New York Police Covertly Join In at Protest Rallies

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New York Police Covertly Join In at Protest Rallies

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 09:59:49 -0800

 

 

 

 

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/122205K.shtml

 

New York Police Covertly Join In at Protest Rallies

By Jim Dwyer

The New York Times

 

Thursday 22 December 2005

 

Undercover New York City police officers have conducted covert

surveillance in the last 16 months of people protesting the Iraq war,

bicycle riders taking part in mass rallies and even mourners at a

street vigil for a cyclist killed in an accident, a series of

videotapes show.

 

In glimpses and in glaring detail, the videotape images reveal the

robust presence of disguised officers or others working with them at

seven public gatherings since August 2004.

 

The officers hoist protest signs. They hold flowers with mourners.

They ride in bicycle events. At the vigil for the cyclist, an officer

in biking gear wore a button that said, " I am a shameless agitator. "

She also carried a camera and videotaped the roughly 15 people present.

 

Beyond collecting information, some of the undercover officers or

their associates are seen on the tape having influence on events. At a

demonstration last year during the Republican National Convention, the

sham arrest of a man secretly working with the police led to a

bruising confrontation between officers in riot gear and bystanders.

 

Until Sept. 11, the secret monitoring of events where people

expressed their opinions was among the most tightly limited of police

powers.

 

Provided with images from the tape, the Police Department's chief

spokesman, Paul J. Browne, did not dispute that they showed officers

at work but said that disguised officers had always attended such

gatherings - not to investigate political activities but to keep order

and protect free speech. Activists, however, say that police officers

masquerading as protesters and bicycle riders distort their messages

and provoke trouble.

 

The pictures of the undercover officers were culled from an

unofficial archive of civilian and police videotapes by Clancy,

a forensic video analyst who is critical of the tactics. She gave the

tapes to The New York Times. Based on what the individuals said, the

equipment they carried and their almost immediate release after they

had been arrested amid protesters or bicycle riders, The Times

concluded that at least 10 officers were incognito at the events.

 

After the 2001 terrorist attacks, officials at all levels of

government considered major changes in various police powers.

President Bush acknowledged last Saturday that he has secretly

permitted the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without a warrant

on international telephone calls and e-mail messages in terror

investigations.

 

In New York, the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

persuaded a federal judge in 2003 to enlarge the Police Department's

authority to conduct investigations of political, social and religious

groups. " We live in a more dangerous, constantly changing world, "

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said.

 

Before then, very few political organizations or activities were

secretly investigated by the Police Department, the result of a 1971

class-action lawsuit that charged the city with abuses in surveillance

during the 1960's. Now the standard for opening inquiries into

political activity has been relaxed, full authority to begin

surveillance has been restored to the police and federal courts no

longer require a special panel to oversee the tactics.

 

Mr. Browne, the police spokesman, said the department did not

increase its surveillance of political groups when the restrictions

were eased. The powers obtained after Sept. 11 have been used

exclusively " to investigate and thwart terrorists, " Mr. Browne said.

He would not answer specific questions about the disguised officers or

describe any limits the department placed on surveillance at public

events.

 

Jethro M. Eisenstein, one of the lawyers who brought the lawsuit

34 years ago, said: " This is a level-headed Police Department, led by

a level-headed police commissioner. What in the world are they doing? "

 

For nearly four decades, civil liberty advocates and police

officials have fought over the kinds of procedures needed to avoid

excessive intrusion on people expressing their views, to provide

accountability in secret police operations and to assure public safety

for a city that has been the leading American target of terrorists.

 

To date, officials say no one has complained of personal damage

from the information collected over recent months, but participants in

the protests, rallies and other gatherings say the police have been a

disruptive presence.

 

Ryan Kuonen, 32, who took part in a " ride of silence " in memory of

a dead cyclist, said that two undercover officers - one with a camera

- subverted the event. " They were just in your face, " she said. " It

made what was a really solemn event into something that seemed wrong.

It made you feel like you were a criminal. It was grotesque. "

 

Ms. Clancy, a founder of I-Witness Video, a project that collected

hundreds of videotapes during the Republican National Convention that

were used in the successful defense of people arrested that week, has

assembled videotape of other public events made by legal observers,

activists, bystanders and police officers.

 

She presented examples in October at a conference of defense

lawyers. " What has to go on is an informed discussion of policing

tactics at public demonstrations, and these images offer a window into

the issues and allow the public to make up their own mind, " Ms. Clancy

said. " How is it possible for police to be accountable when they

infiltrate events and dress in the garb of protesters? "

 

The videotapes that most clearly disclosed the presence of the

disguised officers began in August 2004. What happened before that is

unclear.

 

Among the events that have drawn surveillance is a monthly bicycle

ride called Critical Mass. The Critical Mass rides, which have no

acknowledged leadership, take place in many cities around the world on

the last Friday of the month, with bicycle riders rolling through the

streets to promote bicycle transportation. Relations between the

riders and the police soured last year after thousands of cyclists

flooded the streets on the Friday before the Republican National

Convention. Officials say the rides cause havoc because the

participants refuse to obtain a permit. The riders say they can use

public streets without permission from the government.

 

In a tape made at the April 29 Critical Mass ride, a man in a

football jersey is seen riding along West 19th Street with a group of

bicycle riders to a police blockade at 10th Avenue. As the police

begin to handcuff the bicyclists, the man in the jersey drops to one

knee. He tells a uniformed officer, " I'm on the job. " The officer in

uniform calls to a colleague, " Louie - he's under. " A second officer

arrives and leads the man in the jersey - hands clasped behind his

back - one block away, where the man gets back on his bicycle and

rides off.

