Local News: Thursday, March 13, 2003
Westlake mall limits access to
protesters
By Eric Sorensen
Seattle Times staff reporter
Westlake Park may well be
Seattle's soapbox, the central
rallying point of anti-war vigils
and other protests.
But just next door is Westlake Center, a privately
owned shopping mall that would just as soon not see
the hurly-burly of public debate visited on its
customers.
The center has cracked down on protesters passing
through the mall on their way to and from the
monorail station on the center's top floor. Yesterday,
the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington told
Mayor Greg Nickels the center is violating city law
by telling people they cannot display anti-war signs
and, in one case, an anti-war button in the downtown
mall.
The ACLU also complained to the center, asking it to
tell its guards "that the job of providing mall security
does not include filtering out customers based on
their political viewpoint."
The center says that, in barring protest signs, it is
not acting on any attitude toward a possible Iraq war
but a desire to provide a safe, friendly place for
shoppers.
"It really has nothing to do with politics or trying to
make any type of pro- or against statement or
anti-statement," said Brenda Klein, the center's
general manager. "It really truly is protecting and
providing a friendly shopping environment for our
people to be in."
"The city needs to deal with this," said Doug Honig,
the ACLU of Washington's communications director,
"that people go to the city's only central gathering
place and afterwards need to use the monorail and
they get hassled by security people for carrying
signs."
The ACLU says several people told how guards
approached them as they waited to board the
monorail on Feb. 15 and told them they could not
have signs and would have to leave.
Beth Sanders, who works for Government
Accountability Project, which protects free speech of
government workers, said she was told to put her
sign down while waiting to board the monorail on the
way to a rally at Seattle Center. When she refused,
she said, "it proceeded to escalate quickly."
Sanders said she was first told the sign might harm
her 10-year-old daughter, or that it could hurt other
people in line. Then, she says, she was told, "You'll
scare the shoppers."
She was told to leave, which she promised to do —
by the monorail. Finally, when her daughter and
another girl grew frightened, she put her sign down
but was still told she was banned from the mall. She
did manage to leave by the monorail.
She said her husband, who is a lawyer, has since
found an agreement under which the Westlake
owners give the city public access through the center
to the monorail.
Another person told the ACLU that on March 6 he
was told he could not wear a small "no war" pin. The
center's Klein said she does not know of the incident
and that pins are allowed if they are not offensive.
In a letter sent yesterday to Nickels, Washington
ACLU Executive Director Kathleen Taylor said
ordering a law-abiding person to leave "simply
because the owner does not want the person to
express political views" is a violation of the city's
open-housing and public-accommodations ordinance.
The ordinance forbids barring the use of a public
accommodation because of a person's "political
ideology."
"The Westlake Mall's crackdown on free speech is
surprising and distressing in a city that prides itself
on political engagement and tolerance for diverse
viewpoints," Taylor wrote.
Regina LaBelle, counsel to the mayor, said
complaints to the city will be handled by the Office
for Civil Rights.
Retailers regionwide are leery of protesters.
The Simon Property Group, owner of the Northgate
and Tacoma malls, would allow an anti-war T-shirt if
its wearer did not appear to be at a mall to protest,
said Lynn Castle, regional director of marketing,
community and public relations.
The Simon Group views protests as a "disruption of
the shopping experience," she said. If someone
were carrying a sign on a stick, said Castle, "that
would be something that we take as a political
action, and we would ask the person to leave."
Exceptions are made for people who are asking
customers to sign initiative petitions, but the
signature gatherers must first fill out proper mall
paperwork and have insurance.
Bellevue Square, the largest mall on the Eastside,
doesn't allow signature gathering or surveying,
honoring what it considers the customer's right "not
to be interrupted," said spokeswoman Anne Marie
Peacock.
But, according to the ACLU's Honig, the Westlake
situation is special, because the sign-carriers were
simply passing through and weren't protesting.
However, the shopping center's Klein said people
with signs can avoid walking into the center by
simply using a ground-floor elevator directly to the
elevated monorail platform.
Eric Sorensen: 206-464-8253 or
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