On June 16, 2005, I attended a protest against banks in Utah that pander to illegal aliens.  I was saddened to learn, however, that a "permit" had been "required" and obtained from the police to "legitimize" the protest.  This is a dangerous, recent trend leading to complete tyranny and slavery.

Vhere arre your papers?! June 16, 2005, protest of Wells Fargo bank in Midvale, Utah.

It is one thing for police agencies to, in the interests of protecting citizens from potential harm, politely request that peaceful protestors inform them of the times and locations of their free speech activities conducted on public grounds (in this case a public sidewalk/easement).  It is another matter entirely to attempt to force them to do so.

The inherent risk is that some protestors will not choose to inform the police, and therefore the police may not be able to respond quickly to some altercation or other incident.  But those risks come with the proposition of freedom accepted by our ancestors.

The "permit" farce treats citizens as though they are guilty of criminal action before anything criminal occurs.  Gatherings of the Sons of Liberty were frequently not "permitted" by the government.  To my knowledge, Martin Luther King did not obtain "permits" to march.  From Tiananmen Square in China to and Gandhi's marches against the British, the greatest protests of the world were conducted without government permission.  Why?  Those protestors realized that a government empowered to "permit" your speech can likewise take it away!

The only "permit" we need to speak our minds is the one already granted to us by our Creator.  To seek a "permit" from government is an offense to our Creator and to ourselves.  Our forefathers even enacted a clause in the federal constitution aimed at reaffirming (not creating, but reaffirming) our natural rights:

Many states have similar clauses in their constitutions.  Article 1 of the Utah Constitution, for instance, includes not one, but two sections reaffirming our natural rights:

Do these people need permission to wave flags and hold signs on a public easement?  June 16, 2005, protest of Zion's Bank in Midvale, Utah.

Citizens should support protests that are not "permitted" on public sidewalks and easements — particularly in front of corrupt government offices and police agencies that openly defy and trample our inalienable rights and the Creator who endowed us with those rights.

If that is not viewed as productive, then citizens can resort to some of the other political tactics our forefathers pursued in their confrontations with the tyrannical powers of their day.