By JIM GENARO

It is the right and duty of citizens to dissent when they believe their government is wrong, but it is the role of law enforcement† to ensure that such dissent does not infringe on othersí rights, according to the panelists at a forum on dissent last Thursday.

The forum, sponsored by the Western North Carolina and UNC Asheville branches of the American Civil Liberties Union, featured panelists from law enforcement, civil rights advocates, activists and academics.
About 200 people attended the event at UNCAís Highsmith University Union.

Included on the panel were UNCA political science professor Dwight Mullen, ACLU attorney Frank Goldsmith, Asheville City Attorney Bob Oast, City Councilwoman Robin Cape, Asheville Police Chief Bill Hogan, Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan, Students for a Democratic Society member Kati Katz and anti-war activist Clare Hanrahan.

UNCA Belk Distinguished Professor Mark Gibney moderated the forum.

Each panelist was given five minutes to speak. A question-and-answer period followed.

Gibney said that dissent is ìa basic part of being an American,î a sentiment that was echoed by several other speakers.

Mullen said that expressions of political dissent are ìresponsibilities we owe to each otherî and invoked the legacy of the Black Panther movement.

Goldsmith told the forum, ìWe have a robust tradition of dissent in America that crosses party lines.î

Goldsmith said that federal courts have made distinctions among speech allowed in different types of spaces.

In what he termed the traditional public forum ó places like streets, parks, sidewalks and plazas ó no content-based restrictions on speech are allowed, he said.

This is also true of a second category, designated public forums. These are realms that are created to be public forums for a limited time, such as public television channels and courthouse lawns when a rally is held there.

There are also what Goldsmith called ìlimited public forums,î in which certain types of speech are allowed.

For instance, the public-comment portion of a City Council meeting may restrict what topics are discussed, but not the specific content of that discussion.

Finally, he said, there are non-public forums, such as airports, courtrooms and private property, in which free speech is not protected.

While all areas are subject to non-content-based limitations on speech, these have to be narrowly defined and universally applied.

Such restrictions include noise ordinances, traffic laws and buffer zones around schools and hospitals, Goldsmith said.

Oast said the city has to strike a balance between free speech and its obligation to protect public safety.
However, he noted that it cannot make decisions based on speech content.

ìWe donít care what you say and we canít care what you say,î he told the audience.

Cape focused on the responsibilities involved in dissent.

She noted that she personally has not tended to participate in dissent, but rather has chosen to get involved with government when she felt strongly about an issue.

Cape emphasized that citizens have ìa right and obligation to stand up and say how we want our government to act.î

She said that while civil disobedience is a legitimate means to effect change, it is the responsibility of those engaging in it to accept the consequences of breaking the law.

ìThatís not the policeís fault at that point,î she said.

Cape also said that the city has 1,200 employees and that ìmost of them I meet really, really care about this community.î

Hogan said the role of police is to keep the peace and protect citizensí constitutional rights.

That often means setting aside personal beliefs, he said. Officers often have to protect demonstrators whose positions they disagree with personally, Hogan told the audience.

ìItís not a pleasant place to be in, when you see an African-American police officer standing along the parade route, protecting the Ku Klux Klan, knowing his stomach is churning,î he said.

However, that is the duty of a professional law-enforcement officer, he added.

Duncan said that many of the conflicts that arise between protesters and law enforcement ìare the result of misperceptions.î

Often, this arises from situations in which two peopleís rights are in conflict.

ìThe law is sometimes gray about areas between rights of different people,î Duncan said. ìTo be quite honest with you, sometimes we get it wrong.î

Katz spoke about the ìinformal costsî of protesting ó ìwhat peopleís reactions are ... You have to be prepared for that.î

She said that citizens ìhave the duty, not the right, to raise the social costs of the war in Iraq here at home.î

Hanrahan also emphasized the moral imperative of opposing militarism.

ìWe who dissent are not the terrorists,î she told the audience.

Hanrahan noted that she spent time in a federal prison for trespassing at Fort Benning, Georgia, as part of a demonstration against a U.S. training facility for Latin American soldiers.

ìEach of us has only the stubborn weight of our resistance to confront the abusesî of militarism and war, she said.

Hanrahan cited the findings of the Nuremburg Trials, which established that individuals have ìa responsibility to resist and refuse enabling and condoing this criminal behavior.î

She added that law enforcement is ìarbitrary and selective, giving the lie to the concept of equal justice.î
The audience then had an opportunity to ask questions of the panelists.

A woman asked Goldsmith whether local municipal agencies ó especially those that receive federal funding ó are bound by the federal Freedom of Information Act.

He answered that FOIA applies only to federal agencies, but that the State of North Carolina has its own public records act.

Oast confirmed this as well, and added that ìthe North Carolina law, in many cases, gives you broader accessî than FOIA grants.

Stewart David, an activist with the Animal Compassion Network, said that he has frequently been harassed by police when he was handing out leaflets in public places.

Eventually, David said, he started carrying a copy of the cityís ordinances with him during his leafletting activities.

ìI really shouldnít have to carry a copy of the ordinances with me and read it to the officers,î he said.

In response, Hogan urged David to let him know any time he feels he has been harassed by an officer.

Barry Summers, speaking on behalf of WPVM radio, asked, ìGiven that tempers run high on all sides, what is the law concerning citizens videotaping public officers during the carrying out of their duties?î

Hogan said the police department is ìvery, very tolerantî of cameras, as long as the person videotaping does not interfere with the officer carrying out his duties.

Duncan concurred, saying that citizens have a right to film officers.

A woman in the audience asked Hogan and Duncan to ìexpand about training for officers.î She asked if there is ìany sort of testing ... to see if they are ready for that job.î

Hogan replied that new officers go through ìvery extensive screening,î and have to undergo trainings in ìemotional intelligence.î

ìIf you donít have people skills, you canít do this job very well,î he said.

However, he noted that officers are under tremendous pressures that many citizens do not understand.

ìThereís kids 15, 16 years old carrying guns, shooting at each other and shooting at police offiers,î he said. ìItís a dangerous job.î

Duncan said that the departments do the† best they can, but that because of budget shortages, ìa lot of times, training is the first thing to be cut when it shouldnít.î

He also referred to a recent incident in which a deputy arrested a couple for flying the American flag upside down in violation of a state statute that was clearly unconstitutional. Duncan later dropped all charges against them and said the deputy should not have been there in the first place.

ìI can assure you that everyone in the department now understands that itís lawful to fly a flag any way you want to,î Duncan told the audience.