9/11 walk celebrating "freedom" with threat of arrest?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jeremy Epstein <jeremy.epstein () webmethods com>
Date: September 9, 2005 12:55:08 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: 9/11 walk celebrating "freedom" with threat of arrest?


For IP, if you like:

It strikes me as somewhat perverse that a "freedom walk" is so un- 
free that
you're at risk of being arrested if you try to join without  
registering, and
media are being largely excluded.

Excerpts from
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/ 
AR2005090802
140_pf.html

Organizers of the Pentagon's 9/11 memorial Freedom Walk on Sunday are  
taking
extraordinary measures to control participation in the march and  
concert,
with the route fenced off and lined with police and the event closed to
anyone who does not register online by 4:30 p.m. today.  The march,
sponsored by the Department of Defense, will wend its way from the  
Pentagon
to the Mall along a route that has not been specified but will be  
lined with
four-foot-high snow fencing to keep it closed and "sterile," said  
Allison
Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense.

[...]

[Park Police Chief] Pettiford said officers would patrol to keep  
interlopers
out because the Pentagon restricted the event in its permit application.
[...] What's unusual for an event on the Mall is the combination of  
fences,
required preregistration and the threat of arrest.  Park Police  
officials
said security and safety were concerns, especially because Secretary of
Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld will participate in some of the day's events.
They said they have approved a permit for a small group of protesters  
that
plans to stand along Independence Avenue.

[...]

One restricted group will be the media, whose members will not be  
allowed to
walk along the march route. Reporters and cameras are restricted to  
three
enclosed areas along the route but are not permitted to walk alongside
participants walking from the Pentagon, across the Memorial Bridge to  
the
Mall. [...]

--Jeremy



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