URGENT: The MLK Parade Is In Danger of Being Cancelled
More Information:
The CARE Rockbridge Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Parade is in danger of being cancelled by a proposed city policy. The proposed policy would require CARE to pay for the policing provided to defend marchers from potential violence. The parade originated as a response to KKK blanketing of local lawns with promotional information twice in 2016. Because white supremacy lurks as threat, police presence is needed.
Costs are too high for CARE to pay, and the proposed fees would result in the canceling of the parade.
But, more importantly, CARE assembles in the streets once every year in order to speak up for racial justice and the equality of all. By assembling and speaking publicly, we avail ourselves of fundamental rights guaranteed in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Yes, there are policing costs in defending an annual public assembly in which we raise voices in support of a just, equal political community. But the defense of the basic constitutional rights of the citizens of this community is the very reason that we citizens have forces of law and order. The police exist to protect our political rights.
Should Council take the position that a peaceful assembly calls for further movement toward justice and equality can only happen if private organizations pay for the privilege of police protection, the City will be moving us backward to the era in which leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. marched without permits and through violent attacks to defend the constitutional claims of racial equality and the equal rights of all to assemble and speak.
The city manager’s proposed policies advance the idea that political expression is just one menu item in the “mix of events” that Lexington has. This is to get things completely backwards. Lexington, itself, is an expression of citizens’ political opinions. The citizens’ political assembly and speech are fundamental to our common endeavor as a community in a constitutional republic. The city government and its forces of law and order are obliged to protect that constitutional pursuit.
Please attend the Lexington City Council Meeting on Thursday, August 20, 7:00 PM at the Rockbridge County Administrative Offices, 150 South Main Street, Lexington. You may ask to speak in the citizens comment period, or you may simply be present to support those who will speak.
Read the proposed policy changes here
