ACLU decries Denver's map for protesting at the DNC

The ACLU is pushing ahead with new legal challenges to the city of Denver’s planned map for demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention next month, saying protesters will be penned too far from delegates and the arena.

In a complaint filed Friday, updating its ongoing lawsuit over access to the August 25-28 Convention, the ACLU said Denver’s current plans would keep protesters the length of nearly three football fields from the Pepsi Center. According to the Rocky Mountain News, one can’t see the main doors of the arena from certain places in the designated "demonstration zone" of adjacent parking Lot A.

"No human voice, or any other sound . . . can ever hope to reach a person at the entrance," the newspaper quoted the ACLU’s amended complaint as saying. The ACLU filed suit in federal court, representing 13 groups of demonstrators. 

Denver officials and the Secret Service say they are balancing the free speech and assembly rights of the demonstrators against safety concerns for the delegates and others at the Convention, the paper reports.

Trial is scheduled for the case on July 29.