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+--- Thread: Latest on COPA-Dallas City Negotiations (/thread-11687.html)
Latest on COPA-Dallas City Negotiations - Peter Lemkin - 18-11-2013
COPA Reaches Agreement with City ofDallas to Restore First Amendment Rights on November 22
After months of silence from theDallas Mayor's office, the Sixth Floor Museum, the planningcommittee for "the 50[SUP]th[/SUP]" event in Dealey Plaza andother city officials, COPA has reached an agreement with the City ofDallas and Police Department that will restore and protect FirstAmendment rights within and outside Dealey Plaza on November 22. A49-year tradition of holding a Moment of Silence on the Grassy Knollat the time of the assassination was prevented in Dealey Plaza by theSixth Floor Museum's exclusive permit closing the Plaza for twoweeks. When that permit was withdrawn, COPA made a legal applicationfor a permit for the annual event. The City of Dallas Attorneyresponded that all Dallas parks would be closed for First Amendmentactivity permits on November 22 save for City Hall Plaza, which wasthen closed and "reserved for dignitaries" that day.
In our view, Dealey Plaza, a publicpark and also a designated historical site belongs, especially onNovember 22 on the 50[SUP]th[/SUP] anniversary, to the Americanpeople, to history and to the world, not to any exclusive event thatwill not mention the assassination. The vast majority of Americansquestion the Warren Commission conclusions and agree with us. We arethe mainstream, not the dissent. We should not need a ticket to getto our own history on this significant anniversary. Free speech anddebate is essential to democracy.
COPA made the issue visible in thenational press, with coverage in the Wall Street Journal, NPR, TexasMonthly, Dallas Observer, and more recently in the National Journal.COPA met with Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings in February and got noresponse until August. COPA had prepared for a lawsuit, an injunctionto protect First Amendment rights that had been violated by a contentbased denial of permit intentionally because Dallas officials did notwant "conspiracy theory" on the Grassy Knoll on the 50[SUP]th[/SUP]anniversary when the world press would be present at theassassination site. Instead, an exclusive, ticketed public relationsevent was planned to restore Dallas's reputation as a City of Hate,and to honor the life and legacy of President Kennedy instead. Thepublic was to be excluded and inside the event "signs, banners,bullhorns and megaphones" were to be banned. A Moment of Silencewas planned by Dallas that would effectively be a Perpetuity ofSilence about the assassination and the unresolved evidence in thecase.
COPA proposed many reasonablealternatives to accommodate both events and purposes that day,including moving the location of the Mayor's event to a bettervenue, moving the time back to our event and the public into DealeyPlaza by noon, and even moving the barricades to the north side ofElm Street so we could be present simultaneously. All these wererejected.
A written Memoranda of Agreement hasbeen drafted that will restore many of our rights and meet ourpurposes, but our hope to hold our traditional Moment of Silence onthe Grassy Knoll at 12:30 pm has not been granted. Here are the gainswe have one:
COPA will be allowed to hold ourMoment of Silence at a nearby location at 12:30 pm. We will gather atthe southeast corner of Main and Market Street at 11:00 am onNovember 22 and hold our event simultaneous with the Mayor's.Signs, banners and speech will not be prohibited at this site.
COPA will be allowed to leafletcrowds coming to the Mayor's event at designated locations wherethey will enter Dealey Plaza, starting at 8:00 am. We intend toinform them about our events and conference.
COPA members and others gathered atthe alternative site will be escorted by the Dallas police to DealeyPlaza once the Mayor's event ends, around 2:30 pm, allowing thepublic back in, and we will hold another Moment of Silence there onthe Grassy Knoll as we have for the last 49 years.
COPA members and supporters who havesecured a ticket to the Mayor's event will be allowed to wear ourconference t-shirt inside Dealey Plaza on November 22, but signs,banners, noise or outbursts and disruptions are prohibited. This willallow us to be visible to both the press and the public at the event.
First Amendment rights both insideand outside Dealey Plaza are somewhat restored by this agreement andwe plan to exercise them that day, to speak truth to power, and tocontinue to be visible and to speak for full disclosure of allgovernment records on assassinations, for reopening these unsolvedhomicides, and for restoration of democracy and the rule of law inthis country.
