Anxiety is high among Americans looking to protest in Washington, D.C. around Inauguration Day this coming January due to the delay in First Amendment permits given out and the increase in organizations planning demonstrations.
The National Park Service (NPS) is in charge of granting permits to these groups, but cannot do so until the Presidential Inaugural Committee has planned its route for the big day. Whatever areas in D.C. are left over after the inaugural route is planned are given to the groups looking to protest on a first come first serve basis.
In a day of "post-truth," however, the logistical reality of granting permits has been blown way out of proportion through fake news stories and the need of media outlets to break the story first. The Guardian published a story on Thursday that claimed Trump's Inaugural Committee was purposefully barring protestors from having access to famous protesting sites, such as the Lincoln Memorial. People who believed the stories reacted negatively on social media under the belief that President-elect Trump was denying the people their First Amendment right to protest.
In actuality, the NPS is following standard procedure. A year before every inauguration, NPS buys all the permits on behalf of the inaugural committee. The committee is then given first pick when it comes to planning their event. Whatever permits they don't use are then given out to protest groups.
Federal officials told the Washington Post usually only a handful of groups request these permits around Inauguration Day. This year 20 groups have applied, including the Women's March with 140,000 people attending, according to the group's Facebook event.
The days proceeding and following Trump's inauguration will be something worth witnessing.
Jim Bendat, the author of "Democracy's Big Day" about the history of inaugurations, told the "New Yorker" the protests against Donald Trump's election are unlike the protests of any other.
"In other elections, the protesters would largely wait until Inauguration Day. To me, this is unprecedented in terms of what's happening already," Bendat said.
Two other Republican Presidents faced mass protests on their Inauguration Days, Bendat said. Richard Nixon was opposed by 60,000 people not only in D.C., but across the country and even overseas by anti-Vietnam protestors. In 2001, George W. Bush's inauguration was met by a smaller number of 20,000 protestors in response to being handed the Presidency over Al Gore. Neither of these protests, however, come close to the number of protestors expected this coming January.
While permits are preferred and create organization among large groups, such as the Women's March, not obtaining a permit does not mean the groups can't protest, Sgt. Anna Rose, a spokeswoman for the Park Police, told the Washington Post. The NPS is only asking that groups of 25 people or more request a permit free of charge.
"We pride ourselves on facilitating everyone's right to free speech and every effort is made to allow visitors to exercise that right," Rose said.
