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City mandates protest permits
Group's founder decries measure
By Christina L. Esparza and Phil Drake
Staff Writer


Thursday, June 16, 2005 - BALDWIN PARK -- Reacting to talk of another protest at the Baldwin Park Metrolink station, the City Council has moved to ensure safety by requiring demonstrators to obtain a permit.

The founder of Save Our State, an anti-illegal immigration group that plans a June 25 protest, called the city's action "unconstitutional' and a "political game.'

The ordinance which took effect Thursday requires people who plan a protest, or hold any other gathering with more than 35 people, to agree to an array of conditions. They would ensure public safety, speedy emergency response when needed, clean streets and crowd control, officials said.

The Police Department and the city's chief executive officer must approve each permit, said Baldwin Park Police Chief Mark Kling, who said it must be obtained a week before the planned event.

The City Council unanimously passed the ordinance late Wednesday.

"It lets people know the rules with what it takes to do a non-violent (protest),' said Councilman Ricardo Pacheco. "We have a better coordination between the Police Department and any group wanting to do a protest or demonstration in the city.'

Pacheco said the permit also will help police officers differentiate permit-holders from non-permit holders and will allow them to remove those not supposed to be there.

A man who organized a protest in Baldwin Park last month criticized the council's action.

"It's a political game, that is all it is,' Joseph Turner, founder of Save Our State, said in a telephone interview Thursday. "I am very amused and very flattered that the city of Baldwin Park would take such action as a result of our protest.'

Save Our State protested the "Danza Indigenas' monument at the Metrolink station May 14 because it contained two quotes the group found anti-American, including "It was better before they came.'

The group contends that type of wording promotes the radical belief in returning California to Mexico. About 25 people protested, but they were met with about 300 counter- protesters who wanted to keep the monument as is.

One woman demonstrating on the Save Our State side got hit by a flying plastic water bottle and was taken to the intensive care unit of a local hospital.

Mayor Manuel Lozano said Thursday a camera operator from a Spanish-language news station was hit in the face with his camera by one of the demonstrators with Save Our State and received a black eye.

Save Our State is planning another protest at the Metrolink station from noon to 2 p.m. June 25. The new ordinance will not stop it, Turner said.

Turner, 28, said he already does the tasks the ordinance requires. He meets with police and takes safety measures.

"It seems like a juvenile retaliatory attack on our constitutional rights,' he said. "What will they do, arrest us?'

Mayor Manuel Lozano and Councilman David Olivas both said Tuesday night the planned protest at the Metrolink station was prime reason to move ahead with the ordinance.

"We have never had this (demonstrations) before,' Lozano said Thursday. "Now we are seeing what happened the last time. ... We needed some uniformity while protecting the First Amendment rights of everyone.'

"It will be better than not having anything at all,' Lozano said of the ordinance.