Latest on COPA-Dallas City Negotiations - Peter Lemkin - 20-11-2013
Final COPA Schedule - all will be broadcast live over internet - go to COPA website for connection details.
COPA 2013 SPEAKER SCHEDULE
Friday, November 22
7:00 7:15 pm - Introductory remarks - John Judge
7:15 - 10:30 pm - KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Cyril Wecht, JD, MD, Passing the Torch
Mark Lane, Atty., The Secret Service and the Assassination of President Kennedy
Richard Belzer, Hit List: Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination
Anthony Summers, JFK Assassination What We Know
Saturday, November 23
9:00 - 10:15 am History, Evidence, Media
Robert Groden, Absolute Proof: New Photographic Evidence
Dave Starks, 50 Years of US Media Lone Assassin Propaganda
Jack Colhoun, Jack Ruby's Ties to the Tropicana and Gangsterismo in Cuba
20 minutes each, 15 at end for questions
10:15 - 11:30 am Oswald, Plot, Records
Ernst Titovets, Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?
Dick Russell, "The Man Who Knew Too Much," Richard Nagell Revisited
Rex Bradford, JFK Records at 50: The Takeaway. What's in Them and What's Not?
20 minutes each, 15 at end for questions
11:30 am - 12:30 pm - LUNCH
12:30 - 1:45 pm Plot and Suspects
Danny Sheehan, Rulers of the Realm: "The Wise Men" The Assassins of President John F. Kennedy
Bill Simpich, Working Towards the Mexico City Solution
Stan Weeber, The Denton Connection: An Update
20 minutes each, 15 at end for questions
1:45 - 3:00 pm Evidence and Suspects
Mel Barney, Jack Ruby's U.S. Government Connection Exposed
Gary Aguilar - The Magic Bullet - Even More Magical Than We Knew
Peter Dale Scott, Deep Politics and the JFK Assassination
20 minutes each, 15 at end for questions
3:00 - 4:15 pm Historical Context
Joan Mellen, Updating "A Farewell To Justice" and the Garrison Investigation
Wayne Smith, JAMA Knows Best: Unassailable Facts About the Autopsy
William Turner, The Cuban Connection: Nixon, Castro and the Mob
20 minutes each, 15 at end for questions
4:15 - 5:30 pm Plot and Suspects
Greg Burnham, Sabotage at the Bay of Pigs: A Revolution of Mind
Russ Baker, New Clarity on George HW Bush and Dallas
Andrew Kiel, J Edgar Hoover, the FBI, the CIA and the JFK Assassination
20 minutes each, 15 at end for questions
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm - DINNER
7:00 8:30 pm - Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X
Cynthia McKinney, COINTELPRO
John Judge, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy History Repeats Itself
Joseph Palermo, Robert F. Kennedy and the Assassination of JFK: A Political Odyssey
Baba Zak Kondo, The Assassination of Malcolm X
20 minutes each, 10 at end for questions
8:30 9:00 pm Flawed Evidence
Gary Aguilar, Junk Science in the Kennedy Case
20 minutes, 10 at end for questions
9:00 - 9:30 pm Educating Youth
Bill Holiday, Introductory remarks - John Judge
20 minutes, 10 at end for questions
9:30 pm - Premiere showing of The Searchers, Randy Benson introduction
Sunday, November 23
9:00 10:15 am Records and Archives
Bill Kelly, Air Force One Tapes November 22, 1963
David Montague, The importance of the research community in assisting the U.S. Assassination
Records Review Board: A testimonial from a former ARRB staffer
Ben Rogers, What's New in the Poage Library JFK Archives?
20 minutes each, 15 at end for questions
10:15 11:30 pm Other Suspects
Abraham Bolden, Moving Forward - JFK and the Secret Service
Joseph McBride, The Murder of Officer J. D. Tippit
Ed Tatro, Penn Jones vs National Media: Amend the First Amendment?
20 minutes each, 15 at end for questions
11:30 am 12:00 pm Penn Jones
Chris Pike, Obscure Suspects in the JFK Assassination
20 minutes, 10 at end for questions
12:00 pm 1:00 pm John Judge - Why It Matters and What Must Be Done[/FONT]