CIVIL LIBERTIES
Bill De Blasio’s Haphazard First Amendment Policies
Mayor has enforced free assembly ban selectively, advised citizens on how to protest
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
As Mayor Bill de Blasio
has navigated the city’s
response to COVID-19,
he has expressed different
positions on whether or not
protests are allowed in the city and
has gone so far as to tell protestors
how they should express themselves
when they protest.
“He lacks credibility when he
speaks,” said Norman Siegel, a
civil rights attorney who has spent
decades defending free speech and
other rights guaranteed by the
First Amendment of the US Constitution.
“The inconsistency just
leads to distrust and mistrust, and
that is what’s happening now.”
When members of the Reclaim
Pride Coalition held a press conference
in the East Village on May 3
to protest the Mount Sinai Health
System inviting Samaritan’s Purse,
a right-wing evangelical group, to
open its medical tents in Central
Park, police fi rst used a recorded
message to declare the event “unlawful”
and threaten participants
with arrest. The protestors were
wearing masks and staying six
feet apart. Some participants left
the event, but the press conference
proceeded with just one organizer
and one participant being given
summonses.
The mayor called in-person protests
“idiotic” on May 4 and suggested
that people should “Do it
online” or limit their protest to social
media outlets, such as Twitter
or Facebook.
On April 14, the Coalition had
protested in Central Park near the
Samaritan’s Purse tents without
any comment from the police. Police
arrested Reverend Billy Talen
from the Church of Stop Shopping
when he tried to deliver a Rainbow
Flag to the fi eld hospital on April
6.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams
has held one public press
conference, and City Councilmember
Ydanis Rodriguez has held at
least two. They proceeded without
any interference or threats from
police.
Protesters responding to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis outside Brooklyn’s Barclays
Center on May 31.
Other groups have held protests
in the city without police objecting.
When a group opposing the shelter
in-place orders issued by the
city and state held protests in City
Hall Park on May 8, Linda Bouferguen,
one of the roughly eight
people participating, was arrested.
Bouferguen was arrested again
on May 9, along with seven other
people, when they protested the
orders in City Hall Park. The New
York Civil Liberties Union is representing
her in a lawsuit brought
against the city and state over the
protest ban.
“For a while, they were enforcing
this no protest thing very selectively,”
said Bill Dobbs, an attorney
and civil rights advocate.
For Jay W. Walker, a co-founder
of the Coalition, the city’s actions
have more to do with who is being
criticized — the mayor and governor
were targeted in the Coalition
protests — than who is doing the
criticizing.
“It was more about what we were
saying than the way we were saying
it,” Walker said. “We can only
surmise based on what we observed.”
When George Floyd was killed
DUNCAN OSBORNE
by Minneapolis police on May
25, the mayor’s position made an
abrupt shift as protests with thousands
of participants took place
in New York City. The mayor was
entirely sympathetic to that cause
and expressed the view that police
should make it possible for those
protestors to peacefully express
themselves. Yet the mayor has also
suggested that protestors should
not engage with police during protests,
but aim their comments at
elected offi cials — even though police
conduct is a central element in
the Floyd protests.
Dermot Shea, the city’s police
commissioner, echoed that view in
press conferences with the mayor.
Both differentiated between nonviolent
protestors and what they
said are outside agitators who are
hijacking the protests with violent
actions and looting.
In some respects, the mayor and
Shea are being practical. Even if
the police could arrest thousands
of protestors, and they probably
cannot, doing so would create the
condition of many people being
held together in an enclosed space
and the city would want to avoid
that to prevent the further spread
of COVID-19.
But on June 1, the mayor acknowledged
“the outpouring of
such pain and frustration — years
and years, decades, generations of
pain and frustration outpouring,”
but added that people should stop
protesting.
“I would certainly urge everyone
– look, you’ve made your point, it’s
time to stay home,” he said during
a press conference.
Then with little notice and after
the mayor saying for two days that
a curfew was unnecessary in New
York City, de Blasio and Governor
Andrew Cuomo imposed an 11:00
p.m. to 5:00 a.m. curfew on the
city on June 1, effectively banning
any protest during those hours.
The argument is that most of the
violence occurs at night and the
curfew will prevent that. The mayor
also asserted he was protecting
the integrity of protesting with the
curfew.
“I support and protect peaceful
protest in this city,” the mayor said
in a written statement that was issued
less than eight hours before
the curfew began. “We can’t let
violence undermine the message
of this moment. It is too important
and the message must be heard.
Tonight, to protect against violence
and property damage, the Governor
and I have decided to implement
a citywide curfew.”
Some protests continued after
the curfew on June 1 and into
June 2, and the city has now been
slapped with an 8 p.m. curfew
through June 7.
When Dobbs was asked if de
Blasio has been clear in his instructions
on protests, he responded
with a blunt “No.”
Siegel was equally blunt.
“The mayor’s statements demonstrate
that he is not adhering to
First Amendment principles and
values or he just doesn’t understand
its meanings and historical
signifi cance,” he said. “Government
offi cials should not be telling
people how to exercise their First
Amendment rights… It’s not for
the government to tell us how we
should demonstrate or when we
should demonstrate.”
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