computers. Cameras. Keyboards.
"Abandoned". Bennet Zurofsky illustrated the absurdity of the State's action in court when he walked away from the plaintiffs table to hand an affidavit to the Judge. "I hope I'm not abandoning my papers right now," he said, throwing a mock-worried look over his shoulder to his files.
After the court hearing, I put a 10-minute interview with all three lawyers and some of the occupiers on video. I'll have that for you tomorrow. Meanwhile, the occupiers wait for the Judge's decision on their continued use of a war memorial built to honor those who fought for the Consitution and the American way of life. That's where they are now. You can watch some of them here, and talk to them on chat. And intend to stay.
I don't know what the Occupy movement will become. It is something I have never seen before, and I don't know how or even if the pressures it's creating around the country now will translate to political policy change, or economic and corporate policy change. But as for what they're doing right now at this moment in Trenton, New Jersey, as Bennet Zurofsky says, "the best way to honor First Amendment rights is to exercise them".
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