Niles officials will wait for feedback from the American Civil Liberties Union before considering an ordinance that would require people organizing parades, protests and other gatherings for 50 people or more to obtain a permit and provide a security deposit to hold their event.
Some public commenters at the June 27 village board meeting said the requirements in the proposal would would violate the right to assemble and peaceably protest the government as contained in the First Amendment.
Mayor George Alpogianis said the priority behind the measure was public safety.
“Our police department is taking a proactive stance on this instead of a reactive stance; our main priority is the safety of our citizens,” he said.
The proposed ordinance requires people organizing an event that will garner attendance from 50 people or more to apply for a permit with the Village Manager or other designated official between 150 days and 40 days in advance, depending on the type of event.
The ordinance would require event organizers to show proof of insurance and put down a security deposit ahead of the event to cover the cost of potential damages.
It also states that “no person shall unreasonably hamper, impede or interfere with any parade, public assembly or similar activity” or its participants and explicitly prohibits driving through such gatherings except for emergency response vehicles.
It exempts neighborhood parades that have been annual traditions since 1955 or earlier.
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Trustee Dean Strzelecki said the ordinance was not meant to “stop anybody from assembly” and was patterned on neighboring Skokie’s ordinance regulating parades and public gatherings.
“We wanted a little bit more control on where people could march to avoid any conflicts,” Strzelecki said. “The intent is not to stop anybody from marching.”
Niles Police Chief Luis Tigera said there was no particular impetus for the department to submit the ordinance to the village board.
“People are reading too much into it,” he said. “We’ve been looking at all ordinances as it relates to gatherings, parades and we just wanted to be proactive and do cleanup on language to ensure that we’re in concert with the Constitution, with the rule of law.”
Skokie’s parade and public gathering ordinance is almost identical to the measure on the table in Niles. The Niles proposal differs from Skokie’s ordinance in including a ban on “indecent shows,” which is not included in the Skokie ordinance.
Tigera said the provision around indecent shows had been added to the measure on the recommendation of the village attorney.
That provision, which states “it shall be unlawful for any person to present, exhibit, conduct, or take part in any indecent show, theatrical, play, motion picture, exhibition or other form of public amusement or show” prompted two public comments from members of Niles Pride, a community group.
The commenters referenced a recent wave of restrictions on books and other media that include LGBTQ content in states like Florida and Tennessee and said they feared LGBTQ-oriented events in Niles could receive a similar label because the ordinance doesn’t lay out what defines “indecent.”
“The rest of the ordinance is bad for so many reasons, about stomping on the First Amendment rights, free speech rights,” commenter Pam Wolfe said. “For the sake of your friends, your family, anyone you happen to know that happens to be queer, table this, rewrite it.”
Commenter Stephanie McDaniel said, “We want to have freedom of assembly in Niles. I am a firm believer in the Constitution and the freedom of assembly and I would like to know that this board will take great care to protect those rights.”
Niles’ proposed ordinance also contains a provision stating that “any public amusement or show of any kind… calculated to cause or promote any riot or disturbance” would be unlawful.
Former Niles Ethics Board candidate Lisa Emmett-Stechman urged the board to pass the ordinance, telling trustees to not be swayed by people who disagreed with them and said she hoped the other commenters agreed that there should be “nothing naked, nothing disturbing” at parades.
“You don’t want to see me naked, trust me,” Wolfe said from the audience.
When trustees reached the ordinance on their June 27 agenda, Strzelecki moved to table the measure and Alpogianis said trustees were waiting to hear back from the ACLU. Tigera later told Pioneer Press he was “prepared to listen to any recommendations” from the group.