 |
|
Privacy advocates fight for ground lost after 9/11
Five years after surrendering privacy for security, many challenge the scope of US government domestic surveillance.
from the April 3, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
3) Surveillance of political activists
What's happened: Some 1,800 protesters were arrested in New York during the 2004 Republican National Convention (RNC). Some have filed a suit against the city and the New York Police Department (NYPD), claiming wrongful arrest and violation of their First Amendment free-speech rights.
Two weeks ago, a federal judge said their case is "of great public significance" because it concerns "the proper relationship" between protesters' rights and police efforts to maintain public order.
As a result of the suit, it became public this month that in the year before the convention, the NYPD sent undercover officers around the US, Canada, and Europe to learn how many protesters were coming and whether any planned violent acts. The officers went to political meetings, befriended activists, and scoured the Web for information about protesters' plans.
At the same time, the FBI also worked with local and state Joint Terrorism Task Forces to investigate protesters to learn if any planned violent acts at either political convention.
Who's affected: The NYPD collected hundreds of files on potential protesters.
The FBI identified 74 individuals, contacting 60 for interviews. The ACLU is seeking more information about FBI activity, on behalf of 150 groups who think they've been spied on.
For it: Police and the FBI say surveillance is crucial to investigating threats and potential criminal behavior. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly defended the NYPD's actions. The commissioner noted that the officers' work helped prevent disruptive violent protests like those at World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle, Genoa, and Montreal. "Eight hundred thousand people here protested ... peacefully," the commissioner said last week.
Against it: Civil libertarians say some NYPD actions are blatant violations of a local 1971 accord that restricts police surveillance of political groups. "People will be less likely to exercise their protected right to lawful protest if they have to worry about 'big brother' spying on them," says Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU).
Where it stands: The wrongful arrest suit brought by the NYCLU is being litigated. The court is weighing whether to force the NYPD to release its RNC files.
At the US Justice Department, an internal investigation of the FBI's preconvention surveillance found, in April 2006, that the probe "did not substantiate the allegations that the FBI improperly targeted protesters ... in an effort to chill the exercise of their First Amendment rights...."
RSS feed
