LITTLE GUANTÁNAMO (NYC so-called Cops)

[donsu]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=127&e=1&u=/ucru/20040916/cm_ucru/littleguantaacutenamo

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In a classic step in the devolution from democracy to police state, we've run out of foreigners to bomb and imprison. Our rulers have been forced to look inward, among the previously protected class of United States passport holders, for new scapegoats. Like their brethren at the naval base in Cuba, these Americans are being deprived of their most basic human rights. They are people who dare to pick up a sign and march against such Bush Administration policies as the war against Iraq (news - web sites).

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City officials converted a disused bus depot on the Hudson River's Pier 57 into what detainees nicknamed "Little Guantánamo" for its outdoor setting and maze of pens divided by chain-link fencing. Numerous arrest victims reported being denied food and water or access to an attorney or a phone. ("Sorry, I can't do that," police said.) Children, some who happened to be walking down the street when the cops arrested everyone present, were locked up for several days. Police refused to tell their frantic parents where they were. Adding to the misery was a resinous layer of gasoline and toxic cleansers coating the floor. "Everybody was laying in filth," said Cincotta. "Nobody was sleeping. A lot of people were screaming in agony." The Times reports that "scores" of RNC detainees contracted mysterious rashes and lesions.

Prisoners were shuttled between Pier 57 and the city's central holding jail in similarly dismal conditions. Wendy Stefanelli, a 35-year-old TV hair stylist, spent several hours locked in a hot bus--the weather was humid with temperature in the high 80s--with a man whose colostomy bag had burst. "He was throwing up all over the back of the bus," she said. "The entire bus begged the officers present to please get medical attention to this man. They completely ignored us."

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Some police confirmed an illegal policy of intentionally delaying the release of demonstrators until the end of the RNC. "For disorderly conduct, they don't usually hold people," said Goldberg. "There was a deliberate attempt to get people off the street." Cincotta, the teacher, was ultimately released more than 48 hours after her arrest. I asked her what charge she faced. "I don't know," she said. "I never got to see a lawyer."

Few of these Americans broke any law. Many were hapless pedestrians, not even part of a political demonstration. Go ahead, call them whiners or hippies or commies or whatever retro-Nixon-era moniker you prefer. Turn the page or click the next URL. That's what your government wants you to do, because they're fresh out of Muslims to throw into prison. Someday they'll be fresh out of liberal demonstrators too.
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so, why has the NYC police department gone over to the darkside? have they been BBBT&Med? Bullied, Bribed, Blackmailed, Threatened, Murdered

are New York cops cowards?

[Goldmund]

1. It hasn't "gone over to the darkside"

That's where it was conceived. They're a fascist, corrupt organization.

On the other hand, there are loads of decent NYPD cops.