Free Speech Denied at the Bolder Boulder

By Amy Brouillette, 6-01-05

Boulder’s annual Memorial Day race became a battleground for free speech, as anti-war protesters clashed with police and race organizers at Folsom Field during the city’s Bolder Boulder 10K Monday. A group of activists with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center claim their first amendment rights were violated by race officials who demanded protesters remove banners that read “End the Occupation of Iraq Now.� When they refused, security confiscated the apparent contraband. Three protesters then produced another banner that read “Protect Free Speech� and were ousted by Boulder police and issued citations for illegal conduct on public property. (Protesters then formed a human banner, donning T-shirts that spelled out “Troops Come Home,� and were allowed to stay.)

At the crux of the issue is whether Folsom Field constitutes a public place—and therefore fair ground for first amendment expression. “The event is free and open to the public,� said Carolyn Bninski, organizer and activist with RMP&JC, one of the Folsom Three who police escorted from the stadium. “In our eyes, that means it is open to free speech.�

Not according to race officials, who claim the organization rents the stadium from the University of Colorado, a contract that apparently nullifies the U.S. Constitution at the stadium’s gates, rendering Folsom Field a first amendment-free turf, even though it is a part of a public institution. “The Bolder Boulder is not an open forum for people to debate politics,� Dan McCarthy, a race committee volunteer who handles event security, told New West Tuesday. “That’s not what the Bolder Boulder is about—we want it to be a pure race.� (The pure sort of race that apparently includes belly dancers and competitors dressed in Spider Man costumes.)

Race officials last week discovered the group’s plan to banner the stadium posted on RMP&JC Web site. They quickly convened with lawyers, reviewed the rental contract and then summoned the activists to a meeting, hoping to strike a bargain that would keep anti-war protesters in check—and preferably out of the stadium. Race officials, according to McCarthy, gave protesters two options: rent a booth at a reduced rate (around $300 compared to a standard rate of $1300) and essentially become an event sponsor; or restrict their shenanigans to the sidewalk outside the venue, where apparently Constitutionally-protected free speech belongs.

RMP&JC activists rejected both, arguing in a press release Sunday they should not have to pay for expression in a public space. “Organizers of the Bolder Boulder have informed us that they will not permit us to banner or use the Folsom field and other facilities, claiming that these state owned facilities at the University of Colorado are not a public forum. But we, as taxpayers of Colorado, own that facility and heartily disagree, finding that nothing in state law or university rules allows them to place such restrictions upon us. Fundamental federal law, our constitution and its bill of rights, supports us.�

The race is big bucks for the city, reaping in an estimated $10 million in revenue each year and casting the city in a national spotlight. McCarthy told New West banners are allowed in the stadium, the kind peddling products not political positions, in keeping with a long-standing Bolder Boulder policy. The ultimate irony, which apparently eludes race officials, is that their effort to stage a wholesome, patriotic celebration (the ceremony includes a 21-gun salute and Air Force jet flyovers) comes at the expense of civil rights and the ideals on which America was founded.



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