Mike Bloomberg NYPD Handschu Agreement

Are NYPD Intelligence Division violating terms of the Handschu Agreement ?

On September 6, 2012, activists against the Fracking Pipeline that is proposed to run through the West Village organised a demonstration along the West Side Highway. At that protest, a white shirt police officer was caught video taping lawful political activities of the protesters. If the protesters were only engaged in lawful political activities on September 6, as it surely does appear, then does the monitoring of the protesters by the NYPD not violate the Handschu Agreement ?

The Handschu agreement is a court ruling from the case Handschu v. Special Services Division, 605 F.Supp. 1384, affirmed 787 F.2d 828, that brought about guidelines that regulate police behavior in New York City with regard to police monitoring of citizens' political activity (Wikipedia).

A large coalition of activist groups accused police of compiling information to punish and repress lawful dissent, according to Wikipedia.

For the last year, the NYPD and the Bloomberg administration have been monitoring the Occupy Wall Street movement since before activists began their occupation in Liberty Square. In 2011, NYPD used camcorders to videotape protesters during a march against the execution of Troy Davis. On one occasion, in 2012, Occupy activists caught the NYPD engaged in monitoring the lawful political activities by #OWS.

Because New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gives direct orders to NYPD, what kind of approval has he made about any illegal monitoring acts by the New York Police Department ? Does this video appear to show that NYPD Intelligence Division assault reporters, block news cameras, and attack the Freedom of the Press to benefit Mayor Bloomberg ?

Has the NYPD Intelligence Division Been Committing Felonies ?

The New York Police Department may be involved in some unlawful activities, reported Jason Leopold and Matthew Harwood on Truthout.

According to an e-mail that was leaked by Anonymous, a high-ranking FBI official repeated information on a what appears to be an official listserv :

I keep telling you, you and I are going to laugh and raise a beer one day, when everything Intel (NYPD's Intelligence Division) has been involved in during the last 10 years comes out - it always eventually comes out. They are going to make [former FBI Director J. Edgar] Hoover, COINTEL, Red Squads, etc look like rank amatures [sic] compared to some of the damn right felonious activity, and violations of US citizen's rights they have been engaged in.

This information was contained in an e-mail sent to Fred Burton, a former counterterrorism official at the State Department, who is now an intelligence officer at Stratfor.

Read more : Hacked Intel Email: NYPD Involved in ''Damn Right Felonious Activity''

Police Cell Phone Tracking

Police departments and law enforcement agencies are using cell phone location tracking to target large numbers of people, in a widespread and secret warrant-less invasion of privacy that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) describes as "widespread and often used without adequate regard for constitutional protections, judicial oversight, or accountability."

NYPD Infiltrated Liberal Groups

The Associated Press Reports That Documents Show That NYPD Infiltrated Liberal Groups

From The Associated Press (via CBS News, because The New York Times is boycotting this story, because it is a major embarrassment to New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn) :

NEW YORK — Undercover NYPD officers attended meetings of liberal political organizations and kept intelligence files on activists who planned protests around the country, according to interviews and documents that show how police have used counterterrorism tactics to monitor even lawful activities.

The infiltration echoes the tactics the NYPD used in the run-up to New York's 2004 Republican National Convention, when police monitored church groups, anti-war organizations and environmental advocates nationwide. That effort was revealed by The New York Times in 2007 and in an ongoing federal civil rights lawsuit over how the NYPD treated convention protesters. ...

As a result of this latest violation of the First Amendment Right to protest, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is encouraging activists to fight back : Don't Spy On Me! The NYCLU's Spy Files Campaign.

Everybody is encouraged to file a Freedom of Information Act request, to find out if the NYPD has been spying on YOU !

NYPD Spies On #OWS Protesters

Not only are NYPD now engaged in stop and frisk against Black and Hispanic men and monitoring Muslims and Muslim-Americans, but now they are spying on #OccupyWallStreet protesters.

From The New York Times :

Occupy Wall Street Protesters Complain of Police Surveillance

... Though Occupy Wall Street has largely faded from the headlines, organizers are planning springtime demonstrations in an effort to revitalize their movement. And they are troubled by what they consider continued monitoring by the police.

In 2003, citing the dangers of terrorism, a federal judge granted expanded surveillance powers to the New York police, who had previously faced restrictions in monitoring political groups. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and others have said the new latitude is essential to keeping the city safe.

But the Police Department’s surveillance efforts have recently gained attention and criticism with reports that officers compiled detailed data on Muslim communities. Now, some Occupy protesters worry that they are being subjected to similar scrutiny.

For the last few months, protest organizers say, police officers or detectives have been posted outside buildings where private meetings were taking place, have visited the homes of organizers and have questioned protesters arrested on minor charges. ...

Undercover officers are generally entitled to attend public political gatherings. Protesters said apparent efforts to keep tabs on them had included officers’ showing up at private meetings and what some described as attempts at intimidation. ...

No word from New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn about the ongoing domestic spying, racial profiling, religious profiling, and the monitoring of political activities by the NYPD.

Kelly Defends NYPD Spying

Following criticisms that the NYPD are violating the civil rights and civil liberties of Muslims and Muslim-Americans, NYPD Commish Ray Kelly defended the questionable secret practices of racial- and religious-profiling, as well as unwarranted domestic surveillance.

From The New York Daily News :

Kelly defends spying as essential safety strategy

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly gave an impassioned defense of the NYPD’s controversial Muslim surveillance program Saturday — declaring it essential for the city’s safety.

The tactics, which allegedly include spying on mosques, cafes and shops, have come under fire from Muslim and civil rights groups, but Kelly said the Police Department’s strategy has been “misrepresented.”

“For some, the very act of intelligence gathering seems illegitimate when applied to the crime of terrorism,” Kelly said in his most wide-ranging remarks to date on the hot-button topic.

Meanwhile, no response from New York City Council Speaker Quinn on the subject of NYPD domestic spying on minorities.

NYPD Spied On Muslim Students

Bloomberg defends NYPD Muslim spying at Yale

From The New York Daily News :

Mayor Bloomberg defended the NYPD’s spying on Muslim students at Yale on Tuesday — but only after taking an odd trip down memory lane.

The Associated Press reported Saturday in an ongoing series that an undercover detective went white-water rafting with the students upstate.

“The only white-water rafting I’ve done, I did with my daughter,” Bloomberg said. “I don’t think she had a lot of information that I was interested in.”

The NYPD spying drew harsh criticism from the university’s president, who called it “antithetical to the values of Yale ... and the United States.”

During the trip, the cops took the students’ names and noted how many times a day they prayed.

Agents also trawled Muslim student websites, the AP reported. The students had not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Bloomberg said the sites were available to everybody and “given that we’ve had a dozen people convicted ... including the Underwear Bomber ... of course we are going to look at anything that’s publicly available.”

Underwear-bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up a plane with nearly 300 people onboard on Christmas Day 2009, was sentenced to life in prison last week.

“This is a dangerous place,” Bloomberg said. “Make no mistake about it. ... The job of our law enforcement is to make sure that they prevent things.”

Bloomberg went on to say that the police department goes where there are allegations.

“That’s what you'd expect them to do. That's what you'd want them to do,” he said. “Remind yourself when you turn out the light tonight.”