Petition and Assembly Are Fundamental Rights

What I want to know is why all those Americans who keep shouting about the U.S. Constitution are not shouting about the loss of our rights of Assembly and Petition Government for Redress of Grievances.

When my Grandson was 5 years old, he and I attended the opening of the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. One of the exhibits there was a series of short video clips where average Americans were asked, "What are the 5 Rights guaranteed by the 1st Amendment of the Constitution of the United States?" Almost no one could name all 5. I'm embarrassed to say that even I could not, though I have been a vociferous supporter of the Freedoms of Speech, Press, and Religion.

Those last two rights, the Rights of Assembly and Right to Petition Government for Redress of Grievances, are not exercised as often. Why? Because most of the time our government has worked fairly well to enhance our lives as Americans.

But, the American people have been boiled like the proverbial frog, slowly but inexorably. Until the Occupy Wall Street movement began, there were few signs that any of us would jump out of the pot before it is too late. Yes, the Tea Party movement was probably the first sign of an awakening, but that was quickly co-opted by politicians on the extreme Right of our society, who are the ones that have been doing the boiling for the last three decades.

Suddenly we Americans wake up to the fact that the American Dream has been stolen from us, while we were worried about National Defense. Yes, this is a standard trick of governments for millennia, and the only way to stop it is to wake up and push back. That is what the various Occupy movements around the country and the world are now about. The despots or would be despots have been pushing us into a corner for far too long, and now is the time to push back.

But, when we try to push back, we find that our 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been seriously eroded while we weren't looking. We find a militarized police force across the country prepared to attack their fellow Americans with tear gas and rubber bullets, in order to prevent them from exercising these two fundamental rights.

All of us, whatever our political persuasion, should get out of our seat and say that is wrong. If we cannot assemble and petition, as the American Founding Fathers knew, we can easily become the slaves of a police state. It is time for principled lawyers to take on these unjust rules against assembly and petition, wherever they appear in the United States, and get them ruled Unconstitutional.

What is the boundary for a civil society? It is when violence occurs. Naturally, if an assembled group of citizens is peaceful, they should be allowed to conduct their demonstration and make their point. But, when they commit actual violence, then the police are within their rights to take action. This begs the question of what to do about agent provocateurs, who might commit violence to get a demonstration to be shut down, but this is where citizens on the scene must take action to prevent that from happening.

There should be zero tolerance in the United States for police attacking peaceful protesters exercising their Constitutional rights of Assembly and Petition.