ACLU launches pre-emptive strike in Denver

If history is any precedent, there will be many restrictions placed on protesters and the journalists who try to cover them during the Democratic National Convention in Denver at the end of the summer. In recent years, the trend has been to try to limit protesting to penned-in areas, preferably (by police standards) a few blocks away from anything relevant.

To head off such efforts, the Colorado office of the ACLU has sued the city and county to get them to release their plans for protesters now, rather than just before the convention when it’s too late to do anything about it.

Such plans will be meaningful for journalists too. Every four years, someone gets arrested while trying to cover the story. The Reporters Committee provides special convention hotlines for journalists who get swept up in mass arrests, or are otherwise interfered with while covering the news. How the police plan to handle protesters will say a lot about how they interact with journalists as well.