Today we were in a spot under the jurisdiction of the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department. They generally give wide latitude to First Amendment demonstrations.
In this case, they were getting pressure from the Kerry campaign (through the building security guards) to shut us down and had to do something.
The charges they could consider were: Demonstrating without a permit. But we were under the 25 person minimum for that to be enforceable.
Another was 'incommoding.' That means blocking a sidewalk. That didn't work because it was a very wide sidewalk, foot traffic was light and we were near the curb by newspaper boxes.
We weren't selling anything so 'vending without a license' and food safety violations weren't applicable.
So, after consulting via radio with their watch commander, they settled on "occupying public space without a permit," which involves a $50 ticket and the shutting down of the tables.
However, they declined to give us the ticket. Instead, they ordered us to shut it down in fifteen minutes. They said they'd come back if they got another call about us.
We lingered for 45 minutes, just to make the point we wouldn't be run off by the Kerry campaign. Because they called the cops, we ended up staying an hour longer than planned. We were scheduled to wrap it up at 2 p.m. and stayed until 3 p.m.
Anyway, kudos for the splendid action!