Why the NYPD's Abuses Matter to You and Us
| Sun Mar. 25, 2007 7:44 PM PDT
Most people who support the Bush administration's generous reinterpretation of the rights of government in the name of fighting terrorism (and many do) do so with the fundamental assumption that they would never be the ones whose civil liberties were yanked out from underneath them. After all, they're law-abiding citizens who couldn't possibly be mistaken for terrorist-sympathizers or enemies of the state. Well, the Times' article on the far-reaching surveillance conducted by the New York police in the lead-up to the 2004 Republican convention demonstrates how false that assumption is—even for upper-class white heterosexual Christian moderates.
Attend a meeting of a group opposing Bush or the death penalty or other government policies, or supporting the environment (or, or, or) and the government opens a file on you. Engage in email with these groups and your email will be read and stored. Simply walk down the wrong block in Manhattan during the Republican convention—whether or not you were there to protest, and whether or not your protest was held in violation of any rule or regulation, however minor—and you may have been jailed in the huge dragnet arrests that caused more than 1,800 people to be held for up to 2 days. Not only were many innocent of all charges, but virtually all were charged with violations that would not normally be cause for making a trip down to the station. Few detainees were charged within the legal time limit, and the NYPD failed to respond to the writs of habeas corpus filed on their behalf. Why? So they could get fingerprints of every person being held.
This is per the paper of record; it's no conspiracy theory, though many who have been giving their version of events for more than 2 years have been dismissed as paranoid.
Which brings me to my second point. Without the investigative journalism of a serious local paper, this story would never have come to light. In this era of media consolidation [PDF] and profits-first, it pays to remember that. All national news is local somewhere. Investigative journalism, which is time consuming and doesn't always strike pay dirt, may not make sense in terms of a simple equation of time in: money out, but knowing what your government is up to—well, that's priceless. And it could easily be your freedom that depends upon it someday, whoever you are.
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Comments
I wish I could genuinely express surprise over this horrific and obviously forseeable situation. But, I can't.
It's too bad we didn't actually try to export our democracy, say to a country that wanted it and would appreciate and nurture it.
That way, when/if we decide we want to live in a democracy again, we'd have a backup copy from which to restore it.
mis iam usually on the same page as you but you need to resaerch our form of government as it was intended by the founding fathers.we are not a democracy by desigh because the founding fathers knew they didnt want 51% controlling 49%.we are a representative republic hence senate and house of representatives.thats why we were set up with a measure of checks and balances which the lines have blurred beyond recognition.the amount of spying on protesters although outragous is just a drop in the bucket compared on what we dont know.think about the new national I.D. and the R.F.I.D. chips it will contain and there is so much more our govt. has sold the U.S.A. out for global ambissions.the american sheeple are going to wake up to late.life as we know it is over unless the people dont stand up for uhhhh.... lets say the constitution or maybe the bill of rights which has been disected by our current administration.FREEDOM IS NOT FREE but we are not going to be free by fighting in the middle eats or anywhere for that matter.the war is right here right now and the american sheeple must rise up and take notice because down the line when joe citizen is scratching his head wondering what happened with a chip in his head and govt. indoctrination of our children what i will say is told ya so.the libertarian movement is taking hold fast for good reason power to the people. government is best which governs less aaron russo "freedom to fascism" alex jones "terror storm" prisonplanet.com infowars.com check it out
