Council Concerned RNC Free Speech Zone Could Bring Extremists, Violence

A rift emerged Wednesday within Milwaukee City Hall over the realization that the city is proposing to build an amplified free speech stage and parade route that could be used by the Ku Klux Klan or other hate groups during the Republican National Convention.

As part of the agreement to host the convention, the city must establish a time-restricted, amplified free speech zone and parade route within “sight and sound” of the convention. A proposal pending before the council would establish a formal speech area, possibly Pere Marquette Park, and route within the recently-revealed security zone.

“As long as the group is peaceful, they will be able to speak,” said Andrea Fowler, co-chair of the city’s RNC executive steering committee, to the Public Works Committee.

But questions over what restrictions would be imposed, and by whom, led to the proposal being held.

A special meeting is expected to be scheduled for March 18, which would also allow community groups to weigh in on the proposal. The council would then review the proposal the next day in a move that administration officials said would ward off lawsuits that could result in multiple free speech sites overwhelming law enforcement resources. Chicago, host of the Democratic National Convention, has already lost one such lawsuit.

“So the KKK will be able to speak?” asked Alderman Russell W. Stamper, II after Fowler introduced the ordinance.

“The First Amendment protects all forms of legal speech, no matter how distasteful they may be,” said Fowler’s RNC co-chair Nick DeSiato.

“I know it’s a First Amendment right and stuff, but, man, to hell with that. I don’t know that I’m comfortable with hate groups having a platform. Sometimes that’s just a recipe for disaster,” said Ald. Lamont Westmoreland. He said his concern wasn’t the speech, but the violence.

“I’m against that,” said Stamper in support.

Westmoreland suggested “prevent maintenance” measures to block known hate groups. “There’s no caveat for racism?” asked Stamper.

“Any caveat like that will likely be challenged and I think we will likely lose that challenge,” said assistant city attorney Kathryn Block. “We can punish behavior. And there is a provision in the ordinance that would address groups that have had a demonstrated history of violence.”

But the actual ordinance submitted to the council didn’t include any such language, which Fowler said was a drafting error she accepted blame for. The administration officials said it existed and would be added.

“It just seems to me there would be a way to exclude some of the hate groups that come in here,” said Westmoreland, pushing for proactive denials.

“What is not protected speech is speech that incites a riot. What’s not protected speech is speech that incites misbehavior,” said DeSiato.

Stamper and Westmoreland called that reactive.

Block said the city would invite lawsuits by stopping people from speaking. The assistant city attorney located a draft of the violence prohibition, but it invited even more questions.

The draft seemed to vest denial power with the Commissioner of Public Works, while the officials earlier said it would be the Chief of Police.

“Groups are going to want to know who they sue,” said Ald. Robert Bauman of the need for it to be spelled out.

The restriction criteria, said Bauman, also seemed to only apply to prior offenses in Milwaukee.

He suggested applicants be required to state that they hadn’t previously incited violence, and the city could deny requests depending on how they answer.

Westmoreland said groups could use a submitter with a clean record as a loophole, which Block said was an issue that the administration was attempting to address.

Alderwoman JoCasta Zamarripa said it wasn’t hate groups that would need the free speech rules. “Aren’t the Proud Boys going to be at the convention?” she asked rhetorically. She said it was groups like Planned Parenthood, Voces de la Frontera and BLOC that needed the demonstration area.

There is also the matter of where the speech area and parade route are. DeSiato confirmed that Pere Marquette Park was under consideration, but said no final decisions had been made on Bauman’s description of it as a “corral” with opposing groups on each side of a fence. The parade route, said DeSiato, is expected to be a route that would take about a half hour to walk.

“The point here is to foster a safe and successful demonstration area,” said DeSiato. A similar process was undertaken for the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee said Fowler.

The ordinance would create a first-come, first-served process to sign up for time slots. The city has received three applications under its current event ordinance, which would be suspended for the convention security zone. The existing applicants, said Fowler, would maintain their status at the front of the line.

The parade and speech area sign-up requirements and restrictions apply only to the security zone, with those speaking expected to desire the slots for the expected media attention the location brings. The rest of the city would not have additional free speech requirements said DeSiato.

Art Heitzer, an attorney and local activist who is part of the Coalition to March on the RNC effort, was the lone community member to speak Wednesday. He asked for more time to review the proposal.

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Related Legislation: File 231740