[Marxism] Free speech rally at Troy, NY City Hall

[Jon Flanders <jonathan.flanders@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Posted on Tue, Mar 18, 2008 
Free speech rally at Troy City Hall
By Ryan T. Fitzpatrick, The Record

http://picasaweb.google.com/jonflan/FreeExpressionAndSpeechProtestInTroy


TROY â About 100 protesters circled in front of City Hall Tuesday to
speak out against the cityâs closure of the Sanctuary for Independent
Media last week for code violations following the opening of a
controversial exhibit.

Passing motorists honked as protesters shouted chants of âfree art, free
speech, we donât want your thought police.â Demonstrators held signs
reading âstop abuse of code enforcement power.â Other signs read, âfire
boss Mirchâ and âdonât succumb to Mirchâs power,â referring to city
Public Works Commissioner Bob Mirch, who runs the code enforcement
department and led a protest last week against the Sanctuaryâs hosting
the exhibit. Mirch, an elected Conservative, is the leader of the
Rensselaer County Legislature Republican majority.

Others were not as supportive of the demonstration, and one motorist
shouted, âget a job, you maggotsâ as he passed.

The Sanctuary was closed to public gatherings the day after it opened
its exhibition of Chicago artist Wafaa Bilalâs âVirtual Jihadi,â a video
game depicting a suicide bomber who assassinates President Bush. Bilal
and the Sanctuary have said that the exhibit is meant to be an anti-war
and anti-violence statement, but opponents have accused the artist of
advocating terrorism.

The demonstration was organized by the Capital Region Committee for Free
Expression, which was formed Sunday in response to the closure of the
Sanctuary.

âTroy and other Capital Region residents want to let the city know itâs
unacceptable and unconstitutional to abuse the power of a city office to
suppress an artistic expression of dissent,â said Jon Flanders,
spokesman for the committee.

Mayor Harry Tutunjian issued a lengthy statement in advance of the
demonstration Tuesday, defending the cityâs move to close the Sanctuary
and seeking to dispel claims that the action was taken to censor the
artist.

âThe Sanctuary for Independent Media was not closed due to the display
that opened last week,â the statement reads. âThe Sanctuary was told it
needed to fix a life safety issue in the building last week, as it had
been told to do so 14 months ago. That is a fact.â

Tutunjian said âthe ball was droppedâ when it came to addressing the
code violations at the building, including a problem with the doorway
that officials say could pose a fire hazard.

âIt should have been done 13 months ago, and 12, and 11, and so on. It
did not,â Tutunjian said. âWe will investigate why this was missed, but
in the end, the buck stops with me. It should have been done earlier,
and it was not. That is unfortunate for all parties involved. â The easy
political decision here would have been to look the other way. That is
not how I approach this job.â
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Protesters criticized the city and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
which originally hosted Bilalâs exhibit but closed it down amid
objections by some students.

Free-speech advocates, artists and concerned citizens from a variety of
backgrounds and organizations turned out to the demonstration to speak
out against both the city and RPI. Svetlana Mintcheva, director of the
arts program for the National Coalition Against Censorship, read a
statement from her organization at the protest.

âTimes of war, fear and political turmoil have always posed a threat to
free speech and open debate,â she said. âWe cannot stand by today and
watch a work of art banned by an institution of higher learning simply
because it engages in an exploration of the logic of terrorism. We
cannot tolerate city officials making use of the building code to close
an art space, which has dared to show art that some of them find
politically offensive.

âToday, more than ever, we urgently need a genuine conversation about
the causes and psychology of terrorism. Muzzling this discussion will
bind us in ignorance and fear, not make us safer.â

Sanctuary spokesman Steve Pierce said the city succeeded in silencing
Bilal in Troy, and, with the closure of the Sanctuary, he will not
likely return to the city to display his work.

Bilal, an Iraqi immigrant who lived under the oppressive regime of
dictator Saddam Hussein, said he felt threatened by the response he
received in the city with Mirchâs protest.

âIâve never feared my life that much since I left Iraq and Saudi
Arabia,â said Bilal, who is in Chicago. âIt was the overall experience
and the images from the protesters and their signs. It was shocking.â

The demonstration drew mixed reactions from observers. Troy resident
Brett Juchem, a Web site support operator who stopped outside city hall
to watch the protest, said the controversy could cast a negative light
on RPI and the Capital District.

âThey definitely have a right to do it,â he said of the demonstration.
âI actually think theyâre making the situation worse. But I also donât
agree with the city of Troy.â




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