/Fri Aug 27th, 2004 at 18:55:34 GMT/
Just a little tidbit of New York protest gossip, as we gear up for what promises to be a rough week for our freedoms of speech and assembly:
Turns out New York State Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline Silbermann, who Wednesday dashed an antiwar group's appeal <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/26/nyregion/26protest.html> for the use of Central Park, performed the nuptials at Rupert Murdoch's 1999 wedding, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/378970.stm> aboard his yacht the Morning Glory, off Chelsea Piers in Manhattan. The rightwing media mogul wed then-32-year-old Wendi Deng, former president of News Corp.'s Star Television, making her his third wife just weeks after divorcing the second. Family values, doncha know.
This week, Silbermann ruled <http://www.courts.state.ny.us/decisions/upgvb.pdf> that the City was within its rights to deny United for Peace and Justice <http://www.unitedforpeace.org/> a permit for a rally in the park, citing concerns for the welfare of the grounds, and excoriated UfPJ for the timing of their appeal, saying the group was "guilty of inexcusable and inequitable delay." Surely, she was fair and balanced in her judgement.
UfPJ initially requested to use the park in June, 2003 for a rally following a march from Union Square up Seventh Avenue past Madison Square Gardens, the site of the convention. After a year of City stonewalling, the group capitulated on July 21, accepting an alternative location along the West Side Highway -- a deeply undesirable venue at which the expected 250,000 demonstrators would have baked under the August sun in a cloud of car exhaust, spread out along the Hudson in a "spaghetti protest" well away from the convention site. Anger from the rank-and-file prompted the UfPJ leadership to change their minds again last week, when they declared that they would march to Central Park, after all, and they hurriedly filed suit demanding that the City respect the Constitutional rights of their members.
As of now, it's a curious standoff, of sorts. UfPJ says the group will not hold a rally on the Great Lawn following the permitted march this Sunday, but that many will likely head there anyway. There is alarming talk of an activist picnic. The City says police will not arrest demonstrators simply for entering the park, but police commissioner Ray Kelly says the NYPD will "deal with situations as they arise." If you go, bring lawyers, parasols and picnic baskets.