Miami · A controversial city of Miami law that granted extra powers to police before November's Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting has been repealed.
City commissioners voted Thursday to take the law off the books on the grounds that the restrictions could affect the ability of city residents from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and elsewhere to protest conditions in their home countries. The law prohibited protesters from carrying props including water pistols, balloons, bottles and sticks and requires a permit for public gatherings of seven or more people if they last more than 30 minutes.
Commissioner Tomas Regalado, who proposed the ordinance, said it was time to get rid of the law now that the FTAA meetings are over.
"We don't want the police saying it's on the books and we have to enforce it," Regalado said in a recent interview. "We don't want other groups to say, `You're not enforcing it with the Haitians and Cubans but you enforced with the FTAA protesters.'"
When the law was approved in November, city and police officials denied accusations from protesters that the law was solely created for the FTAA. But Regalado recently admitted that he proposed it to deal with the "unique circumstances" of the trade meeting -- and to prevent the kind of violence seen in other cities.
Miami officials feared a repeat of protests that disrupted the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle in 1999 and a few months later in Washington, D.C., where police arrested 1,300 people protesting meetings at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund buildings.
"Had it not been for the FTAA, I would have never done that," he said. "But we were bombarded by scenes of Seattle and Washington and wanted to protect the lives of the residents."
Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, is glad the city is repealing the law. "We never thought that it was necessary in the first place," he said.
Noaki Schwartz can be reached at nschwartz@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5004.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper which first published the article online and which is indicated at the top of the article unless otherwise specified.