Jill Porter | With Diaz joining the band, cops might sing new tune

GOOD NEWS at summer's dawn for music lovers and devotees of that kooky American tradition of free speech:

The city may be about to change its tune - about the ban on singing and playing instruments in Rittenhouse Square.

That's because the folks who've protested the recent police crackdown appear to have an ally.

A very, very important ally.

That would be City Solicitor Romulo Diaz Jr., who interprets city law and has questions about the way police have construed the ordinance requiring a permit for a musical performance in Fairmount Park.

The regulation that police are citing to silence individual singers and guitar-strummers "is intended to address performances of a structured and scheduled nature," Diaz told me yesterday.

"It certainly could be interpreted more strictly. But I don't think the intention is to hassle individual singers who are not putting on some kind of large performance."

Diaz, who grew up in a small Texas town where "we didn't have troubadours; we had oil riggers who got drunk and sang," seemed sympathetic to those who believe music is integral to the Square.

"What makes the city so attractive is that you have this kind of diversity of people and talent and activity, and so long as people are being respectful of others' right to use the park, that's a very good thing for the city."

Diaz said he planned to work with police and the Park Commission to issue "policy guidance and clarification."

And that's music to the ears.

The controversy began on March 27, when well-known street performer Anthony Riley refused to stop singing when told to do so by a police officer in Rittenhouse Square.

Riley, who regularly plays in Suburban Station with another member of his band, Stone Soup, was arrested and detained in a roach-ridden cell before being released 18 hours later.

Police continued the crackdown after the incident, threatening to arrest folks who were singing or playing instruments.

It was a heavy-handed overreaction to complaints from some residents of the high-rise buildings that border the Square.

The ban prompted Drew Gillis, another member of Riley's band, to start a petition drive and stage two protests (with permits) at the Square.

State Rep. Babette Josephs, whose district includes the Square, showed up at last Saturday's demonstration.

"What is this nonsense?" Josephs said of the music ban, citing the violent crime police ought to be focusing on - and the rats that prowl the Square.

"Why aren't police shooting the rats instead of bothering the singers?" she asked.

Police Civil Affairs Capt. William Fisher has found himself in the middle on this one.

His unit patrols protests like the one on Saturday. But he thinks the singing ban is unconstitutional.

"It's a First Amendment issue - that's my personal opinion," Fisher said.

"I looked at the big picture.

You've got a public setting,

you've got the public.

"The last time I checked, there was freedom of speech. I don't know where speech ends and singing begins."

But Fisher checked with the Law Department earlier this week and was told to enforce the ban.

"Now the thing is, I've got a job to do and I follow the law and I work for the city," he said. The civil-affairs cops, we're kind of stuck in the middle on this thing."

But Fisher's inquiry to the Law Department got Diaz's attention.

Now Diaz promises "to take a closer look" and develop a policy that "takes into account First Amendment rights and also the rights of the neighbors under the noise ordinances to protect them against amplified noise."

Surely a balance can be found.

It's now summer - a perfect time for the most important voice of all to be heard on this ridiculous situation: the voice of sanity. *

E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850. For recent columns:

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