Activists blocked from Springs site of '03 NATO conference

By Mike McPhee
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com

Six peace activists claimed in federal court Tuesday they were denied their constitutional right to demonstrate when they were banned from the grounds of the Broadmoor Hotel during a NATO conference two years ago.

The six, representing Citizens for Peace in Space, were forced to demonstrate three blocks from the hotel entrance, at a distance and location where they couldn't be heard or seen. For that reason, their First Amendment rights were violated, attorney Ed Ramey said.

The ACLU, Ramey and attorney Mari Newman represented the six in their lawsuit against the city of Colorado Springs, presided over by U.S. District Senior Judge Richard Matsch.

The city countered that a large security perimeter around the hotel, extending down Lake Avenue to Second Street, was necessary to check vehicles for explosives. Assistant City Attorney Thomas Marrese argued that the demonstrators had options to talk to delegates and news media elsewhere, such as at the media's staging area at the nearby World Arena but made no efforts to find them.

An entourage of an estimated 1,000 people, including diplomats, defense ministers, staff and families from 26 countries, rented the entire resort hotel and its grounds for nearly a week during October 2003. An estimated 500 members of the media received credentials allowing them inside the first security ring of vehicle checkpoints, which also included more than 20 private residences near the hotel. Those residents were screened, then allowed to come and go along with guests and visitors.

William Sulzman, the demonstrators' de facto leader, testified that 12 to 15 activists had protested in the past nearly a dozen times without incident during space symposiums in front of the Broadmoor's International Center near the hotel's entrance. The group wanted the same site to protest the NATO conference. It even offered to send six members through security screening to hold banners up for one hour on Oct. 8, as the ministers returned from visiting Air Force installations.

"The city told us no - unequivocally," he said. "This was a very important conference to us. (Defense) Secretary (Donald) Rumsfeld was there. We wanted to engage in conversations, face-to-face ... but were held at a shouting distance."

Colorado Springs Deputy Police Chief Steven Liebowitz, senior local member of a security task force, said: "This was a very unique, special event. Some of the visiting countries didn't play well with each other. It was post-9/11. The threat level was very high ... the flash point was there."

He testified that 450 pounds of explosives had been stolen just before the conference and that one man had been caught with a 30-pound bomb two days before the conference, although no evidence linked the incidents to the conference.

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