By Rob Tranchin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-936176.mp3
Dallas, TX – Today marks the anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas 47 years ago. KERA's Rob Tranchin was in Dealey Plaza last week, and reports on a new controversy surrounding the President's death.
At Dallas' Dealey Plaza, especially today, you'll find tourists who've come to take photos of the place where President John F. Kennedy was shot. Freelance guides selling publications alleging conspiracy offer their services to visitors like Antonio from Los Angeles.
Antonio: I was approached by one of the vendors, tour guides. I'm from out of town. I had no idea where I was sitting and he went around and gave me the tour, explained to me about the grassy knoll, where the shooters supposedly were. He said he wasn't going to accept or deny any of the theories. He just took me around and was very interesting and he said any donation was fine. I gave the guy five dollars.
But some people have complained that many of these guides are thinly disguised panhandlers harassing visitors to the city. Last summer, Dallas Police cracked down, using an ordinance that prohibits the sale of merchandise in city parks without a permit.
On June 13th, assassination researcher and conspiracy theorist Robert Groden was arrested in the sweep.
Groden: I stay in a stationary position and people can come up to me. I don't chase anybody around down there, where some of the others do. But they have a first amendment right to be there as well. I have applied for a permit to be there at the request of the police department at least a dozen times and not only will they not give me a permit, they won't even give me an application!
Groden is no ordinary guide. He served as a consultant to the House Select Committee that investigated the assassination in the 1970's. He's a published author and an acknowledged, if controversial, expert who has long maintained that the lone gunman theory is a cover-up.
Groden thinks he knows why he was arrested.
Groden: There's no question. The police have admitted that the Sixth Floor Museum was part of all of this. The Sixth Floor Museum and the city want there to be no alternative point of view to the official fiction that Oswald was the lone assassin. So about sixth months prior to the Super Bowl coming, the pressure was put on the police and the city to get me out of there.
Sixth Floor Museum executive director Nicola Longford says that the Museum tries hard to present a balanced interpretation of the facts. She declined to be interviewed for this story, saying the Museum's policy is not to discuss matters in litigation.
Groden has sued the City of Dallas in Federal court, arguing that the City's ordinance infringes on his First Amendment right to free speech. Groden's lawyer, Alex Tandy, says that recent case law establishes Groden's right to offer his printed material, books and DVD's in public parks like Dealey Plaza.
Tandy: I don't tell anybody to agree with Robert. I let them look at what Robert's done with his works and then they can form that opinion, compare it with what the Warren Commission dreamed up. And it bothers me that certain entities are trying to suppress freedom of speech, the most valued right that I think we have in this country.
The Dallas City District Attorney's office also declined comment, but is pursuing its complaint against Groden.
Meanwhile, Groden's lawsuit has forced the city to suspend its crackdown on guides in Dealey Plaza. And Groden says he has no intention of dropping it.
Groden: I'm 65 years old. I started working on this case when I was 18. The President was shot on my 18th birthday. The Kennedy case has cost me everything. It's cost me my life, it's cost me my family, it's cost me my career. I wouldn't trade it. People have a right to know and history has a need to know. It may be too late for justice in this case, but it's never too late for the truth.
For now, the City of Dallas and Robert Groden plan to continue their argument over both truth and justice-- in court.