Thursday - April 12, 2007

Category Image Free Speech In Cincinnati


While the metropolitan area around Cincinnati is growing and flourishing, the city itself is on life support.  One only has to look at the surrounding counties to see growth and success and prosperity.  In fact, if one looks across the Ohio River, you see impressive new office buildings, stores, and restaurants in Covington and Newport.

Yet, back in Cincinnati, there is no growth.  We might have two new stadiums, but they sit empty for most of the year.  Between the stadiums sits the Freedom Center (which should have been a part of the Cincinnati History Museum, rather than its own entity), which is in perpetual financial straits and attracts few visitors, besides the forced visits of school kids.  

Where are the restaurants on the river front?  Where are the shops?  When was the last time a new skyscraper was built in this city?  Cincinnati has a lot of problems, including the people who run the city.  How the mayor, the council, and the city manager have reacted to a recent free speech issue is indicative of their incompetence.

Here is the most recent example of the city's ability to botch even the most basic issue:

Attempts to block a Neo-Nazi group from marching in Over-the-Rhine on April 20 could send the city of Cincinnati down a familiar losing legal path and cost taxpayers thousands of dollars in the process.

Dating back to the 1990s, city officials have routinely found themselves sued by the likes of the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi groups, religious extremists and others over the city seeking to limit controversial displays on Fountain Square and marches through the city. Despite attempts by City Council to pass legislation to prevent the demonstrations, courts have routinely upheld the First Amendment rights of the groups seeking the permits.


"We don't learn from repeated mistakes regarding free speech issues," said Scott Greenwood, a civil rights attorney who has represented clients of the American Civil Liberties Union, including the KKK case against Cincinnati over placing a cross on Fountain Square and others. He said he could not "confirm or deny" whether he would be representing the Roanoke Neo-Nazi group in any cases against the city over the current parade permit. He said an announcement could be forthcoming soon.


"If they are stupid enough to pass an ordinance to ban speech in the city, that's a bona fide, 100 percent loss," he said. "The bigger the fight they put up, the bigger the attorney's fees."


Those attorneys' fees - to be paid by the losing side - could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the city has never won a case like this, Greenwood said.


"They're like O for 10," he said.


Council Members Laketa Cole, Leslie Ghiz, Chris Bortz, Jeff Berding - all members of the so-called "Fiscal Five" who have touted their concern for conserving city funds - along with David Crowley and John Cranley, called a press conference today to share a motion they plan to introduce calling on the city's administration to review the current parade permitting process.


It would also add provisions to permitting that would condemn "obscenity, defamation, 'fighting words' and other threatening and intimidating expression and 'clear and present danger' expression." If an application that met those criteria were made, Council would have to be notified, the motion said.


The motion also requires that all additional police protection or city services required to protect or clean up after a group would be charged to the group, half of which would be due before the parade.


The basic premise of a liberal society, is that speech and the exchange of ideas is a cherished value.  Yes these are Nazis.  Yes their ideology is despicable, but silencing speech is never the answer.  Free speech means that people's feelings and sensibilities might be offended.  More importantly though, when ideologies, such as those espoused by groups like these Neo-Nazis is put out into the market place of ideas, the falsehoods are usually dismissed by the mass of rational opinions.

When a government attempts to stifle speech, even vile speech, it plants a seed in the minds of some, that what this group has to say, might in fact have a kernel of truth in it.

J.S. Mill, in his book On Liberty, summed the need for unfettered speech:
If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.
What the city council of Cincinnati proposes, in its attempt to block this neo-nazi group from marching through a predominately black area of the city, is a wholesale end to assembly and speech rights.  No parade permits will be granted to any group that whose message includes "obscenity, defamation, 'fighting words' and other threatening and intimidating expression and 'clear and present danger' expression."  Additionally, the city, under this ordinance, would charge groups for police and other city services.

Basically, under this ordinance, most public speech and gatherings would be banned.  Who defines obscenity, defamation, and fighting words?  Almost any speech that takes any position on any subject would fail under this test.  Additionally, charging groups for the right to exercise their "free" speech rights seems to, on its face, deny assembly rights to the poor.

This is a bad law.  If the mayor, the council, and the city manager are unable to understand the most basic rights embedded in our fundamental laws, then surely they aren't up to the task of rebuilding this city's economy.  Surely, if city leaders don't understand free speech, they will never grasp the concept that the city's nationally high tax rate is driving business to the surrounding counties and across the river to Kentucky.

Finally, what about the Neo-Nazis?  As the Post article points out, this group is looking for this kind of controversy.  It will legitimize their message, as some will certainly think that if their message is being repressed by the government, then surely there is some truth to it.  Instead, let them march.  When no one cares, no one shows up, and no one listens, they will leave and never come back.

This fundamental lesson is lost on this city council.

Update:  Captain's Quarters has weighed in on the subject, but I think fails to understand the speech restrictions the city ultimately passed.  Here is the latest news on the subject from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Cincinnati now has a city ordinance that prohibits marches and parades by groups that use "fighting words" and requires groups to pay for police officers, firefighters and any other city services needed to handle the marches.


In less than five minutes Wednesday, City Council members introduced the emergency measure to amend the city's parade permits rules, agreed to hear it immediately instead of sending it through the committee process, and passed it.


Council's action came nine days before a group of neo-Nazis plans to march through Over-the-Rhine.


The new ordinance says that, when city staff members review applications for permits, they will calculate how many police officers, firefighters and other personnel will be needed, inform the group of the cost and get half of that money up front.


It also says permits will not be granted to "any applicant whose stated intended purpose is to communicate any obscenity, defamation, fighting words or words creating a clear and present danger."



Once again, I do not have even an ounce of any sympathy for any group that has Nazi in its name or that wants to honor Adolf Hitler's birthday.  Nazism stood for genocide, terrorism, and destruction that has only been surpased by communism.

That being said, the ordinance passed by city council, precludes almost all public speech.  What speech that takes a position, doesn't, in someone's opinion, contain obscenity, defamation, fighting words, or even clear and present danger?  Would a Christian preacher who condemns Islam be banned from public speech in Cincinnati?  Would an ordinary citizen who condemns black on black violence in Cincinnati be prohibited from public speaking?

Additionally, now the city is also charging groups to march.  What if a group lacks the funds to pay the city?  Doesn't that mean only well organized and funded groups can obtain a city permit?  Doesn't that limit speech  on its face?

Let the Nazi's march.  In the market place of ideas, in a rational western society, their racist theology and their hatred will wither under the light of public scrutiny.  



Posted: Thursday - April 12, 2007 at 09:07 PM
        | View blog reactions

Author:
Technorati Tags:
Technorati Cosmos: Technorati Cosmos
Technorati Watchlist: Technorati Watchlist
Add this entry to: