Federal Govt. Might Ask Protesters To Repay Security Costs of Demonstrations
As increasingly large and frequent protests have flooded Washington, D.C.'s streets in recent years, federal officials have searched for ways to offset the cost of supporting such demonstrations. Washington Post, Sept. 29, 2019.
The National Park Service last year floated a proposal that would alter protest regulations and require organizers to repay the federal government for the security costs. Earlier this month, Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) announced he was crafting legislation to hold protesters arrested during unpermitted demonstrations liable “for police overtime and other fees related to the action.”
Putting organizers on the hook for the costs of policing could mean invoices in the tens of thousands of dollars, according to U.S. Park Police budgets obtained by The Washington Post through the Freedom of Information Act. That’s enough to price most activists out of protesting altogether, according to experts and activists awaiting a decision from the Park Service.
“If someone called me to say ‘I want to have a protest’ and I said, ‘Cool, the Park Service is going to charge you $150,000 for security,’ they would hang up the phone,” said Samantha Miller, an organizer with D.C. Action Lab, a company that helps out-of-towners plan and organize demonstrations in Washington. “There are already a lot of preexisting fees that organizers get asked to pay. Add in something like a security fee, and there’s just no way most people or organizations would be able to afford it.”
To obtain a permit for a protest in the District, organizers typically are required to provide a number of amenities to demonstrators, most of which cost money, Miller said. They include, but are not limited to, toilets, medical tents, cooling stations for hot days and audiovisual equipment for large demonstrations.
For a protest like the People’s Climate March — a rally in which tens of thousands of people marched from the Capitol to the White House — groups already can expect to stare down a budget of more than $100,000, Miller said. “You already need to have a certain amount of access to funds to try to get a permit for a certain size protest,” Miller said. “That’s already a huge burden.” ...
More, http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-government-might-ask-activists-to-repay-the-costs-of-securing-protests-experts-say-it-could-price-them-out/ar-AAHZnQh?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15
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Also called The STFU Law. A clear violation of the First Amendment.
