Careful with that public sidewalk — you might want it yourself some day

Suppose that you and I get mad about the price of tomatoes, so we decide to picket the supermarket.

We don't have the right to march around in its parking lot. That's private property. The owner can kick us out.

But we do have the right to march on the public sidewalk outside. We can wave our tomato signs and chant our tomato slogans.

Does the grocery store have a "right" not to be picketed by us? No.

Now, suppose the grocery store says to the government: We are losing customers. Let's get rid of that sidewalk. Just give it to us. Then we can kick out these troublemakers.

And suppose the government goes along. The government decides that selling groceries is pretty important to society — more important than letting picketers march around on the sidewalk.

How many times, then, should the government use this power?

Should we do it for every business that is picketed and every public sidewalk? Or can we say that the grocery store was a special case?

I am genuinely curious. Where does it start and stop?

What if the topic of the protest on that city sidewalk is the Democratic health-care plan, and the mayor happens to be a Democrat who wants to shut it down?

What about a "tea party" protest against taxes — or against the president of the United States himself? Can the president block any more 9/12 protests by privatizing the sidewalks of Washington, D.C.?

Where does it start and stop?

It starts today at the St. Petersburg City Council.

The council has to decide whether to declare a public sidewalk downtown to be the private property of BayWalk, the struggling retail and movie complex.

BayWalk's owner and merchants believe that political protests along the north side of Second Avenue N are one reason that business has dropped off over the years.

I'm skeptical. Plenty of places like BayWalk have been in trouble for a while. We're in a recession, to boot. And I blame protests much less than overall issues of the parking garage, panhandlers, flocks of kids running around and perceptions of a generally wild atmosphere on weekend nights.

But let's suppose our BayWalk friends are exactly right.

Let's further agree that BayWalk is an essential part of the downtown. Let's remember that the city has put a lot of public resources into it and has a vested interest in its success. So let's say the City Council takes the deal.

What next, then?

If I'm a business owner on Beach Drive or Central Avenue, do I get the same deal if picketers show up in front of my restaurant or store and my business drops off?

Should our standard be that nobody gets to protest anywhere that somebody else doesn't like it? I imagine that a lot of Decent People would be perfectly happy with that rule, the ones who say to me, "Don't I have a right to go where I want without seeing these people?"

Happy, of course, until they are the ones mad at the grocery store.

Or at the latest Hollywood movie smearing their religion.

Or at a national health-care plan.

Or at the president.

On that day, some of them might want to speak their mind as free Americans out on the sidewalk, too.

So, I hope they still have one.