Battle of Dealey Plaza Talking Points

                                               DEALEY PLAZA - 12:30 PM November 22, 2003

COPA Director John Judge appeared on Black Op Radio this week and talked about the upcoming plans for Dallas on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy.

Black Op Radio 

  Show #617

Original air date: February 15, 2013
Guest: John Judge, Jim Douglass, Bill Kelly
Topics: Dallas 2013 / JFK Research

Play John Judge  (44:14)  Real Media or MP3 download

  COPA 50th anniversary JFK conferance, November 22-24, the Aloft Hotel

  COPA Malcom X 47th anniversary conferance, February 21, Howard University

  10 Points of Agreement, 26 speakers, 100 registered attendees already

  Trying to secure a permit for a moment of silence in Dealey Plaza

  Gary Mack obstructionism of the long-standing COPA observance

  The Sixth Floor's exclusive permit, COPA's continuing efforts

  John interviewed in the Wall Street Journal and on Fox News

  COPA met with Dallas' mayor in Washington during the recent inaugural

  Content based denial of free speech

  COPA represents the majority of opinion regarding the facts of the assassination

  According to Rawlings, even Robert Kennedy Jr. would "have to stay on point"

  A designated National Historical Site, protected by the courts

  A perpetuity of silence, John made several suggestions to the mayor's committee

  Serious thought about a legal claim to our First Amendment rights in court

  "50 Years is Enough! Free the Files – Find the Truth"

  The annual "And We Are All Mortal" observance at American University, June 10

  Write of your concerns to Mayor Rawlings 

James Douglas of "JFK and the Unspeakable Fame" and yours truley - myself - Bill Kelly were also guests on Black Op Radio that night.

Black Op Radio
http://blackopradio.com/archives2013.html

Last night live show stats - billkelly3@gmail.com - Gmail

As COPA director John Judge says during the show, when the Mayor of Dallas was in DC for the inauguration he met privately with Judge and Jefferson Morely to discuss the Dealey Plaza event scheduled for 11/22/13. 

After 49 years of conducting a public memorial and moment of silence every Nov. 22nd since 1964, begun by Penn Jones and continued by Judge and others, the City of Dallas has obtained a permit for the event that will exclude the public, and allow only those with tickets into the affair, mainly people from Dallas and those connected to those who are preparing the event, which will include only one speaker - an historian and Yale Scull and Bonner. 

When they met in DC, the mayor explained that they didn't want to be remembered as the City of Hate or rehash the assassination but want to celebrate JFK's life. 

Jeff Morely then asked the mayor if RFK Jr. could attend or speak, and the mayor said if RFK Jr. showed up and wanted to speak, he would be permitted to, "if he stayed on point." The point being not to talk about the assassination or the death of Kennedy. 

The mayor explained that he was only part of a larger committee that was preparing the event, so Judge gave the mayor a letter addressed to the committee that laid out COPA's position on the situation, as well as these talking points of his own. 

COPA will "stay on Point" and these are the points that are to be made: 

·  Dealey Plaza is a public park and national historical landmark It belongs to history and the American people. It has been open and allowed free speech for decades. Attempting to block access to thousands of people who will be coming from all over the world that day to Dallas will cause safety issues and embarrass the City

·  Dealey Plaza is the site a long tradition of commemoration of November 22. Starting in 1964, Midlothian (TX) Mirror editor Penn Jones, Jr. began a tradition of a Moment of Silence on the Grassy Knoll lest history forget the crime of the assassination or the government refusal to solve the murder and bring the perpetrators to justice.. COPA has continued the tradition, now for 49 years. We should be allowed to have our event at that time and place.

·  We are the vast majority. Polls show that 85% of the American people reject the official theory of a "lone gunman." Members of the Kennedy family have now come to Dallas and said the same thing. To try to silence the majority on November 22, 2013 will not work.

·   We will hold a solemn and dignified event that celebrates the life and legacy of President Kennedy. We always have but we also continue to call for resolution of this unsolved homicide. We have no problem with the City's desire to honor the life and legacy of JFK. Frankly, it’s long overdue. However, it is not appropriate to do so at the murder scene. When we honor President Lincoln’s life and legacy, we don’t do it at the Ford Theater on April 14th.

·  The city has failed to follow its own permitting process. We have applied for a permit for three years. We were told permits could only be granted one year in advance. When we applied on November 23, 2012. We were told an exclusive permit for the whole of Dealey Plaza had already been issued in advance to the Sixth Floor Museum. Then, it was discovered that the Sixth Floor never submitted the signed permit application as required and it ultimately abandoned the effort. Our application was the only one submitted timely and properly. This city has not acted in good faith. 

·  First Amendment protections have been violated.. The director of the Sixth Floor Museum was quoted in the Dallas Morning News saying that they applied for the permit to be "proactive" on behalf of the Mayor's office to prevent "conspiracy theory" from being presented. This is why we assert that there has been a content-based denial of our rights to free speech under the First Amendment, which is specifically prohibited in public parks, both local and federal. 

·  The Mayor 's community-based planning committee for the 50^th anniversary has excluded the viewpoint of the majority.  We have asked to be allowed to join the committee or to make presentations to it. We have been denied or ignored at every point. This exclusion created some of the current problems. We should be represented there.

·  There are alternatives that would work better. Open Dealey Plaza to the American people at that critical hour on November 22 and allow free speech and events like the Moment of Silence all day. Move the time and place of the Mayor’s event to JFK Memorial park, City Hall Plaza, as in the past, or have a ticketed event at the Sixth Floor Museum. These alternatives will also obviate the need for expensive security.

                                              COPA at Dealey Plaza - November 22, 1998

                              George Bannerman Dealey - Publisher of the Dallas Morning News

                             JFKcountercoup: George Bannerman Dealey and Dallas Morning News

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