Bar Association Criticizes Parade Permits Proposal

The New York City Bar Association is coming out against a Police Department proposal to regulate protests by groups of 10 or more pedestrians or bicyclists.

The proposals, which the department revised after criticism over the summer, would require parade permits from groups of 10 or more pedestrians or bicyclists who plan to travel more than two city blocks without obeying traffic laws. The police also want to mandate permits for any organized procession of 30 or more vehicles, including bicycles, regardless of whether they follow traffic laws.

In testimony to be submitted at a public hearing today, the bar association said the department's new definition of a "parade" that requires a permit is "a serious and unwarranted infringement on associational freedom." Urging that the proposals be withdrawn, the association said the City Council — and not the police — should regulate parade permits.

The police proposals follow court rulings that have said current permit regulations are too vague. The plans have been seen as an attempt to crack down on the frequent "Critical Mass" bike rides that take over city streets.

Police officials have maintained that parade permit regulation is within the department's purview. A statement accompanying the proposed rule changes said they are intended to "clarify" the permit process. "Each of these activities has the likelihood to significantly disrupt vehicular and pedestrian traffic and adversely affect public health and safety, unless subject to regulatory control via the permitting process," the statement said.

The department initially proposed even tougher restrictions that would have required permits for pedestrians gathering on the sidewalk and for groups of two or more that planned to flout traffic laws. But it backed off those plans in August after an outcry of opposition and meetings with the City Council speaker, Christine Quinn.

Ms. Quinn praised the new proposals when they were announced last month, saying they "struck a better balance." She has not taken a public position on whether the police or the council should decide permit procedure, and a spokeswoman, Maria Alvarado, declined comment on the issue last night.

A group of council members is expected to rally against the permit requirements before today's hearing at police headquarters, along with an advocacy group, Assemble for Rights NYC.

"It's pretty clear that no one expects a group of 10 people to apply for a parade permit," the group's director, Mark Taylor, said. He said the permit requirement for groups that plan to disobey traffic rules would duplicate existing laws, a position taken by the bar association.

The New York Civil Liberties Union also is opposing the new rules. "There is no justification for them, and they impose an onerous burden on protest," the executive director of the NYCLU, Donna Lieberman, said yesterday.