Our blogs about
America's Wars
War on Iraq
War on Drugs
War on Afghanistan
War on Columbia
War on Philippines
War on Venezuela

MORE
Matrix Masters
Blogs
World Events
Katrina's Aftermath
US News
Bush Crime Family News
Science & Health
Earth News
Free Speech
News from Africa
News from Palestine
Bill of Rights Under Attack

Support Bloggers' Rights!

Lorenzo's
Random Musings
. . . about Chaos,
Reason, and Hope

 

RNC Aftermath: A Look at Undercover Cops, Preemptive Detention and Police Surveillance
(Democracy Now, September 8, 2004)
The Republican National Convention has wrapped up, but discussion rages on about some of the tactics the New York Police Department used in its security operations for the week. During the convention, the NYPD operated with a budget of $60 million, which is larger than all but 19 of the world's standing armies. And they were certainly not alone. In lower Manhattan, the Multi-Agency Command Center, or MACC, was the security "nerve center," -- with some 66 separate city, state and federal agencies coordinating their work. . . . While the police have declared last week a success, there were a number of incidents and tactics that have come under heavy fire from civil liberties advocates and legal groups. . . . Deputy Police Chief must not have seen the videos which were aired on TV of hundreds of people being swept up for following the instructions of the police department, as to how they could have a lawful march. That happened across from Ground Zero on Fulton Street with the War Resistors' League demonstration. It happened in Union Square, or off Union Square, on 17th Street where a group of protesters negotiated where do we march lawfully, go on the sidewalk. They went on the sidewalk and boom, they were swept up. That's not to mention the scores of bystanders, maybe hundreds, who were swept up in the indiscriminate sweeps. Those sweeps included bystanders, press people, medics legal observers, and we believe that indeed the police department may have been targeting the green-hatted guild legal observers. Our observers from the New York Civil Liberties Union in the blue caps were not targeted. Only one received a summons that was an utter case of harassment for which we will be filing a complaint. I think we have a lot to investigate here. Indiscriminate arrests is just the tip of the iceberg. We saw a couple of incidents of violence. He must have missed the mopeds, police in plain clothes driving their mopeds into the crowd on Monday night. Then I think the huge story is about the indefinite or the prolonged detention of people who were arrested. . . . We're talking about the largest number of people arrested in a single day, over 1,000 on Tuesday, in the city's history. The single largest number of arrests, and one of the largest in the history of this country. And overall, the number of arrests close to 2,000, more than 1,800. . . . The preferred arrest mechanism was to use this orange -- plastic orange mesh that's used at construction sites often to wrap people up and the police would pull it out without warning, and just grab in everybody in the path. That included press people, medics, legal observers. You couldn’t get out, except occasionally if you were able to establish press credentials. But there was also more sophisticated methodology in place and that's video surveillance, helmets with video cameras on their heads, on them. . . . I have to agree of the chilling effect of the video cameras all up and down the protest areas. Members of the TYRA, which is the videotapes unit of the police department, were not the only ones videotaping. Undercover police were videotaping and teams were actually shadowing a number of protesters using their first names as they passed by, how you are doing, so and so. So, very chilling behavior by the police. I don't know about what Deputy Chief Collins saw, but I can speak for 12 to 16 hours a day on the street having seen arbitrary arrests, arbitrary filming and lawful permitted protests were being filmed extensively. . . . The protesters were overwhelmingly peaceful, contrary to what Chief Kelly would have had us believe in the days and weeks and months leading up to the convention.

posted by Lorenzo 7:45 PM