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 !
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.
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.
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.”
Live Mass Arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge #occupywallstreet - Streaming Video by We are Change
In a flashback to the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, >police rounded up and arrested over 700 activists on the Brooklyn Bridge during a political demonstration.
Police said that those activists, who impeded vehicular traffic on the bridge were were arrested. But The New York Times reported that "many protesters said they believed the police had tricked them, allowing them onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across, only to trap them in orange netting after hundreds had entered." Look at this independent video :
Some of the activists, who were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge, had their hands bound with plastic ties that the NYPD has used at other mass demonstration. Separately, the NYPD admitted that they police force had taken their own videos of the protesters, who had taken part in the demonstration, deliberately and intentionally tracking and monitoring the peaceful activists.
Attorney Wylie Stecklow, whose law firm represents many of the activists, who were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge, said that the pattern of the NYPD's behaviour toward the Occupy Wall Street protesters was reminiscent of the mass arrests that police made during the 2004 Republican National Convention.
Bloomberg Administration Refuses To Release All Third Term Campaign Finance Scandal E-Mails. #WikiLeaks #AnonOps #WhistleBlower
Flashback from NYPost : Posted: 3:40 AM, September 5, 2010 :
Political operative John Haggerty Jr. may stand accused of swiping $750,000 from Mayor Bloomberg, but that doesn't mean City Hall is ready to disclose any more details about him than it has to.
Responding to a Freedom of Information request filed by The Post seven months ago, the mayor's office last week provided just nine e-mail exchanges between Haggerty and mayoral aides in all of 2008 and 2009.
There were other e-mails that the mayor's refuses to release on the grounds of "personal privacy."
They're so private, in fact, officials won't even say how many e-mails are being withheld.
That's a stricter policy than was in force in 2007, when the mayor's former Albany lobbyist, Anthony (Skip) Piscitelli, was discovered to have violated ethics rules by contacting administration officials in 127 e-mails soon after he left while representing private clients.
Back then, the mayor's office declined to release 62 of the e-mails, claiming they weren't government-related. But at least they gave out the numbers.
The skimpy exchanges that were provided with Haggerty indicate he was close as could be to top mayoral aides.
Of course, that was before this year's stunning indictment, in which the Manhattan DA's Office charged Haggerty with stealing $750,000 in Bloomberg money that was meant for the Independence Party's Election Day poll-watching operations.
On April 15, 2008, when he still had an open door at City Hall, Haggerty fired off an e-mail to mayoral adviser Shea Fink, requesting three tickets for the pope's visit to New York.
"I wasn't asking you to do it (because you do so many things for me already xoxo), but if you are willing to help I really appreciate it," Haggerty wrote.
A couple of months later Haggerty asked for another favor -- five tickets to the "Made in NY" celebration at Gracie Mansion that featured several film and TV stars.
Haggerty maintains his innocence, claiming his deal with the mayor and the party allowed him to keep the $750,000 he's accused of stealing.
