DEMONSTRATION GUIDELINES

Demonstration Leaders will coordinate the demonstration at a specific site.  Each Demonstration Leader will be responsible for all aspects of their demonstration including recruiting demonstrators and, if available, speakers on the chosen topic(s), and assuring compliance with local legal requirements for holding demonstrations, (where applicable).

One or more of the following issues should be addressed at each demonstration:

Physical / sexual abuse of inmates by staff

Medical neglect

Visitation

Disparate sentencing

Sensatory Deprivation

The Death Penalty

We ask that each demonstration stick to this guideline in order that we may make one united voice in addressing these universal problems, while leaving leeway for each demonstration to address their most urgent individual issues. This should provide for exposure of the issues most important to all groups, while providing a unity of purpose message for media and public exposure.

It is very important that each person who undertakes the promotion of the demonstration stress the following:

THAT THE DEMONSTRATIONS WILL BE COMPLETELY PEACEFUL AND NON-VIOLENT

BE AWARE THAT THERE MAY WELL BE "INSTIGATORS" WHO WANT TO EMBROIL DEMONSTRATORS INTO ACTS OF VIOLENCE OR CONFRONTATION

ALL PERSONS ATTEMPTING TO INSTIGATE VIOLENCE OR CONFRONTATION OF ANY NATURE MUST BE IGNORED REGARDLESS OF THEIR TACTICS

IF A DEMONSTRATION BEGINS TO GET OUT OF CONTROL OFFICIAL P.R.U.P. DEMONSTRATORS WILL IMMEDIATELY VACATE THE AREA

INMATES MUST REMAIN COMPLETELY PEACEFUL AND NON-VIOLENT. IT IS REQUESTED THAT THEY DO NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO MARK THE DEMONSTRATIONS

It is most important to remember that ANY violence or unlawful conduct by anyone either in prison or demonstrating will COMPLETELY DESTROY OUR CREDIBILITY AND NEGATE OUR MESSAGE. Such behavior will regress rather than advance the cause of HUMAN RIGHTS FOR PRISONERS

YOUR LEGAL RIGHT TO DEMONSTRATE

At demonstrations that have secured permits and follow all the rules, you can hold signs, make speeches through loud speakers, chant slogans, call politicians whatever name appeals to you at the moment, and generally peaceably express yourself however you wish.  You probably will not be allowed to attach signs to trees, light posts, etc.  The right of free speech does not include threats or attempts to provoke violence. 

 

Activities outside permitted areas will be tricky.  As a general matter, you have the right to use the public sidewalks if not preventing others from using the sidewalk.  So you can hand out flyers, hold picket signs, and make speeches.  You do not need a permit for this.  However, if there is so large a group doing this that others cannot use the sidewalks, you might be asked to move along. 

 

The police sometimes set up “secure zones” by closing the streets to the public, including protestors.  There are complex constitutional issues when the police close a street.  The right to protest in a non-violent manner in public places is protected by the Constitution, as well as by international law.  Although the government can impose reasonable "time, place, and manner" restrictions on public protest, the government may not consider the content of your message, must have a good reason for imposing restrictions, and the restrictions must do no more than absolutely necessary to satisfy those legitimate concerns.  Moreover, the government cannot, in the interest of regulating speech, channel speech physically to areas where the speakers are ignored. For example, if someone wants to protest against the IMF, the police cannot compel the protestor to stand five miles away from the meetings in a "free speech zone," as some government officials have attempted to do in the past.  In the end, we may get a court to declare street closings unlawful, and anyone arrested for violating those unconstitutional rules will be declared not guilty, and there may be other remedies as well.  But if your concern is with staying out of jail all together, the unfortunate truth is that in the short run the police have the power (if not the rightful authority) to close streets any time they want.  Same goes for parks and other public places.

Federal buildings often have special rules.  Increasingly in recent years, the government has begun constructing barricades around federal buildings that may enclose much or all of the sidewalk.  We are unaware of any prosecutions to date for demonstrating within these barriers, and the constitutionality of limiting speech there is highly questionable.  Recently, two courts declared a law banning expressive activity in front of the US Capitol without a permit unconstitutional, refusing to convict a protestor and issuing an injunction against enforcing that law.  Still, the government justifies impositions on protest and other activity as needed to combat terrorism, and the courts have often looked the other way when the First Amendment gets trod on by "national security."

Sometimes businesses own the walkways immediately surrounding the buildings.  If picketing takes place on private, rather than public property, it may not be constitutionally protected. The First Amendment only protects us from government actions-not the actions of private parties.   Usually if it looks like a public sidewalk, you have a great deal of free speech rights there.  Still, if you picket plazas outside office buildings and shopping malls, you run the risk being charged with trespassing.

Marches in the streets require a permit.