MEDIA RELEASE/FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT REVERSES POSITION AND GRANTS PERMIT FOR SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17 SF MARCH AGAINST AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ WARS
The SFPD today granted the October 17 Antiwar Coalition a last-minute permit for a Market Street/Mission Street antiwar protest. The Permit Division had a few days earlier rejected a march permit with the explanation that it had “insufficient police” to properly monitor the march.
Had the permit rejection stood it would have been the first time ever that a march permit has been denied to peaceful demonstrators protesting U.S. wars abroad – in this case the U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.
Market Street marches and other routes through the city have been routinely organized from the time of the Vietnam War to the present without police permit rejection.
“I have been organizing permitted and peaceful antiwar marches without incident for the past 40 years,” said march co-coordinator, Jeff Mackler. “The idea that the city of San Francisco would or could deny us our fundamental democratic rights and civil liberties has never been in question.”
The October 17 Antiwar Coalition includes endorsing groups ranging from the San Francisco and Alameda Labor Councils, the Episcopal Diocese of California, the American Friends Service Committee, Labor for Peace and Justice to the nation’s five leading antiwar coalitions.
October 17 is a national day of antiwar protest with demonstrations set for 40 U.S. cities. Initiated by a summer national conference in Pittsburgh sponsored by the National Assembly to End the Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, the month of October commemorates the onset of these wars and marks the 40th anniversary of the historic Vietnam Moratorium, an event that mobilized 2.5 million Americans to protest the Vietnam War.
“Bring the Troops Home Now!” is the central demand of the October 17 protest.
Led my SF Supervisor Eric Mar, a majority of the city’s supervisors joined the effort to obtain the formal permit. Mar will be a featured speaker at the 1:00 pm UN Plaza Rally. Supervisor John Avalos, whose City Hall offices were used for yesterday’s coalition media conference, was joined by supervisors David Chiu, Chris Daley and Ross Mirakarimi in the successful effort to reverse the SFPD’s initial permit rejection.
The march assembles at the UN Plaza (Market between 7th and 8th Street) at 11 am. The march begins at Noon and returns to the UN Plaza for a 1:00 rally. For view of the flier and march route, click here
October 17 Antiwar Coalition 