 

That videotape was made by a police officer and was recently

turned over by prosecutors to Gideon Oliver, a lawyer representing

bicycle riders arrested that night.

 

Another arrest that appeared to be a sham changed the dynamics of

a demonstration. On Aug. 30, 2004, during the Republican National

Convention, a man with vivid blond hair was filmed as he stood on 23rd

Street, holding a sign at a march of homeless and poor people. A

police lieutenant suddenly moved to arrest him. Onlookers protested,

shouting, " Let him go. " In response, police officers in helmets and

with batons pushed against the crowd, and at least two other people

were arrested.

 

The videotape shows the blond-haired man speaking calmly with the

lieutenant. When the lieutenant unzipped the man's backpack, a two-way

radio could be seen. Then the man was briskly escorted away, unlike

others who were put on the ground, plastic restraints around their

wrists. And while the blond-haired man kept his hands clasped behind

his back, the tape shows that he was not handcuffed or restrained.

 

The same man was videotaped a day earlier, observing the actress

Rosario Dawson as she and others were arrested on 35th Street and

Eighth Avenue as they filmed " This Revolution, " a movie that used

actual street demonstrations as a backdrop. At one point, the

blond-haired man seemed to try to rile bystanders.

 

After Ms. Dawson and another actress were placed into a police

van, the blond-haired man can be seen peering in the window. According

to Charles Maol, who was working on the film, the blond-haired man is

the source of a voice that is heard calling: " Hey, that's my brother

in there. What do you got my brother in there for? "

 

After Mr. Browne was sent photographs of the people involved in

the convention incidents and the bicycle arrests, he said, " I am not

commenting on descriptions of purported or imagined officers. "

 

The federal courts have long held that undercover officers can

monitor political activities for a " legitimate law enforcement

purpose. " While the police routinely conduct undercover operations in

plainly criminal circumstances - the illegal sale of weapons, for

example - surveillance at political events is laden with ambiguity. To

retain cover in those settings, officers might take part in public

dialogue, debate and demonstration, at the risk of influencing others

to alter opinions or behavior.

 

The authority of the police to conduct surveillance of First

Amendment activities has been shaped over the years not only by the

law but also by the politics of the moment and the perception of

public safety needs.

 

In the 1971 class-action lawsuit, the city acknowledged that the

Police Department had used infiltrators, undercover agents and fake

news reporters to spy on yippies, civil rights advocates, antiwar

activists, labor organizers and black power groups.

 

A former police chief said the department's intelligence files

contained a million names of groups and individuals - more in just the

New York files than were collected for the entire country in a

now-discontinued program of domestic spying by the United States Army

around the same time. In its legal filings, the city said any excesses

were aberrational acts.

 

The case, known as Handschu for the lead plaintiff, was settled in

1985 when the city agreed to extraordinary new limits in the

investigation of political organizations, among them the creation of

an oversight panel that included a civilian appointed by the mayor.

The police were required to have " specific information " that a crime

was in the works before investigating such groups.

 

The Handschu settlement also limited the number of police officers

who could take part in such investigations and restricted sharing

information with other agencies.

 

Over the years, police officials made no secret of their belief

that the city had surrendered too much power. Some community affairs

officers were told they could not collect newspaper articles about

political gatherings in their precincts, said John F. Timoney, a

former first deputy commissioner who is now the chief of police in Miami.

 

The lawyers who brought the Handschu lawsuit say that such

concerns were exaggerated to make limits on police behavior seem

unreasonable. The city's concessions in the Handschu settlement, while

similar to those enacted during that era in other states and by the

federal government, surpassed the ordinary limits on police actions.

 

" It was to remedy what was a very egregious violation of people's

First Amendment rights to free speech and assemble, " said Jeremy

Travis, the deputy police commissioner for legal affairs from 1990 to

1994.

 

At both the local and federal level, many of these reforms

effectively discouraged many worthy investigations, Chief Timoney

said. " The police departments screw up and we go to extremes to fix

it, " Chief Timoney said. " In going to extremes, we leave ourselves

vulnerable. "

 

Mr. Travis, who was on the Handschu oversight panel, said that

intelligence officers understood they could collect information,

provided they had good reason.

 

" A number of courts decided there should be some mechanism set up

to make sure the police didn't overstep the boundary, " said Mr.

Travis, who is now the president of John Jay College of Criminal

Justice. " It was complicated finding that boundary. " The authority to

determine the boundary would be handed back to the Police Department

after the Sept. 11 attacks.

 

On Sept. 12, 2002, the deputy police commissioner for

intelligence, David Cohen, wrote in an affidavit that the police

should not be required to have a " specific indication " of a crime

before investigating. " In the case of terrorism, to wait for an

indication of crime before investigating is to wait far too long, " he

wrote.

 

Mr. Cohen also took strong exception to limits on police

surveillance of public events.

 

In granting the city's request, Charles S. Haight, a federal judge

in Manhattan, ruled that the dangers of terrorism were " perils

sufficient to outweigh any First Amendment cost. "

 

New guidelines say undercover agents may be used to investigate

" information indicating the possibility of unlawful activity " - but

also say that commanders should consider whether the tactics are

" warranted in light of the seriousness of the crime. "

 

Ms. Clancy said those guidelines offered no clear limits on

intrusiveness at political or social events. Could police officers

take part in pot-luck suppers of antiwar groups, buy drinks for

activists? Could they offer political opinions for broadcast or

publication while on duty but disguised as civilians?

 

Mr. Browne, the police spokesman, declined to answer those

questions. Nor would he say how often - if ever - covert surveillance

at public events has been approved by the deputy commissioner for

intelligence, as the new guidelines require.

 

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