Civil right of Occupy LA-ers

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Michael Shapiro teaches constitutional law at USC. He's been following the Occupy LA movement and he says, though there is a lot of buzz, the tradition of civil activism is deeply engrained in ourhistory.

"You go back to colonial and revolutionary times, that's what you get. It's civil activism," he said. "If it weren't for civil activism, we wouldn't have a revolution. Whatever you think about Occupy LA it's relatively tame compared to many other demonstrations and protest movements we've had before."

Now is the time when we find out the type of movement Occupy will become.

"This is at a point now where it could get very messy. It could get violent, it could turn into a riot, it could turn into Oakland," he said.

Law enforcement walks a delicate line in this process. They must allow protestors to express themselves, but they also need to preserve peace.

"This is a damned if you do, damned if you don't thing. If the police intervene, that gets people riled up and so it escalates the risk of violence or spreads the protests, 'see what the police are doing to us?'" said Shapiro. "If the police do absolutely nothing, its by design. It's not like they haven't heard about this. It's very difficult to say which course is going to cause an unfortunate escalation or an appropriate de-escalation."

Shapiro says that in order to understand the police's position, you need to know the First amendment. Basically, the city can't stop the protest because of the content of their message, but they can regulate where, when and how they protest.

"That will affect speech, but it's not directed at speech and it will be tested on a constitutional standard of minimal rationality," he said. "If it just barely makes sense, it's good enough."

Last week, Mayor Antonio Villargosa said that the Occupy LAers can not stay on the lawn of city hall indefinitely, citing damages to the grounds and sanitation issues. Shapiro doesn't think it is
censorship.

"I don't think the Mayor cares what their viewpoint is, as a matter of fact, I don't think the mayor knows what their viewpoint is," he said. "They could be told to go. There is nothing intrinsically violative of the first amendment."

The Occupy movement's next move could crystallize the future of the movement, decide if they will peter out, or stay at the risk of confrontation with authorities.