BOSTON -- As delegates are arriving for the Democratic National Convention Saturday, so too are demonstrators whose planned protests and parades will be strictly and tightly regulated by police.

Video

David Boeri Reports On Protests

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NewsCenter 5's David Boeri reported that the hotly-contested designated free speech zone near the Fleet Center was flooded with standing water Saturday.

Not that it would have mattered to the federal judge who, even after declaring the zone an interment camp last week, rejected the claims of protestors that it violated their first amendment rights.

"Who will challenge the vague rationale that national security, quote unquote, 'takes precedent over the cornerstone of democracy -- the right to free expression?'" asked Tony Palomba, of the American Friends Service.

The standing water, the coiled razor wire and high double fencing enveloped in additional mesh netting made an ironic contrast to the father of a Marine killed in Iraq in the stated cause of defending freedom.

"My son died in an immoral war in Iraq," he said.

"What country is this? We always claim that we are the most democratic, the most free country of this planet. We condemned countries like China, but right now we are using methods to suppress in the same way as country that we consider totalitarian," said Urzula Masny-Latos, of the National Lawyers Guild.

In Cambridge, Mass., Saturday, members of a mobilizing committee called Black Tea, whose clean-cut earnestness seems to undercut police concerns about agitators, condemned fear tactics and once again vowed to shun the designated demonstration zone.

"We have no intention of giving up every right that we have in this country to enter that area," said Elly Guillette, of the Black Tea Society.

Attorneys for two different groups of activists filed an appeal to the federal judge's decision upholding the government's security arrangement.

The matter goes to the 1st Circuit Court of appeals on Monday morning.