There may even be SPIES among us disguised as FReepers!!!
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Yes.. Yes. I have suspected as much for some time.
Posted on 03/24/2007 8:12:37 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK - Undercover NYPD officers traveled around the U.S. and even to Europe to observe activists who planned to protest at the 2004 Republican National Convention — including hundreds who showed no sign of illegal intent, a newspaper reported.
Posing as activists or sympathizers, the officers attended meetings of political groups in at least 15 states and filed reports with the police department's intelligence division, The New York Times reported on its Web site Saturday.
The officers involved in the "RNC Intelligence Squad" then identified certain groups as potential threats, the Times reported, citing hundreds of still-secret reports it had viewed from the police department's intelligence division. The police often shared information with departments in other cities.
Police spokesman Paul Browne said the activities were legal. He said the operation was an essential part of preparations for the huge crowds that came to the city during the convention.
"Detectives collected information both in-state and out-of-state to learn in advance what was coming our way," Browne told the Times.
The secret digests said some of the groups planned acts such as blocking intersections and hacking into Web sites. But the Times reported that the vast majority of the reports it viewed described people who gave no obvious sign of wrongdoing, such as members of the satirical performance-art group "Billionaires for Bush" and a group that had planned concerts peppered with political speeches.
Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the revelations of "spying" were shocking.
"The New York Civil Liberties Union condemns this operation and is considering legal action against the police department," she said in a statement.
More than 1,800 people were arrested at the four-day convention at Madison Square Garden, where President Bush accepted his party's nomination for a second term in office. The convention was policed by as many as 10,000 officers.
Pending civil rights lawsuits have challenged the legitimacy of the arrests. Documents released under a court order in January showed that arrested protesters were held before their initial court appearances for up to six times longer than those arrested on charges unrelated to the convention.
The documents also show that the 2001 terrorist attacks heavily influenced the city's decision to detain and fingerprint hundreds of protesters at the convention.
ping
And the problem is.....?
Three years after 9/11 I would call this prudent.
As I recall some of these protestors beat up a cop.
I should add that this is my recollection only - I have no links.
Sounds like the City of New York takes terrorism seriously, even if their newspapers don't
My goodness! If this is true about these peaceful groups being spied upon, then we here at FR should be on our guard. There may even be SPIES among us disguised as FReepers!!!
Oh, the horror.
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Yes.. Yes. I have suspected as much for some time.
And I'll bet there were similar projects to track those who might disrupt the Democrat convention - but since the Times doubtless approved of this "spying" so their cronies wouldn't be embarrassed, it wasn't mentioned......
Well said !!!
Darn, there goes my cover. (Note to self, change name move to another continent, dye hair)
LOL
ping
If I remember correctly .. the liberals/dems/kooks had been all over the TV, radio, broadway plays, writing books, etc., talking about "killing the President".
It's no wonder to me the KOOKS were being tailed .. they had given the police plenty of reasons to be suspicious of them.
The most interesting protester by far received no attention. He rode a bike up Seventh Avenue in the early morning hours wearing a colonial outfit, including tri-corner hat,yelling, "The Republicans are coming! The Republicans are coming!"
The only folks around to see him were cops who doubled over laughing.
Good they did their job. And the ACLU can go straight to hell.
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