Minneapolis Park Watch

Letters to the Editor:

Scott Russell did a good job relating the events of June 8 when three police squads, at the request of Minneapolis Parks Supt. Jon Gurban, were dispatched to Pearl Park to stop me from handing out campaign fliers ("Free Speech flip-flop," July 4-17). However, the article did not do justice to the fact that the "regulation" I supposedly violated was not a regulation, but rather a recently created guideline.

In 1991, the Park Board developed a set of draft regulations intended to regulate free speech in parks. Then-Mayor Don Fraser spoke against the ill-considered regulations. These regulations were never approved or implemented by Park Commissioners.

Fast-forward to 2005, when senior park management decided it was again time to try and regulate free expression on public land. Park senior management developed this new set of guidelines and distributed them in a memo to staff.

I was the first to be targeted for enforcement. Contrary to Gurban's claims, political candidates have never been expected to obtain permits to hand out fliers in parks.

Gurban used his authority over Park Police to enforce a guideline, written in the form of a memo, which was not rooted in law or even officially approved as park policy.

Not only was the guideline (which was recently reversed) unconstitutional, it is yet another example of the Park Board's mistaken priorities. The Board has a tremendous amount of important work to do and regulating reasonable behavior should not be at the top of the list.

Jason Stone, Candidate, Park District 5

Posted by News junky on Thu, 07/14/2005 - 10:52pm. | Permalink | Login to post comments