Demonstrations located outside the Republican National Convention drew hundreds of thousands of people from across the country and the world over the weekend as the upcoming presidential elections edge closer.

Over 100 Syracuse-area protestors traveled with the Syracuse Peace Council to New York City on Sunday, after receiving training from the Central New York chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union on their constitutional and legal rights.

The presentation became especially important, said Jessica Maxwell, staff person with the SPC, because of the denial of a city permit that would have allowed the protestors to stage a rally at Central Park, and the possible confrontations this could bring between the protestors and police.

But the demonstration went smoothly, said Kimberley McCoy, a 2002 alumna of Syracuse University who made the trip down to New York City on the SPC buses and saw large amounts of protestors but minimal confrontations with police.

‘I can’t give you an estimate because it was more than I could say,’ said McCoy about the number present at the march yesterday. ‘Huge numbers, more than I could count, hundreds of thousands.’

Although most news sources said there were minimal confrontations with police, the probability that protestors anywhere will get arrested has increased because of the tension a time of war can bring, said Barrie Gewanter, executive director of the Central New York Chapter of the NYCLU.

Since Sept. 11, this tension has been high, she said.

‘The assault on civil liberties now is worse than I have seen in my lifetime,’ Gewanter said. ‘Our civil liberties are under assault, so any meeting like this is essential right now.’

But as long as protestors and police know the rules and respect each other, there should be no cause for arrest, Gewanter said.

The Bill of Rights guarantees a citizen the right to protest on public property, Gewanter said, but there are laws designed to protect individuals and the general public, which police can use to justify the arrest of protestors. This leads to a balance between free speech and anarchy.

‘That’s good and it’s bad,’ Gewanter said. ‘In a riot situation I would want the police there. In a peaceful protest I would not want the police clamping down.’

This means that protestors need to watch how they display and present their message. For instance, in New York there is a law that outlaws the use of sticks, which could be used peacefully to prop up a sign or display a flag, but could also be used as a weapon. To get past this, protestors can use anything from cardboard to foam tubes.

The phrasing of a slogan is also important, as messages that could be seen as threatening could lead to a protestor’s arrest.

‘There’s a big difference between, ‘Bush must go,’ and ‘Go get Bush,” Gewanter said, using the ‘Bush Must Go’ signs seen in Syracuse as an example.

Some protestors, however, may want to use arrest as a form of protest, said Maxwell of the Peace Council.

Because police have the right to order protestors to move, sometimes breaking laws and practicing civil disobedience can be necessary for an effective protest, Maxwell said. Knowing the laws well can therefore be essential for proper protest in order to ensure that the protestor’s goals for the demonstration are met.

‘Just knowing all that stuff, where you can and can’t be, is really important,’ Maxwell said. ‘You may know you are legally in the wrong, you may know that you are legally in the right – what’s important is that you have a choice.’

Which is why Matthew Reitman, a senior women’s studies and sociology major, and his friends attended the presentation.

‘[It’s] knowing if someone screws up that you have an entire group behind you that will go to jail with you,’ Reitman said. ‘When there is so much going on, it’s great to be able to trust someone fully.’

Published on August 29, 2004 at 12:00 pm