Did police go too far in undercover Occupy mission?

[cory777]

Source: KTRK

HOUSTON (KTRK) — When Occupy protesters chained themselves together with PVC pipes outside the Port of Houston in December, they might have expected to get arrested and perhaps even charged with misdemeanors for disturbing the peace, but they did not imagine getting felony charges.

That protest and those arrests led to an investigation involving Austin police officers who infiltrated the Occupy movement. They are accused of being part of the action that led to the charges.

The key question here: did Austin police officers go too far when they went undercover during the local protest?

Defense attorney Greg Gladden says they did, and the resulting charges are wrong.



Read more: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8795112

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Breaking Activist News - http://activistnews.org/

[Downwinder]

1. Entrapment. The officers should be facing charges.

[snappyturtle]

2. +1000! nt

[Major Nikon]

7. It's entrapment to the point of absolute stupidity

If the cops really did plant the idea and bought the materials, it's just amazing how a DA would think it's OK to pursue charges on this. It's somewhat embarrassing to say it about my state, but the whole concept of justice in Texas is so warped I just can't see things improving in my lifetime.

[AgainsttheCrown]

9. Austin is one of the safest cities in the country...

Yet APD polices several areas of the city as if they're war zones.

You are correct that it doesn't seem as if things will improve...that's why I'm planning my exit from this doomed state.

[Major Nikon]

16. I love Texas for reasons that have nothing to do with politics

So it's hard for me to leave it and I may never do so, but I have been entertaining the thought of retiring somewhere else.

[azurnoir]

3. Using agent provocateurs

has become de rigueur for law enforcement from the federal level down to city police departments and everything in between, sad but true

[elzenmahn]

14. This is nothing new, however...

...infiltrators and agent provocateurs have been used for decades - the 1960s are another example.

Remember when Frank Luntz stated how terrified he was of the Occupy movement? That should have been taken as a warning shot to the protesters - not to cease protesting, but to be at the ready for infiltrators. I would submit that Occupy did not realize just how much of a threat they were - but those that they were targeting sure did, and they reacted accordingly (and as expected).

[pauldp]

4. Of course they went too far

they were not just part of the action, they initiated it, purposefully to insure the felony arrests. I'll bet this is going on constantly with respect to Occupy.

[OnyxCollie]

5. Did they come up with this on their own,

or was this suggested by DHS?

[Electric Monk]

6. So the undercover cops bought the pipes and manufactured the "lockboxes" then the cops broke the law

Seems pretty simple to me.

[donheld]

8. Over and over and over again.

[Why Syzygy]

10. Absolutely!

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/austin-police-infiltrated-occupy-austin-2447850.html

The infiltration operation has prompted a high-level review in the Austin Police Department. Assistant Police Chief Sean Mannix said that "we are absolutely looking into all aspects of what their undercover work was." Mannix would not discuss the specific actions of officers but said he doesn't think any laws or departmental policies were violated.

It also was the topic of a hearing in a Harris County district court case earlier this week, in which protester Ronnie Garza is seeking to have the charges against him dropped.

[obxhead]

11. Occupy!

Occupy!

Peaceful and unarmed protest of the PD that made the arrests!

[blkmusclmachine]

12. 5 years tops and Blackwater/"Xe" will be policing the streets

like a war zone. You know it's coming. They've been planning this since before 9/11.


Operation Northwoods

[lib2DaBone]

13. Look back to the RNC in St. Paul....

Large numbers of the "protesters" were police. (They forgot to take off their police issue boots when changing costumes)

They were seen breaking store windows in St. Paul and leading the "Anarcism"

Half the protesters in Tampa were POLICE... dressed as "Hippies".

I think the Hippies meed to change their image to fool police... maybe shave their heads and wear Tap Out T-shirts.. go buy some police issue work boots.

[Georgia Peach]

15. We've Been Here Before

While the reports of infiltrators and agent provocateurs in Occupy is troubling, it's nothing new. Considering what was done with activists in the black community back in the 50's, 60's and 70's, particularly the Black Panthers, they've had plenty of time to practice and perfect their 'craft.'

COINTELPRO...

[Luminous Animal]

17. Felonies for peaceful protest. The cops new that pvc pipes are classified as criminal instruments...

The protesters did not.

And why the hell are pvc pipes and lock boxes classified as criminal instruments?

Another article here:

http://privacysos.org/node/802

On December 12th, seven activists locked themselves together at the main entrance to the port of Houston, in solidarity with the port shutdown action in Oakland and in coordination with activists in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio. The seven were arrested and charged with felonies under state law: Unlawful use of a criminal instrument.

The judge who first heard their charges threw them out of court in December 2011 citing lack of probable cause. In other words, she didn’t think that the lock boxes were criminal instruments.

Prosecutors didn’t give up so easily, however, and convened a grand jury. The Houston seven were indicted once again. One of the indicted 7, Austin based activist Ronnie Garza, writes:

Months later, we received a tipoff about a person we knew at protests as "Butch"... eventually we found that Butch was actually an APD [Austin Police Department] Narcotics Detective named Shannon G. Dowell. It turns out that Dowell got the materials for, assembled and dropped off the lock boxes with protesters to use in Houston.

From the Austin Chronicle:

According to an affidavit by David Cortez, head of Occupy Austin's bank actions committee, it was Dowell who encouraged the activists to don the lockboxes. "He was a fairly quiet individual who never contributed much to our meetings," Cortez recalled of Dowell, "but consistently pulled myself and others aside individually in order to express his frustration with debate and eagerness for more aggressive and provocative actions than our standard peaceful & nonviolent ones," reads the affidavit. According to the affidavit of fellow OA member Yatzel Sabat, possible acts of civil disobedience, "including trespassing, sit-ins or obstruction of passage ways" had been discussed at meetings but it was Butch (Dowell) who was involved in the initial discussion of using lockboxes, and it was he who "acted more excited about the idea," reads the affidavit. "He volunteered to gather the piping and other materials by purchasing it at Lowe's and delivering it back to the members of the group that were planning to go to Houston for the demonstration," she continued. "Butch persuaded us to use these arm tubes."

[Canuckistanian]

18. Oh, fucking right it was entrapment

Gladden says one of those officers -- Detective Shannon Dowell -- came up with the idea to have protestors chain themselves together using lockboxes.

"The police officers went and bought the material, manufactured what they're calling "sleeping dragons," also known as lockboxes."

And THEN they pull out the bullshit charge of "unlawful use of a criminal instrument", which is an obscure law to put it mildly.

This is SUCH a travesty of justice

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

19. Don't the police always go too far in these types of situations?

Just sayin'........