After much battling in the courts, 600 pages of NYPD "intelligence" documents targeting protestors at the 2004 Republican National Convention have been unsealed. They're quite laughable; until you start to realize that what they represent is the emergence of an American police state, like a fist coming toward your jaw in slow motion.

Congress should review the documents—the NYPD, emboldened by the Patriot Act, ignores rules prohibiting spying on activists passed down by the Church Committee of the 70s—and make this type of blatant assault on the First Amendment illegal. Again. Protestors are not terrorists. But I think the cops know that already. Read more about the attack on protest in Rosebud #76, #80, #81, in the March archive and #98 and #99, in May's.

IWitness Video is making the NYPD documents available online at http://iwitnessvideo.info/blog/17.html

Eileen Clancy of IWitness Video reports:

"The documents themselves indicate an extraordinary interest by the police in spying on quite ordinary First-Amendment style expression. The NYPD Intelligence Division monitored, among others, peace groups, filmmakers and family members of September 11th victims. Besides spying on individuals and groups, the intelligence cops seemed to have absorbed and collated some of the most macabre urban legends about demonstrators without a moment's hesitation."

Clancy goes on: "City lawyers argued that "The documents were not written for consumption by the general public," and "The documents contain information filtered and distilled for analysis by intelligence officers accustomed to reading intelligence information." Additionally, the news media would "fixate and sensationalize" on the intelligence documents.

"Now you can see for yourself. We have begun the process of posting all 600 pages of documents to the website. We will get them up just as soon as we can. We'll also be adding new indexing and searching capabilities to help you navigate through the documents.

"After a quick scan of the content of the files, many of which are stamped "N.Y.P.D. Secret," I have to admit that I see plenty of sensationalism on display. Like the "intelligence analyst" who concluded that "First-aid" advice posted on the Internet for people who were attacked by police meant "that participants of direct action protests may be willing to physically resist and confront disorder control personnel." [000102668]

"Perhaps we should all offer some help to NYPD by reviewing some of the groups listed in the N.Y.P.D. Secret files and explaining precisely what they do. Film festivals: [000102685] they show movies where people sit in the dark and stare quietly at screens. The Brooklyn Center for Anti-Violence Education: [000102706] dedicated for over 30 years to teaching anti-violence. The New York City AIDS Housing Network: [000102978] just like its name, it places people living with AIDS in decent housing.

"What kind of training are these "analysts" receiving when they go out to collect "intelligence" information about a "mass leafletting" campaign conducted by a peace group, United for Peace and Justice? Information which is then placed in a file marked "Limited dissemination to law enforcement personnel and designated local, state, federal and military officials with a need to know"? [000102809]

"It's sad, really, that the NYPD, for all its talk of "counter-terrorism initiatives" and "information-sharing", cannot seem to tell the difference between these folks voicing their opinion on the streets of the city and al Qaeda.

"Even if the muckety-mucks at the top would like to imagine the NYPD as a sort of hybrid CIA-FBI, someone needs to break it to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence David Cohen: your surveillance program is not "Top Secret," it's just "Cop Secret."

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