Rights Vs Permits for Performers and Artists

[Freedom Man]

Rights Vs Permits for Performers and Artists
by Robert Lederman artis...@gmail.com

Prehistoric hunters were able to kill large animals like Wooly
Mammoths by using the stampede technique. They'd create a sense of
panic in a herd, then once the herd got moving, chase them over a
cliff. It was a very effective technique for getting animals that were
too difficult to kill with wooden spears, to kill themselves.

The NYC Parks Department is using a similar technique on performers. By
creating a park rule that places you in the category of "vendor" they
are generating panic. From panic follows the stampede over the cliff.

The "cliff" is to get performers to start demanding permits.

Rights vs permits

A right, in this context, means a Constitutional right to do
something. Visual artists and performers both have very
well-established First Amendment rights to perform for donations as
well as to create, display and sell First Amendment protected
materials (paintings, cds, dvds, sculptures, prints and written
matter) on public property. NYC Parks and streets are public property.

A permit is exactly the opposite of a right.

A permit means that you have been granted permission or authorization
to do something. Permission implies that the authorization can be
granted or taken away by whoever is in the position of approving or
denying the permit.

Virtually all free speech cases involve a restrictive permit that a
speaker (an artist, performer, political activist or religious group)
is suing to overturn.

The only reason a city creates a permit system is to be able to deny
permission. No one creates a permit system in order to "give" you
something.

Some performers and artists, feeling panicked by the "expressive
matter vending rules," are now trying to find a way past their
concerns by offering "solutions" to the Parks Department, the Mayor
and other City officials. The most commonly offered "solution" is to
say we'd be happy to apply for a permit to perform or sell art.

This is exactly what the Parks Department wants you to do. In fact,
one of their hidden agendas behind the "expressive matter vending
rules" is exactly this: to trick artists and performers into asking
for a permit as a way to escape the strict restrictions in the rules.

Once a permit is created, it will be sued over. The city will then use
any letters, petitions or other communications from performers or
artists who ask for a permit as evidence to use in court, proving that
the City was simply responding to what the performers and artists
wanted.

You will effectively have been stampeded over the cliff. Once you are
under a permit system, you will have eliminated yourself from the
sphere of rights and from the entire sphere of public space.

Once you are under the control of permits, the city can do anything
they like to you. They can arbitrarily expand or shrink the number of
permits. They can charge any fee they like (NYC Park concession and
special event permits go for anywhere from $10,000 to $1 million a
year.) They can and do demand insurance. They can restrict what you
sell, how much you can charge and even what you can communicate.

However, the main purpose of the permit is to be able to legally deny
you any access to public space. The city's ultimate agenda behind all
new vending proposals is privatization of all public space. By
limiting free expression, the city gets to grant speech rights to
corporations rather than leaving those rights in the hands of the
people.

The legality of the expressive matter vending rules is right now being
decided by the 2nd circuit Federal Appeals court in Manhattan. The
court will have to base its ruling not only on the legal arguments and
the massive amount of photographic, video, and document evidence that
we've submitted, but on previous legal precedents in the U.S. Supreme
and Federal Appeals Courts.

The ARTIST group has won these lawsuits for the past 20 years, and
expects to win this one as well.

Please educate yourself in depth about the park rules, the hidden
agenda behind those rules and most importantly, about your rights.

Once you understand what your rights are, you will never want to
surrender them to a permit system.