Records: NYPD held GOP protesters longer (protesters at Republican Nat'l convention)

[Judi Lynn]

Feb. 8, 2007, 9:26AM
Records: NYPD held GOP protesters longer

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Hundreds of protesters arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention were held for up to six times longer than those arrested on charges unrelated to the convention, according to city documents made public Thursday.

More than 1,800 people were arrested at the four-day convention at Madison Square Garden, where President Bush accepted his party's nomination for a second term in office.
(snip)

A judge last month rejected the city's effort to keep secret most of the files and videotapes documenting the arrests, leading to their release.
(snip)

"During the convention, you got to a judge much faster if you were a bank robber than if you were charged with parading without a permit," he said.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4536782.html

[Greyskye]

1. What an ambiguous headline!

I know it's not yours, but sheesh!

[Ezlivin]

2. I thought they were holding protesters who were Republican longer than Democrats

"GOP Protesters" would be better as "Protesters of the GOP".

[Judi Lynn]

3. Thanks to you and Ezlivin. I added extra material in parentheses in the heading.

I agree, it's clumsy on the part of the headline writer. Very inadequate, actually misleading.

GOP people NEVER get hassled, and they've surely got it coming.

One great example:

September 07, 2004
Young Republicans
TalkLeft has brought to everyone's attention a video from New York ABC affiliate Channel 7 that shows a young Republican kicking a female protester inside Madison Square Garden.




At the time the Young Republican assaulted the protester she was being restrained by three Secret Service agents. The agents, in an attempt to keep her out of view of cameras — and her message away from convention viewers — were holding her down, pressing her against the ground.

As the protester lay there, held down by three law enforcement officers, this Young Republican assaulted her. He kicked her, literally, while she was down.

It should surprise no one that while the protester was arrested by the Secret Service — and most likely faces felony charges — the Young Republican who assaulted her in plain view of television cameras, convention delegates and law enforcement officials, has not been subject to any sanction whatsoever, legal or otherwise.
(snip/...)

http://www.warblogging.com/archives/000907.php

[w4rma]

4. That's why the headline was written that way. (nt)

[beltanefauve]

5. More:

URL: <http://www.nysun.com/article/47754>

(snip)
The police department had a codename for its plan to cope with the invasion of tens of thousands of protesters who were expected to take to the streets during the 2004 Republican National Convention: Operation Overlord II. The name is an apparent reference to the secret plan for the Allied invasion of Normandy, which was codenamed Overlord.

Reports of the planning and intelligence gathering leading up to D-Day are a part of military lore. But the preparations for Overlord II, which resulted in the contentious detention of protesters during the convention, are still unclear.

Over the city's objections, a fraction of the police documents from the months before the August convention are expected to be made public in the coming days, following a recent ruling that lifted a protective order over them. The New York Sun has obtained several of those documents.

One document suggests that the decision to arrest - instead of ticket - all persons whose protests were deemed illegal was made months prior to the convention itself.

The city currently faces lawsuits from hundreds of the 1,800 protesters who were picked up in mass arrests and detained for as long as three days at a West Side pier. The police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, has praised his officers for their handling of protesters at the convention.

The document, dated May 2004, is a report detailing the items discussed at an April 27, 2004, meeting of the NYPD Mass Arrest/Prisoner Processing Subcommittee.

"No summonses will be issued," one of the bullet points on the memo reads.
The no summons policy, which the police department acted on during the convention, has been criticized by civil rights attorneys.

"There is no question that the no summons policy was central in creating huge delays in the release of demonstrators," an attorney who is representing some of the arrested protesters, Christopher Dunn, said in a telephone interview.

[Zhade]

6. KandR

#4

[ThomCat]

7. And then there's the toxic exposure

"Records in the document cache also show that many officers, sergeants and lieutenants made toxic exposure complaints about the holding pen on a Hudson River pier where arrested protesters were processed. The officers' complaints included claims of exposure to asbestos, carbon monoxide, sludge, oil, fumes and toxic materials."

The rented a warehouse from a republican and used it as a holding center. People complained about skin rashes and fumes. I hope that finally causes an uproar. The city should be sued, and should loose big, for using a toxic site as a holding center for democrats. x(