4 Detained by Philly PD and Homeland Security for Petitioning Against Police Surveillance

By Isaiah Thompson
Philladelphia City Paper

At about 10 o'clock yesterday morning, Philadelphia police officers from the 9th District, including plain-clothes detectives and a police captain, showed up at a worn-down building on Ridge Avenue and 17th Street and began knocking.

Daniel Moffat, a 28-year-old resident and co-owner of the building, answered the door. It was not long before he was taken outside and detained. Moffat watched from the squad car as the officers entered the building and detained three other residents who were inside.

Then a funny thing happened: Homeland Security showed up. And more detectives. And then the Crime Scene unit. And then more detectives. And the Fire Marshall. And Licensing and Inspection. And then more detectives. All day long and into Friday evening, the building was crawling with officials from one agency or another.

Why the fuss?

9th District Captain Dennis Wilson told the four detained — and later insisted to City Paper — that he and his officers came to respond to a simple complaint that people were staying in a vacant house. It was only after his officers entered, he says, that he found further cause to detain the residents and, indeed, call in Homeland Security and a small army of detectives.

"Everything's wrong in here," he told CP gravely from the building's doorway. "We're still investigating this property and we're still investigating these people."

Indeed. At least three police officers at the scene, including Wilson himself, confirmed in one way or another that — whatever the initial motivation for their visit — they were now busy investigating the residents, whom they accused vaguely of being "terrorists."

"Lemme ask you this," said one Crime Scene officer. "Why's there literature about killing cops in there?" He declined to be more specific.

"Propaganda against the government," chimed in officer John Taggert, also with Crime Scene. Taggert, who was nice enough to grant CP "three questions, and only three questions," didn't elaborate on the nature of the "propaganda."

Captain Wilson took the accusations a step further. "They're a hate group," he asserted. "We're trying to drum up charges against them, but, unfortunately, we'll probably have to let them go."

Let them go they did — 12 to 14 hours after the residents had been detained, they were mysteriously set free without charges (the police released the last two, both female, at 3:30 in the morning, says Moffat).

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http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080616210525284

And yet some people wonder why cops are hated in the first place...

"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot

:wtf:

From the article:

as if some don't believe we live in a police state already.

:scared: :mad:

They are rather famously brutal and inbred.

http://www.democracynow.org/2000/7/31/philadelphia_a_legacy_of_police_brutality

The neighborhood looks like there was just a war. Lots of abandoned buildings and empty lots. There is some gentrification 3 blocks to the south and east. One of the older guys I work with says it was once a center of jazz and he used to play there with some big names.

I highly doubt people were complaining about people squatting in a house here. This corner has almost no occupied buildings near it. There is a firehouse nearby, they're the only ones I can think of that might have said something.

Cops in philly are AWFUL! Worse yet, they support a lot of our city councilmen, state reps, and congressional reps. Did I mention they're all democrats? Remember Philly when someone claims that dems can do no wrong.

that existed in the 1960's, but with more technology.Police state for sure.
Hate to go there even to visit.
" We'd love to charge them with something, but we'll probably have to let'em go." (Thinking "Wish we could just shoot 'em all.")

mark