Update: People Power Smacks Down the NYPD, Norm Siegel Compares It to Bush's Executive Overreach

"It was a usurpation of the executive over the legislative branch," said Norm Siegel about the NYPD's failed attempt to squelch free speech by requiring permits for just about any assembly of people who they disagree with.

The critical issue was that the NYPD did not have the authority to define the difference between a parade and a protest (which directly affects how the NYPD responds to such assemblies, i.e., violently or semi-violently squelching them). That's for the legislative branch to define, not the gestapo.

Mr. Siegel said Ms. Quinn, and other members of the Council, seemed to be missing in action in the debate in the recent weeks over whether rewriting the rules was a job for lawmakers or police officials.

"The City Council seems to have folded their tents when they should have been out there saying to the Police Department, You cannot do that; that is us," he said.

UPDATE:
In breaking news, Betsy Gotbaum, the person who resoundingly defeated Norm Siegel for the position of Public Advocate of the City of New York (an office meant to be the institutional counterweight to centralized Gracie Mansion power, a kind of loud-mouthed ombudsman/thorn in the mayor's side) had the following to say about the whole affair:

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