One week after Fifth District GOP primaries selected his Republican opponent for the November Congressional election, Democratic incumbent Tom Perriello continued his First Amendment dialogue on protests and property with Rutherford Institute President John Whitehead.
In a letter sent the day after the June 8 primaries, Whitehead urged Perriello to let members of the Jefferson Area Tea Party plan a "peaceful protest" in front of the Congressman’s Charlottesville office. Perriello responded that protests will be fine so long as they take place on public sidewalk rather than in the private parking lot of the Glass Building.
Roughly one month prior, members of the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice (CCPJ) held an anti-war protest on the property where members of the local Tea Party and UVA College Republicans were removed last fall. CCPJ planned to have a demonstration on Wednesday, June 16, while Tea Party members planned to meet on Monday, June 14.
"It is my hope that you will lend your full support and equal protection to these constituents as they exercise their First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly," wrote Whitehead. The Rutherford president also urged Perriello to contact the landlord of the Glass Building, where the Congressman’s office is located, "in order to voice your support for these upcoming exercises in freedom and request that neither group’s protest be threatened or disrupted by police."
Yesterday, Perriello responded. "My business neighbors have informed the landlord and me that protests in the private parking lot interfere with their customers and with the parking spaces they have lawfully rented for use by their clients," he wrote in a June 15 letter.
To Whitehead’s invitation to contact the landlord of the Glass Building, Perriello said that, "as the real engine of our economy, the small business owners who share this building with my office are the true distinguished tenants of the Glass Building, and they have a right to receive the private property benefits for which they have paid."
According to the Daily Progress, Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo told both the Tea Party and CCPJ that demonstrations in the parking lot outside Perriello’s office will not be allowed.
