Forum Post: [UPDATE] Occupy Charlotte Denounces City’s Free Speech Lottery

Occupy Charlotte Denounces City’s Free Speech Lottery

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Internet and Media

On June 4th the City of Charlotte began accepting applications for its Free Speech Lottery, which will be held on July 2nd at 2pm at the CharMeck Government Center (600 E 4th St). The Free Speech Lottery will determine who may participate in a City-designated parade route during the Democratic National Convention, and it will determine who may speak at a Free Speech Zone that the City calls “a speaker’s platform.”

Occupy Charlotte announces its condemnation of the City’s Free Speech Lottery. Occupy Charlotte will not legitimize this charade by placing its name in the lottery to try to “win” an opportunity to participate in a Free Speech Zone. This entire City, this entire country, is a Free Speech Zone. And Occupy Charlotte members will make their voices heard during the DNC without winning a Free Speech Lottery.

In previous National Convention cities, Free Speech Zones have been located far from the convention sites, behind metal fences and barbed wire. The City of Charlotte has not announced the location of its Free Speech Zone, but it has announced that a maximum of 60 speakers may speak at the podium over the course of the 3-day convention. 60 speakers from the tens of thousands who are expected to demonstrate at the DNC.

The City has also announced the location of its designated parade route, which will allow a maximum of 18 marches over the course of the 3-day convention. This parade route is unacceptable. It is a tour of Charlotte parking lots, and it does not meet the First Amendment standard to be within sight and sound of the Convention.

This Free Speech Lottery is an embarrassment to our city. It is part of the permanent changes to the Charlotte City Code that our City Council created as a legacy of the DNC. These changes place repressive restrictions on free speech activities, open wide the doors for profiling protesters and the homeless, and evicted Occupy Charlotte’s peaceable protest on the People’s Lawn of Old City Hall.

Occupy Charlotte encourages all Charlotteans to contact Mayor Foxx and the City Council to tell them that they have the opportunity to make Charlotte a model city, a city unlike past National Convention cities. One that respects First Amendment rights. In order to become this model city, our City Council must repeal the disgraceful changes to the Charlotte City Code.

Media contact for this release: Michael Zytkow — (980) 200-5178

http://occupyclt.net/2012/06/19/occupy-charlotte-denounces-citys-free-speech-lottery/