Pro-Palestinian groups sue Chicago over denial of DNC protest permits
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Three groups who were denied permits to hold a pair of pro-Palestinian protest marches within blocks of the United Center during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this summer filed a federal lawsuit against the city on Friday, accusing officials of violating their First Amendment rights.
The groups had sought permits for protest marches on the first and last days of the convention, with parade routes that would have taken them within one block of the United Center, but the Chicago Department of Transportation denied those requests.
The groups appealed their denial, but were again rejected by the city's Department of Administrative Hearings.
The lawsuit filed Friday by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Anti-War Coalition, and Students for a Democratic Society at UIC said the city is denying them their First Amendment right to hold peaceful protest marches to send a message to President Joe Biden and other Democratic leaders to do more to force a ceasefire in Gaza.
"The need for to freedom of speech ... is at its peak"
"At a time when over 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, a majority women and children, have been killed with bombs and missiles made in and funded by the United States and over one million Gazans – mostly children – face catastrophic conditions and are literally starving to death due to military action supported by and largely funded by the United States, the need for to freedom of speech, particularly directed at federal Democratic officials scheduled to attend the Democratic National Convention ("DNC") in Chicago – including the President Biden, is at its peak," states the lawsuit, obtained by CBS Chicago.
The lawsuit claims the city denied their application for protest permits closer to the DNC "based on unspecified security concerns immediately around the United Center DNC."
"[Chicago Police Department] offered no specific justification for its recommendation," they added.
The groups also claimed, when the city denied their permits, officials were required to offer an alternative route that is within similar visibility to the United Center as the one they sought, but instead offered one more than three miles away in Grant Park, where convention guests would not be able to see them.
"We want them to literally hear us and literally see us"
"The parade permits Plaintiffs seek are to conduct peaceful marches on public forums to convey a different political message to different attendees attending on different dates at the DNC being held at the [United Center]," their lawsuit states. "Each Plaintiff organization agreed it would engage with Defendants to find a more narrowly tailored parade route with more comparable visibility and closer in terms of location and route."
However, the groups said the city made no effort to reach out to them "to discuss an alternate route with comparable visibility and a similar route and location to the extent possible, instead making the offer of the alternate route on a take-it-or-leave-it basis."
Protest organizers have said said they will not relocate, and want their protests to be seen and heard during the DNC, not miles away where delegates and others attending the convention would not see them. Protesters said President Joe Biden and other Democratic leaders who will be attending the convention are complicit in the deaths of more than 30,000 Palestinians during the war between Israel and Hamas, for not doing more to force a ceasefire.
"We want them to literally hear us and literally see us. We want those warmongers, those people responsible for the killings, those people with blood on their hands to have to walk past tens of thousands of Palestinians who have families that have been killed in Gaza," Hatem Abudayyeh, chair of the US Palestinian Community Network, said earlier this week. "The city must allow these protests to happen; must allow us to practice our constitutional rights. And must allow us our permits to do so."
The groups are seeking a court order either requiring the city to approve the parade permits they originally sought, or to compel city officials to meet with them to determine a more appropriate protest route.
They also have launched an online petition drive to send letters to Mayor Brandon Johnson urging him to support their fight for a permit to protest closer to the United Center.
CBS 2 is reaching out to city officials for a response to the lawsuit.
