Although I have previously been skeptical of the protesters, there’s a great letter in today’s New York Times that, along with the other letters on the topic, made me think.

Perhaps you are correct that the protesters have had their day in court and are not entitled to have an organized rally on the Great Lawn in Central Park. But the tone of your editorial has an eerie feeling about it.

The rights of assembly, free speech and the inherent right to protest were never meant to have a comfortable and polite feel about them. When New York City invited the Republican National Convention into the heart of Manhattan, it also invited in all of the attendant protests that the presence of government officials and politics attracts.

Why are the protesters to be dispersed into small groups? The convention will congregate in Madison Square Garden and receive free televised coverage. It is obvious that large crowds have greater impact than do smaller groups dispersed here and there.

City officials want peace, as do New Yorkers in general. But when it comes to the business of the country, we shouldn’t want to be too comfortable. The Constitution reflects the uncomfortable nature of democracy and the right to protest.