NYTimes: City Police Spied Broadly Before GOP Convention

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/nyregion/25infiltrate.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

City Police Spied Broadly Before G.O.P. Convention



Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Marco Ceglie, a member of Billionaires for Bush, a satirical performance troupe, said he suspected that the group was under surveillance in 2004.

By JIM DWYER
Published: March 25, 2007
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.

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. They made friends, shared meals, swapped e-mail messages and then filed daily reports with the department’s Intelligence Division. Other investigators mined Internet sites and chat rooms.

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.

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.

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.

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and can't catch muggers of 101 and 87 year old women. They are too busy trying to get to a republican asscrack.

And from what I understand they usually try to blend in at peaceful protests and try to find a way to cause chaos so the cops can beat people down.

Well, actually, with this administration, it's no surprise. They also shut down subway stations that would take you to the final rallying point, too.

I would love to see the list of people they were monitoring. Bet there were some Evil DUers on that!

Thanks for posting this :wow: