Anti-inauguration protest at Palmer Square cut short by police

Demontrators block sidewalk, lack parade permit, police say.

By: Rachel Silverman
   Despite frigid temperatures, Students for Peace and the Coalition for Peace Action staged a joint anti-inauguration protest Thursday afternoon in Palmer Square.
   Their protest activities were cut short, however, when police broke up the gathering around 4:30 p.m. and forced the crowd to leave. The demonstration was planned to end at 6 p.m.
   According to Princeton Borough Police Capt. Anthony Federico, the three borough police officers on patrol broke up the protest because it was blocking the sidewalk. Also, the group did not have a parade permit that would allow them to stage such an event, Capt. Federico said.
   "As a result, the group was told to move on," the captain said.
   The police action was "way over the line of what’s constitutional," said the Rev. Bob Moore, executive director of the Coalition for Peace Action.
   "We were told we could not hand out leaflets, hold signs or walk around the streets of town. You do not need permits to do these things," he said.
   Princeton High School student Elisabeth Wolfe, who helped organize the protest, said the police behavior was "very ironic," given the circumstances.
   "What’s the point of protesting the government when you have to get a permit from the government?" she asked.
   The demonstration aimed to "protest the president’s policies on Iraq and promote peaceful alternatives to them," according to an event press release.
   Volunteers distributed literature, held signs and invited community members to sign petitions. The group also staged a role-playing demonstration in which students lay motionless on the sidewalk to symbolize the death of various liberties.
   "The people lying down represent our petitions," Ms. Wolfe explained. "They represent things that died or suffered in the Bush administration."
   Some, for example, held signs against the USA PATRIOT Act, the president’s policies in Iraq and the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to be U.S. attorney general.
   Though visually arresting, the physical demonstration was not the main objective, Ms. Wolfe said.
   "The protest is just to aid the petitions and get them (spectators) to go over there and sign something," she explained.
   "It’s not just about complaining or saying, ‘I hate Bush,’" Ms. Wolfe said. "It’s about getting out there to do something."