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Originally Posted by aceventura3
In your view does the rights of protesters trump the rights of private property owners?
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Irrelevant. The protesters who's rights we feel were violated were on a public sidewalk (and later an already blocked off public street).
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Do city and local governments have the right to limit or restrict how public property is used by the public?
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Within certain boundaries. They have the right to forbid you from urinating on the sidewalk, but they do not have the right to restrict your travel along it (with the obvious exception of temporary closures for emergency situations such as a traffic accident or a shooting - -neither of which apply here so again, irrelevant.)
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Does protective public services have an obligation to intervene when the behavior of citizens is disruptive or unsafe?
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Yes, but again irrelevant. A bunch of people holding signs on a sidewalk is not unsafe, and it isn't disruptive.
Plus, if you go by the disruptive yardstick, I'd say fencing off a 1 block radius around this event center (including what appears to be a fairly major street), and causing businesses in the city to force employees to leave by 2pm in order to open up parking and room for the convention goers, is rather disruptive. Does that mean we should make the RNC illegal? Why do they get to disrupt by effectively shutting 1/4 of a city down, but protesters don't get to disrupt by marching?