On January 21, the day after Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States, hundreds of thousands of women across the country are expected to descend upon Washington D.C. and protest the inauguration of the man who has joked about not having respect for women, has bragged about groping women on a hot mic, has been accused by over a dozen women of sexual assault, and who shows general disdain for women’s healthcare and reproductive rights. But now, the the national mall and Lincoln Memorial, which have been the site of countless civil rights and anti-war protests since the 1960s, will not be accessible to protesters following Trump’s inauguration.
According to Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a constitutional rights litigator and the executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, the National Park Service has filed a “massive omnibus blocking permit” for the national mall and other well known Washington D.C. locations for the days and week leading up to and after the inauguration.
But banning access to public land for protesters days after the inauguration is “extremely unique”, she said in a press conference held by the Answer [Act Now to Stop War and End Racism] Coalition.
“It hasn’t come up in any way previously, where you’ve had a groundswell of people trying to have access on the Saturday, January 21, and thousands of people want to come, and the government is saying we won’t give you a permit,” she said.
“What they’ve done is take all of these spaces out of action,” she said, many of which, the Answer Coalition noted in its press release, are “historic spaces for dissent”.
Mike Litterst, a spokesperson for the National Park Service said that the decision is a logistical one, calling the area a construction zone due to the fact that bleachers and viewing stands began being erected on November 1 and won’t be expected to be fully cleared out until early March.
A spokeswoman for the women’s march however, said that the organizers are aware of the restrictions and are planning an alternate location.
“The Lincoln Memorial is not possible,” said Cassady Fendlay, spokeswoman for the women’s march on Washington. She said march organizers were not associated with the Answer Coalition, and have “had no issues with the permitting process at all”.
“We are in conversation with the police. We have secured another location,” said Fendlay, declining to name where the march would now take place but saying it would be nearby.
The Facebook event page for the march has not yet been updated, but when details do emerge you will likely be able to find them here.
(Via The Guardian)