Los Angeles Police Officer. Photo: Bill Hackwell.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has refused to grant a permit for a legal mass march scheduled to coincide with the Summit of the Americas on June 10, 2022. According to the organizers of the People’s Summit for Democracy, a counter-summit to Washington’s exclusionary Summit of the Americas, “the LAPD conduct constitutes an illegal denial of constitutional rights for those engaged in First Amendment-protected activity.” They vow to demonstrate on June 10, despite not receiving the police permit.
Organizers of the People’s Summit filed a permit request on February 25 for an activity protected by free speech legislation. However, 95 days have passed, and the LAPD dragged its feet and did not respond with any concrete steps to move the application process forward. The LAPD has attempted to shift the blame about the delay in issuing the permit to the Secret Service and the Federal Government, but this is considered to be a stalling tactic.
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This egregious violation of free speech and the infringement on democratic right to protest goes against the very values that Joe Biden and the US government claim to uphold in the Summit of the Americas. Further, the maneuver threatens to undermine a principal avenue for progressive people in the US to advocate for social justice.
Angelica Salas, Executive Director of Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) expressed, “The People’s Summit will lift up all those issues important to our people but left out of that other presidential summit across town: the rights of immigrants, women and workers; the rebuilding and protection of democratic norms; the security of families. We will present a different vision of the Western Hemisphere as a place of peace, freedom and prosperity for all, that excludes no country, no faith, no race, and no gender.”
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Regardless of the outcome regarding the permit request, the people of the Americas will march on the streets of Los Angeles on June 10 to Biden’s Summit of Exclusion and make their voices heard. The People’s Summit for Democracy will take place at Los Angeles Technical Trade College from June 8-10, and the march will take the streets on June 10.
Follow the People’s Summit on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and its website.
For press inquiries and interview requests contact: press@peoplessummit2022.org
