County Commission chairman Larry Henry would not tell a reporter for this newspaper Monday why he suddenly dropped a federal lawsuit contesting First Amendment rights for Occupy Chattanooga demonstrators before asking the county sheriff and park workers to move their tents and belongings to the sidewalk. But from all appearances, there’s an obvious answer: He and other commissioners just got tired of footing their outside lawyers’ legal bills for a question over their constituents’ free speech rights, and they just got tired of seeing the demonstrator’s tents on the courthouse lawn.
What a choice: Protect the courthouse lawn, or protect the free speech rights of American citizens to peaceably assemble and petition their government for redress of their grievances — in this case, fairer taxes for the 99 percent of American taxpayers over a virtual corporate ownership of Congress and government.
That shouldn’t be a tough decision. So their action speaks volumes about their values. They had rather have a tidy lawn and just be done with putting up with a richly symbolic 24/7 political demonstration. Why wait for a fair ruling over the fundamental question of First Amendment rights, when it might go in favor of the demonstrators’ free-speech rights?
The commission’s rough solution to put the Occupy crowd on the sidewalk can only go downhill. City Police Chief Bobby Dodd immediately announced that he was ready for the next obstructive police tactic. He said Occupy demonstrators could walk or sit on city sidewalks, but could not camp, sleep, cook or obstruct the sidewalks for pedestrians.
So now, under the combined restrictions of the county and city, the Occupiers can’t effectively mount a protracted fulltime demonstration. The City Council declared months ago that prevailing city ordinances banned camping on city property. Ironically, it was City Council members who suggested then that the Occupiers pitch their protest camp-out on the county courthouse lawn, since county government had not previously established an anti-camping rule on county administered public property.