City, Occupy protesters discuss plans, problems
THE CONCEPT of American free speech was nurtured right here in the Cradle of Liberty, but Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and their pals didn't have to worry about thorny issues like police overtime costs or traffic jams.
THE CONCEPT of American free speech was nurtured right here in the Cradle of Liberty, but Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and their pals didn't have to worry about thorny issues like police overtime costs or traffic jams.
That's why top city officials - including Mayor Nutter and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey - met for close to an hour yesterday with lawyers and organizers for Occupy Philadelphia, the anti-corporate-greed protest slated to launch this morning on the west side of City Hall.
The protest group - organized over Facebook and other social media, with 1,000 people at a planning session Tuesday night - wants to be able to speak out while avoiding the kinds of run-ins with cops that have marked the 18-day-old Occupy Wall Street movement in New York.
The mayor and his top aides voiced unqualified support for the free-speech rights of Occupy Philadelphia, but said they were worried about public safety and traffic control - and about how the cash-strapped city can afford police overtime if the planned occupation drags on as long as the one in Manhattan.
Both sides are cautiously but surprisingly optimistic - at least for now.
"They have promised us their intent is to come here and exercise their First Amendment rights. We support that," said Richard Negron, the city's managing director, at an afternoon news conference. "This is Philadelphia, the cradle of democracy, and that's what it's all about, so we hope that goes well."
"The meeting was very constructive," Larry Krasner, an attorney for the protesters, said later. "We're grateful to the mayor for his expressed support for the free-speech rights of this movement, and we're very hopeful that the city will keep its word."
Ramsey said he was determined not to pull any cops out of high-crime neighborhoods, which means that police overtime is all but certain if the protest lags on. He also predicted that some Center City traffic disruptions were likely, even if protesters honor their pledge not to block streets.