Central Park Central for Convention Protesters

Published January 14, 2015

The group United for Peace and Justice (search), which is planning to protest the day before the Republican National Convention starts in New York City, has already launched its battle cry, but instead of aiming it at Republican activists, it's directed against city police.

The quarter-million strong organization was denied a permit to rally in Central Park and has instead been told they can march past Madison Square Garden (search), the site of the convention, and then hold its rally along Manhattan's West Side Highway.

"If you look at a map and where they want to put us, it's literally on the edge of the city," said Leslie Cagen, UPJ national coordinator. "We are part of the fabric of New York, we should be in the heart of New York."

The Parks Commission says a rally of this size is simply too large and could cause significant damage to the recently renovated park grounds.

"The repair of resulting damage would be costly, would force all activity off the great lawn during the period of up to a year, canceling hundreds of ball games and displacing millions of users," said Adrian Benepe, New York City parks commissioner (search).

Go to the video box near the top of this story to watch a report by FOX News' Rebecca Gomez.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/story/central-park-central-for-convention-protesters