Mayor Anthony A. Williams refused to sign a bill this week that would restrict police action during protests.
Williams also said he will not veto the bill, which means it will become law without his signature. The D.C. Council passed it by a 12-1 vote in December.
The bill prohibits "police lines" or the act of police surrounding a demonstration to make group arrests, unless it is for the safety of the demonstrators. The bill also requires police officers to identify themselves to demonstrators, and restricts the ways and times a demonstrator can be restrained by handcuffs and plastic cuffs.
The bill states that the mayor or police department can't require permits for demonstrations that take place on city sidewalks or pedestrian areas.
In his weekly press briefing, the mayor said he objects to the bill because he feels it goes too far in limiting how police can handle protesters. He said protests are becoming more violent.
"Even the most rowdy protesters 20 or 30 years ago weren't destroying buildings," Williams said.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which helped develop the legislation, said the bill is necessary to correct problems that have been occurring since the civil rights movement.
"The legislation as it goes to the mayor for signature goes a long way towards preventing the abuses of the past, and represents a significant commitment by the District that problems will indeed be corrected," the American Civil Liberties Union said on its Web site after the council passed the bill.
The bill was introduced by Kathleen Patterson (D-Ward 3) after she sat on a committee that reviewed the mass arrest of antiwar protesters in Pershing Park in 2002.
A judge ruled last week in favor of seven of those protesters who had filed a civil suit against the police department. The plaintiffs were awarded $425,000, and police Chief Charles H. Ramsey was required to write the protesters an apology.
"There will be more demonstrations, and undoubtedly arrests may occur," Ramsey wrote in an apology to District residents in The Washington Post. "But I promise that I will do everything in my power to ensure that people can come to our city to peacefully protest and enjoy the constitutional freedoms that generations of Americans have fought and died for."
The lawsuit also says that police reforms, many of which are included in the bill, must be implemented.
