NYPD held GOP Protesters 6 Hours Longer

[cynatnite]

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.

The legitimacy of the arrests was challenged on civil rights grounds in lawsuits brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of some of those detained.

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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070208/ap_on_re_us/convention_arrests

[Zodiak]

1. There was a guy on the Smirking Chimp

who was arrested and taken to that pier during the Convention. He took pictures and posted them.

The Pier was a third-world holding cell that used to be a garage...hence it had all sorts of automotive sludge and whatnot on the floor. Protestors were held in cages without the ability to sleep, go the the bathroom, etc.

And here is the real kicker.....the Pier was rented by the RNC!!! NOT the police!!!!

At least that is the story from this person who was there. IT absolutely floored him that he was held in an RNC-sponsored holding cell (he got that info from the judge or from a letter sent to him regarding the arrest).

Regardless, the NYC government and the Republicans colluded to violate these peoples' rights to control the message. This was years ago, and went rather unnoticed by the corporate news (otehr than to report that unruly protestors were heroically put down by our brave police). The reality is that these people were swept up with big orange nets without regard to individual behavior....just mass arrests.

The more arrests, the more "unruly" the corporate news could paint the protestors. Cute huh? And it worked because Americans, predictably, went to sleep.

[Robbien]

3. I heard about those holding cells. They were paid for by GOPers?

Someone should sue the RNC for the environmental hazard they forced the protesters to endure.

[Zodiak]

6. I do not know for a fact

that they were, but the person who was in the middle of it at the time (can't remember the screen-name, "dag" or "daq", I believe) got a letter stating the charges against him. Either through investigating that letter or through a bill he received, he found out that the entity in control of that Pier (Pier 53?...can;t rmember that, either) was the RNC and NOT the city police.

Wait....perhaps it was lodging a complaint with the judge and the judge said to complain with the RNC because they were running the pier.

Something like that....it was all one person's story unfolding just after the convention (anecdotal, but I believed it...especially with the photos). The details sickened me, though.....learning how closely these Republican scum work with police to quell protests (in true fascist fashion).

If you want to learn more, ask a Smirking Chimpster who has been there for the last year and a half or search the site (smirkingchimp.com) for yourself. It shouldn't be too hard to find because the board is so horribly micromanaged there that there are simply not many threads to search through.

[Robbien]

2. These type of articles are written so poorly

I believe it is on purpose.

It is hard to get the meaning of the story on a first read through.

[gratuitous]

4. And nobody will be held responsible

Who ordered the protestors held so long? And once the convention was over, the opportunity for meaningful protest had passed. There's no way to make restitution to the people for what they lost.

Will a member of New York's Finest be forced to resign? Is there any kind of paper trail from the Republican National Committee that shows the cops were acting on orders from political heavy hitters? Or will the fiction be sold that it was just come rogue cops trying to curry favor with higher-ups by cracking down on those damn, dirty hippies?

I'd like to see a thorough investigation and some significant jail time (five years seems about right) handed out for these violations of the people's constitutional rights. Send the message that these matters are serious and treated seriously by our courts.

[Mandate My Ass]

5. I love the misleading headline

It sounds like GOP is the victim. I'm sure YahooNews is unaware of that though. :eyes:

[cybildisobedience]

7. this is why you should never vote for a repuke

I remember how many people thought Bloomberg was so moderate, so acceptable, that they voted him in and rejected the Democratic candidate.
Then he gets in, obviously colludes with the Bush/RNC cabal to round up as many protesters as they could, and hold them long enough to prevent them from protesting at a time when so much media attention was focused on the hate-fest they called a GOP convention.
Circumstances like this present reason enough to never vote for a Repuke - no matter how moderate they appear.
When push comes to shove, they'll resort to this kind of tactic in a heartbeat.

[political253]

8. This doesn't surprise me...

my personal experience has found that most cops, jailers and life long prosecutors lean conservative. On a personal level in 1987 I was protesting nuclear weapons at the Trident Base in Bangor, WA. It was a hot August day and we were zip tied and placed on a hot bus with the windows rolled up and no water or restroom facilities for over four hours. Some of the protesters got sick. When they don't agree with your opinions, they treat you as bad as they think they can get away with!