NYPD spied on potential protesters before G.O.P. convention

[wharfrat2]

<p>City Police Spied Broadly Before G.O.P. Convention
By JIM DWYER
For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and interviews. </p>

<p>From Albuquerque to Montreal, San Francisco to Miami, undercover New York police officers attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or fellow activists, the records show. …</p>

<p>From these operations, run by the department’s R.N.C. Intelligence Squad,?the police identified a handful of groups and individuals who expressed interest in creating havoc during the convention, as well as some who used Web sites to urge or predict violence. </p>

<p>But potential troublemakers were hardly the only ones to end up in the files. In hundreds of reports stamped ?N.Y.P.D. Secret,? the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law, the records show. </p>

<p>These included members of street theater companies, church groups and antiwar organizations, as well as environmentalists and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government policies. Three New York City elected officials were cited in the reports. …
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/nyregion/25infiltrate.html?hp[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/nyregion/25infiltrate.html?hp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[barrons]

<p>Mr Dunn should worry more about catching real criminals.</p>

[carlmom]

<p>Don’t you mean that the police should worry more about catching real criminals? That is definitely not the role of the Civil Liberties Union.</p>

[xiggi]

<p>

Before monitoring political activity, the police must have “some indication of unlawful activity on the part of the individual or organization to be investigated,” United States District Court Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. said in a ruling last month.

</p>

<p>Some indication of unlawful activity? Like that would be hard to show for groups of hooligans masquerading as organizations that are experts in public manifestations. </p>

<p>Were those 1,806 “people” arrested for good citizenship?</p>

[garland]

<p>Never mind what a joke…what a colossal waste of resources. What the heck is a “public manifestation” an why is so much money spent on monitoring them? Personally, I love democracy in action.</p>

[conyat]

<p>Please tell me which of the church groups that were spied on meet your definition as “hooligans”? And please provide some evidence other than prejudice and sheer partisan malice.</p>

[conyat]

<p>

Were those 1,806 “people” arrested for good citizenship?

</p>

<p>By your use of quotes, do you really mean to imply that “people” who disagree with you politically are subhuman? Shudder. So much hate.</p>

<p>

Some indication of unlawful activity? Like that would be hard to show for groups of hooligans masquerading as organizations that are experts in public manifestations.

</p>

<p>Did it ever occur to you that the reason we have laws and a Bill of Rights in this country is to protect the public from exactly that sort of mentality? (that if the police suspect someone they must be guilty, therefore the police are justified in suspecting them.)</p>

<p>That kind of tautology goes against everything our country stands for.</p>

<p>For the record, amid allegations of unfair and illegal arrests, charges were dropped against 90% of those arrested. So please explain to me how you figure that their arrests is evidence that all the people spied on were hooligans planning illegal activities. </p>

<p>You do understand that in our country, a person is innocent until proven guilty–not till arrested on possibly trumped up charges that are later dropped?</p>

<p>And that there’s no such thing as collective guilt? That if one member of “X” group is guilty of something, by extension all members of all similiar groups are guilty? That concept just doesn’t exist in American law. The closest thing you can get is Jim Crow or the WWII internment camps, and those have both been repudiated.</p>

[mini]

<p>"Some indication of unlawful activity? Like that would be hard to show for groups of hooligans masquerading as organizations that are experts in public manifestations.</p>

<p>Were those 1,806 “people” arrested for good citizenship?"</p>

<p>They were all on the goverment’s payroll! ;)</p>

[calmom]

<p>Some excerpts from the article: </p>

<p>Crime: Mixing music with political rhetoric:

In hundreds of reports stamped ?N.Y.P.D. Secret,? the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law, the records show.</p>

<p>These included members of street theater companies, church groups and antiwar organizations, as well as environmentalists and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government policies. Three New York City elected officials were cited in the reports.</p>

<p>In at least some cases, intelligence on what appeared to be lawful activity was shared with police departments in other cities. A police report on an organization of artists called Bands Against Bush noted that the group was planning concerts on Oct. 11, 2003, in New York, Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston. Between musical sets, the report said, there would be political speeches and videos.</p>

<p>?Activists are showing a well-organized network made up of anti-Bush sentiment; the mixing of music and political rhetoric indicates sophisticated organizing skills with a specific agenda,? said the report, dated Oct. 9, 2003. ?Police departments in above listed areas have been contacted regarding this event.?

Crime: Using Chalk to Convey Internet Messages:

At the other end of the threat spectrum was Joshua Kinberg, a graduate student at Parsons School of Design and the subject of four pages of intelligence reports, including two pictures. For his master?s thesis project, Mr. Kinberg devised a ?wireless bicycle? equipped with cellphone, laptop and spray tubes that could squirt messages received over the Internet onto the sidewalk or street.</p>

<p>The messages were printed in water-soluble chalk, a tactic meant to avoid a criminal mischief charge for using paint, an intelligence report noted. Mr. Kinberg?s bicycle was ?capable of transferring activist-based messages on streets and sidewalks,? according to a report on July 22, 2004.</p>

<p>?This bicycle, having been built for the sole purpose of protesting during the R.N.C., is capable of spraying anti-R.N.C.-type messages on surrounding streets and sidewalks, also supplying the rider with a quick vehicle of escape,? the report said. Mr. Kinberg, then 25, was arrested during a television interview with Ron Reagan for MSNBC?s ?Hardball? program during the convention. He was released a day later, but his equipment was held for more than a year.</p>

<p>Mr. Kinberg said Friday that after his arrest, detectives with the terrorism task force asked if he knew of any plans for violence. ?I?m an artist,? he said. ?I know other artists, who make T-shirts and signs.?

Crime: Protesting while wearing tuxedos:

A vast majority of several hundred reports reviewed by The Times, including field reports and the digests, described groups that gave no obvious sign of wrongdoing. The intelligence noted that one group, the ?Man- and Woman-in-Black Bloc,? planned to protest outside a party at Sotheby?s for Tennessee?s Republican delegates with Johnny Cash?s career as its theme.</p>

<p>The satirical performance troupe Billionaires for Bush, which specializes in lampooning the Bush administration by dressing in tuxedos and flapper gowns, was described in an intelligence digest on Jan. 23, 2004.</p>

<p>?Billionaires for Bush is an activist group forged as a mockery of the current president and political policies,? the report said. ?Preliminary intelligence indicates that this group is raising funds for expansion and support of anti-R.N.C. activist organizations.?

Crime: Marching in Silence:

The war resisters publicly announced plans for a ?die-in? at Madison Square Garden. They were arrested two minutes after they began a silent march from the World Trade Center site. The charges were dismissed.</p>

<p>The sponsors of an event planned for Jan. 15, 2004, in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?s birthday were listed in one of the reports, which noted that it was a protest against ?the R.N.C., the war in Iraq and the Bush administration.? It mentioned that three members of the City Council at the time, Charles Barron, Bill Perkins and Larry B. Seabrook, ?have endorsed this event.?

</p>