NYPD Forced To Reveal Documents On GOP Convention Protesters

A Federal judge issued an order for the NYPD to release all their information pertaining to the GOP Convention protests today. The city fought to keep them remained sealed and what was released showed that the NYPD did not want to be embarrassed by their activities. Nearly a third of 36,500 of the city's finest worked during the convention and some of them went way beyond...and below the call of duty.

From the AP:

City lawyers had argued that the arrests, mainly for disorderly conduct, were justified in part because of intelligence showing certain protesters were threats to the public. But civil rights activists argue the internal documents, many marked "secret," show the nation's largest police department spent tremendous time and resources to conduct surveillance on people who were merely practicing free speech and displaying no sign of criminal intent.

The papers "vindicate the sanity of those people who thought they were being followed," Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said Wednesday at a news conference.

One dispatch detailed plans by the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network to hold a rally featuring Sean "Diddy" Combs, Jay-Z and other rap stars. It concluded that their presence "will likely inflate the total number of participants."

The documents show that the NYPD sought to monitor activists as far away as California and Europe, Lieberman said. They also suggest the department infiltrated protest groups by having undercover officers enter their Internet chat rooms and attend organizing meetings, she added.

This type of information that was documented is incredibly invasive and a warning sign of the police state that the current government seems to endorse. The judge's decision was a good one in that it exposes what our government is sinking to. Free speech does not need to be monitored in this way. Those protesters were peaceful and only meant to express their constitutional right to show their disdain for President Bush and the rest of the Republican party.

Darth Nader

Here we go again, the man that (helped) caused Al Gore to not become President in 2000 might be back for another embarrassing run next year. The man has a thick ego to challenge the most stubborn of men. He was once on the good side, fighting corporate crime and having his 'Nader Raiders' fighting alongside with him way back when. Now he has become the ultimate spoilsport in American politics.

From the SF Gate:

Asked specifically if he would run in 2008, Nader said it is "too early to say. ... (I'm) considering it. We're going to see what the Democrats come up with.''

Nader made the statements in San Francisco while on a book tour to push his new memoir, "The Seventeen Traditions.'' Nader also spoke at the Commonwealth Club in California.

Nader gained more than 2.7 percent of the national popular vote as the Green Party candidate for president in 2000, which some analysts said came primarily at the expense of Democrat Al Gore and helped Republican George W. Bush win the White House. In a second run four years later, Nader gained less than one-half of 1 percent.

Phil Trounstine, who worked as communications director for former Democratic California Gov. Gray Davis, said Nader's hint that he might run for president again may tarnish his reputation as a longtime progressive and consumer advocate.

"To an awful lot of people, Ralph Nader appears to be threatening, once again, to play the role of a spoiled brat whose purpose in life appears to be ... electing Republicans by draining off votes from Democrats,'' said Trounstine, who heads the San Jose State Center for Policy and Research.

Personally I don't think of him as much a threat than a media spectacle. In 2000 2.7 percent of the vote made a difference. Half of a percent in 2004 showed he is on his way to becoming a statistical blip. Nevertheless, Democrats will continue to beat him over the head for 'stealing' 2000 for Bush and he will not be forgiven soon, especially as he continues to run with whatever party accepts him. Of course that's a tough one, even the Greens abandoned him last time.