December 23, 2005
Editorial
Surveillance, New York Style

It's a sad day when a police force generally known for its professionalism is
caught using underhanded tactics to spy on and even distort political protests
and mass rallies. Yet that is precisely what an archive of videotapes shows New
York City police officers or people working with them doing at seven public
gatherings since August 2004. The sorry tale was laid out by Jim Dwyer in
yesterday's Times in an article based on civilian and police videotapes gathered
by a forensic analyst critical of the tactics.

The most disturbing instance of improper behavior occurred last year during the
Republican National Convention when a sham arrest of a man secretly working with
the police set off a bruising confrontation with demonstrators.

The man, who had vivid blond hair, was holding a sign at a march of poor people
when the police suddenly moved to arrest him. Onlookers shouted at the police to
let him go, and officers in riot gear responded by pushing against the
crowd. Protesters were put on the ground, and at least two were
arrested. Meanwhile, the blond-haired man spoke quietly with the police and was
quickly led away. The same man was videotaped at an arrest scene a day earlier
calling out words that seemed intended to rile the bystanders.

This was a deliberate effort to incite violence that would in turn justify a
tough police response.

Another disturbing incident occurred last year when a police helicopter,
attempting to track bicycle riders at night through the Lower East Side,
recorded nearly four minutes of a couple's intimate moments on the secluded
terrace of a Second Avenue penthouse. The night-vision camera did not catch the
couple's most personal moments, but the invasion of privacy proved deeply
upsetting and brought a formal complaint from one of the victims. It was a
sobering reminder for those who generally favor surveillance, as the penthouse
owner does, that covert spying often sweeps up innocent victims.

The questionable police tactics may have been fostered by a national mood that
favored tough antiterrorism measures after Sept. 11, 2001, even if that meant an
erosion of civil liberties. The same impulse to overreach that led the Bush
administration to intercept Americans' international communications without
warrants, and that emboldened the F.B.I. to spy on groups like Greenpeace and
Catholic Worker members, was surely at work in New York when the police spied on
people protesting the Iraq war, bicyclists riding in a mass rally and even
mourners at a street vigil.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's record on free speech is already pretty poor. Unless
he wants to make a disregard for New Yorkers' rights part of his legacy, he
should make sure that the police understand what civil liberties mean in a
democracy.

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NYC police fault report on surveillance
Deny infiltrating activist groups
By Associated Press  |  December 23, 2005

NEW YORK -- Police officials yesterday disputed a newspaper report accusing them
of using undercover officers to infiltrate and monitor antiwar groups and other
activist organizations.

The report in yesterday's New York Times said videotapes obtained by the
newspaper showed police conducting surveillance on people attending an Iraq war
protest, a monthly bicycle ride staged by cycling activists, and a vigil for a
cyclist who had died in an accident.

The Police Department's top spokesman, Paul Browne, criticized the report as
misleading. He said plainclothes police -- not undercover officers -- regularly
attend protests to maintain order and stop crimes in progress, not to spy.

The story ''confused plainclothes officers used to prevent and respond to acts
of violence and other unlawful activity with undercover officers who conduct
intelligence investigations under court-approved guidelines," Browne said in a
statement.

Eileen Clancy, a forensic video analyst who opposes the secret operations, gave
the tapes to the Times, the newspaper said. She said there was clear evidence of
officers actively participating in rallies and dressing to blend in with the
crowd.

In the tapes, some officers can be seen holding protest signs and flowers. At
the vigil for the dead cyclist, one officer dressed up in biking gear, sported a
button that read ''I am a shameless agitator," and videotaped mourners.

The protest groups said the officers' presence warps their message and provokes
trouble.

''It made you feel like a criminal," said Ryan Kuonen, one of the mourners at
the vigil. ''It was grotesque."

In 2003, a federal judge broadened the department's authority to investigate
political, social, and religious groups. Browne insisted police had not abused
the new guidelines.