Secret papers detail NYC intelligence gathering on

TheCigSmokingMan

TheCigSmokingMan

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Secret papers detail NYC intelligence gathering on RNC protesters
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070516-1719-conventionarrests.html

NEW YORK – They were among the more colorful protesters at the 2004 Republican National Convention – a tuxedo-wearing performance art troupe called Billionaires for Bush.

The New York Police Department wasn't amused.

Once-confidential documents prepared as the NYPD readied for the convention cautioned the group was “forged as a mockery of the current presidency and political policies,” and they noted that “preliminary intelligence indicates that this group is raising funds for expansion and support of anti-RNC organizations.”
A federal judge ordered the documents unsealed amid protracted litigation challenging the legitimacy of many of the more than 1,800 arrests made at the four-day convention at Madison Square Garden, where President Bush accepted his party's nomination for a second term in office.

As many as 10,000 police officers from the 36,500-member department were deployed during the convention to protect the city from terrorism threats and to cope with tens of thousands of demonstrators, whose protests were largely peaceful.

City lawyers had argued that the arrests, mainly for disorderly conduct, were justified in part because of intelligence showing certain protesters were threats to the public. But civil rights activists argue the internal documents, many marked “secret,” show the nation's largest police department spent tremendous time and resources to conduct surveillance on people who were merely practicing free speech and displaying no sign of criminal intent.

The papers “vindicate the sanity of those people who thought they were being followed,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said Wednesday at a news conference.

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Bloomberg's Secret NYC Police squad harassing, spy and following 'potential' protesters has been revealed!!!

NO MORE FREESPEECH ZONES!!! :)

TheCigMan
 
NYPD Surveillance Files Ordered Released

City Is Rebuffed on the Release of ’04 Records

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/n...86545600&en=25418cdecb0dcd13&ei=5087

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Published: August 7, 2007

A federal judge yesterday rejected New York City’s efforts to prevent the release of nearly 2,000 pages of raw intelligence reports and other documents detailing the Police Department’s covert surveillance of protest groups and individual activists before the Republican National Convention in 2004.

In a 20-page ruling, Magistrate Judge James C. Francis IV ordered the disclosure of hundreds of field intelligence reports by undercover investigators who infiltrated and compiled dossiers on protest groups in a huge operation that the police said was needed to head off violence and disruptions at the convention.

But at the behest of the city and with the concurrence of civil liberties lawyers representing plaintiffs swept up in mass arrests during the convention, the judge agreed to the deletion of sensitive information in the documents to protect the identities of undercover officers and confidential informants and to safeguard police investigative methods and the privacy of individuals caught up in investigations.

The city had largely based its bid for nondisclosure on the need to protect those identities and methods, and argued that the public might misinterpret the documents or the news media sensationalize them. But the civil liberties lawyers insisted that the documents — even without the sensitive materials — were needed to show in court that the police had overstepped legal boundaries in arresting, detaining and fingerprinting hundreds of people instead of handing out summonses for minor offenses.

The order was the latest development in the long-running case, which posed thorny questions about the free speech rights of protesters and the means used by law enforcement officials to maintain public order.

It appeared that the plaintiffs, who had denounced the police for trampling on the civil liberties of protesters who were fingerprinted and detained at length for minor offenses, had largely won the day, while the city had achieved a more limited objective.

Christopher Dunn, the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which represents the lead defendants in a barrage of more than 80 lawsuits, said of the judge’s ruling: “He’s given us everything we asked for. He has redacted the names of undercover agents and the particulars of surveillance techniques. We agreed to that. But he has said the city cannot withhold the information it gathered in these operations.”

Peter Farrell, the city’s senior lawyer in the case, offered a narrower interpretation of the disclosure order. “Judge Francis held that the city properly invoked the law enforcement privilege in a document-by-document review,” he said in a statement released by the Law Department. “While he has ordered some limited information disclosed, he has also provided for restricted access.”

As for a possible appeal, Mr. Farrell said: “We are in the process of reviewing the information the judge has ordered produced to determine whether the disclosure will compromise the programs or personnel of the N.Y.P.D. Intelligence Division. Once we have completed that review, we’ll make a determination on appealing.”

The city and the Police Department have come under intense scrutiny over the surveillance tactics, in which for more than a year before the convention undercover officers traveled to cities across the country, and to Canada and Europe, to conduct covert observations of people who planned to attend. But beyond potential troublemakers, those placed under surveillance included street theater companies, church groups, antiwar activists, environmentalists, and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government policies.

And as the convention unfolded, more than 1,800 people were arrested, mostly for minor violations, and many were herded into pens at a Hudson River pier and fingerprinted instead of being released on summonses or desk appearance tickets, which are more customary for charges that amount to little more than a traffic ticket.

As scores of federal lawsuits challenging the mass arrests on Aug. 31, 2004, were filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, with plaintiffs claiming wrongful detentions of up to two days and other violations by the police to keep protesters off the streets, the outlines of the extensive covert surveillance operation began to emerge from court records.

In March, The New York Times disclosed details of the sweeping operation, including a sample of raw intelligence documents and summaries of observations from field agents and the police cyberintelligence unit. Some plaintiffs and their lawyers, seeking to bolster their cases, asked the court to disclose the documents. In May, Judge Francis allowed the disclosure of 600 pages of documents relating to security preparations before the convention.

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Bloomberg's NeoCon Gestapo tactics will be revealed!!!

TheCigMan
 
Re: NYPD Surveillance Files Ordered Released

They are talking about the POLICE conducting intelligence operations on foreign soil, "
The city and the Police Department have come under intense scrutiny over the surveillance tactics, in which for more than a year before the convention undercover officers traveled to cities across the country, and to Canada and Europe, to conduct covert observations of people who planned to attend."
When did come to this and why we allowed it to happen? It makes me angry, when I think that the intelligence operations has become second standard to the power that be, and I am not just talking about politicians or government. It makes me even more angrier when I think that European governments allowed that to happen, to us the privacy is still privacy. What the h*** Americans are trying to achieve with this? Another STASI/Gestapo like operation. I thought that us (all the people) understood how horrible the second World War was, and how terrible the Gestapo was on their business.
 
Re: NYPD Surveillance Files Ordered Released

ctg,

As for "They are talking about the POLICE conducting intelligence operations on foreign soil"

Yes.

The Bloomberg administration in cooperation with most likely the Secret Service and Intelligence Agencies went "crazy" about peace protestors with the Republican Convention.

With the Military Industrail Complex in America, they are always concerned with those who want "PEACE"...

FREE SPEECH is really not tolerated at political events anymore.

TheCigMan
 
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