Peaceful, accessible and public protest is a vital and crucial element of living in a democracy. You may have noticed your friends and neighbors at recent protests to demonstrate against the excessive use of our military and police in immigration raids, to halt funding of science and research at universities, and a host of other authoritarian moves by the Trump regime.

But now some towns in New Jersey are attempting to squelch this right, guaranteed by the First Amendment, our freedom to peaceably assemble and to express ourselves, by making it harder to organize and carry out these gatherings. In response to a recent request to hold a protest in Crane Park, the town of West Caldwell shared an ordinance which now requires 30 days to get permission to gather for a legal protest and requires the person in charge to submit a certificate of insurance.   (No insurance company will support political gatherings, so this is a de facto way of preventing them).

Other aspects of the ordinance are also clearly designed to make setting up a protest onerous. The town of Sparta has also recently adopted this requirement to submit a certificate of insurance. Is this what we want? As taxpayers and residents, shouldn’t we be entitled to protest in our own towns without unnecessary burden, and shouldn’t we have our local government and police helping to make safe, peaceful demonstrations as easy and stress free as possible?

In fact, gathering for peaceful assembly is not a privilege that these towns extend to us; they are our rights as American citizens. While you may not necessarily agree with the viewpoint of current protests, you may want to protest something in the future. Protect your right to do so.