NYT: Police Files Say Arrest Tactics Calmed Protest

In five internal reports made public yesterday as part of a lawsuit, New York City police commanders candidly discuss how they had successfully used "proactive arrests," covert surveillance and psychological tactics at political demonstrations in 2002, and recommend that those approaches be employed at future gatherings.

Among the most effective strategies, one police captain wrote, was the seizure of demonstrators on Fifth Avenue who were described as "obviously potential rioters."

The reports provide a rare glimpse of internal police evaluations and strategies on security and free speech issues that have provoked sharp debate between city officials and political demonstrators since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The reports also made clear what the police have yet to discuss publicly: that the department uses undercover officers to infiltrate political gatherings and monitor behavior.

Indeed, one of the documents — a draft report from the department's Disorder Control Unit — proposed in blunt terms the resumption of a covert tactic that had been disavowed by the city and the federal government 30 years earlier. Under the heading of recommendations, the draft suggested, "Utilize undercover officers to distribute misinformation within the crowds." Asked about the proposal, Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the Police Department, said yesterday: "The N.Y.P.D. does not use police officers in any capacity to distribute misinformation."

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http://nytimes.com/2006/03/17/nyregion/17police.html?hp&ex=1142658000&en=5b0782ad98a92b1c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

from the NYT article:


The proposal to use undercover officers to spread misinformation — which the Police Department says was not adopted — recalled the origins of the Handschu lawsuit, which was based in part on the actions of undercover agents and officers who instigated trouble and spread lies among a group of military veterans who opposed the Vietnam War.

http://www.stopwar.org.uk/march20/events.asp

http://www.internationalanswer.org /

I found a demo to attend to tomorrow, in Oslo, on that upper link :evilgrin:

Any cop who arrests people to prevent protests is a fucking fascist or a fascist enabler.

that my thoughts and feelings of cops have not changed one iota since my late teens.

Same shit, different decade(s).

If police "determine" that you look like a trouble maker, they can arrest you and toss you in the clink. Republicon "justice" for a Christofascist State - "The Homeland."

Give me back the United States of America, for which the Republicons have nothing but disdain.

taken to the streets, and taken it all back, here??

It worked — therefore — we were right to do it.

Ugh.

Really? Getting an NYPD badge enables you to scan a crowd and determine who is going to riot? And on that basis, it's apparently perfectly acceptable to arrest those people, identified as "obviously potential rioters" even when they haven't committed a crime?

Welcome to the America of George W. Bush and Michael Bloomberg.

who WERE potential rioters.

The police have not met the protesters of the future, the ones with sacks of bricks, or the urban guerrillas. The police have only dealt with the peaceful Gandhi types up to now.

it was one of the most surreal days of my life. There were police units brought in from all over the country. On every street you'd see legions of police in riot gear. People were pissed that the RNC was exploiting NYC and 9/11, but by and large the police were friendly and did a great job. I only heard of these tactics after the fact, but needless to say its some shady ass shit.

Lockdown Manhattan
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2004/09/09_404.html

that article states that 1,187 people were arrested, most under dubious circumstances. However, this is out of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of protestors. I was there. It was chaotic. It was crazy. It was insane. Anyway, the majority of the police I encountered were fine.

So you have first hand info.

But try googling
http://www.google.com/search?q=lockdown+manhattan
http://www.google.com/search?hl=no&q=rnc+convention+police+brutality

I followed the media coverage closely, and remember my immediate thought was that it was like peeking behind the iron carpet during the 80's. The media coverage on indy sites, that is. Not the official US mass media.

one of the things that got Nixon in really hot water in the 70's? I can't recall the name of the program this morning, but I seem to recall there was a concerted effort to radicalise and force these protest groups out of the mainstream of America back then (that is, to make them appear to be part of the lunatic fringe). I thought this stuff was all covered under FISA...

caused Nixon to go under. What I remember as the thing that tanked Nixon was when he fired Special Prosecutor Cox, who was investigating the Watergate break-in.

Thats how I remember it anyway.

Besides, Hoover began the infiltration before Nixon even got in office. I think we can thank Hoover for the domestic spying programs, even as far back as the early 50's. If we really want to get to the root of domestic spying on citizens, I imagine we could go back to Hoovers War on the bootleggers and Prohibition was the start of the attacks on the Constitution, all in the name of law enforcement naturally. Anybody else wonder if the TV show "The Untouchables" was little more than propaganda to get us boomers used to the idea of a police state?

Then again thinking about it, there was the miners, meat packers, Steel workers union activities and the wobblies. Watching these 'anarchists would have kept the federalies busy I imagine. Dang, I am trying to think of a time when we were at peace domestically, and drawing a blank. It seems the government has always been against the people, since the Shay's rebellion about greedy bankers and then shortly thereafter imposing a tax on 'spirits and tobacco' and the foundation of the ATF.

It's a bloody history all right, our country's history I mean.

"misinformation" could be anything from leaflets to a punch in the face to get the fight rolling, agitate the crowd to justify mass arrest. Blow up buildings to justify the invasion and occupation of nations.

Same shit. Different pile.