March For Our Lives: DC Special Event and Parade Licensing Process Required 180 Days

According to the 2018 Special Event Planning Guide (here and here) of the District of Columbia Mayor’s Special Events Taskforce (MSETG) a Letter of Intent needed to be filed with the Events Special Events Taskforce by March For Our Lives organizers “at least 180 days prior to the planned date of the event.”

The document’s requirements tend to be in accord with email correspondence from DC Police forwarded to European researcher Ole Dammegard and shared here last week.

If this protocol was followed for planning the March 24, 2018 event it would mean that such paperwork for the March For Our Lives would have to have been filed on or before September 24, 2017.

Further,  the document suggests that proof of “adequate financing to conduct the event” must also be submitted.

As the above graphic illustrates, the complex bureaucratic process requires six months because no less than five steps must be completed before Special Events Licence and Parade Permit Applications can be submitted to five different federal or municipal departments in addition to the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department.

Prior to this, following submission of necessary proposal materials, organizers must obtain liability insurance and pitch the event to the Mayor’s Special Events Task Force. All of the above must transpire before the public event and parade license applications can even be submitted.

Here are the steps licensing requires, according to pages 8-9 of the Special Event Planning Guide.

General Requirements
The MSETG has been established to ensure that any changes, restrictions, or adaptations to public roadways, resulting from a special event are managed in a safe and prudent manner in order to protect public health, safety, and welfare, and to ensure minimal impact on the public and citizens of the District of Columbia. It is the responsibility of the event organizer to comply with the requirements of the MSETG and the member agencies of the MSETG, in addition to the following minimum general requirements:

 Acquire adequate financing to conduct the event.
 Submit Letter of Intent to the MSETG at least 180 days prior to the planned date of the event.
 Secure conditional approval of the MSETG.
 Secure all necessary contracts, permits, and licenses required to conduct the event.
 Acquire necessary public liability insurance coverage and/or bonding required for the event, with minimal coverage as outlined under the Public Space Occupancy Permits section of this guide.
 Ensure that all streets are accessible to emergency vehicles and equipment at all times via a minimum 20 foot dedicated and unobstructed emergency lane, and as may be further determined by the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services.
 Ensure that event site plan is designed and implemented in a manner that does not allow the traversing of vehicular traffic (except as approved for parades) through the site of the event, and in compliance with requirements of the Metropolitan Police Department.
 Conduct the event in accordance with appropriate and relevant District and Federal laws, regulations, codes, and guidelines.

This raises a number of important questions:

1. If the above protocols were in fact followed what parties took it upon themselves to approach DC authorities and initiate the necessary licensing process?

2. If these protocols were not followed, what entities and/or individuals intervened to allow such vetting to be sidelined? Nancy Pelosi? Joe Biden? Barack Obama? Gabby Giffords? Or perhaps one of Michael Bloomberg’s well-heeled gun control groups?

3. Were such parties affiliated with high-ranking Democratic Party leaders, as the leaked audio of Broward County teachers prepping students before traveling to the rally suggests?

4, If the March For Our Lives took several months to lawfully proceed, what actually took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas School on February 14, 2018? Was a massacre in fact required simply to promote the March For Our Lives rally?

5. Finally, though this perhaps goes without saying, why haven’t major news organizations investigated these procedural anomalies? Perhaps because they were too busy providing free promotion for event organizers.

H/t Commenter from FellowshipoftheMinds community.