NYPD reveal tactics to suppress dissent

In five internal reports made public on Mar. 16 as part of a lawsuit, New York City police commanders candidly discuss how they had successfully used "proactive arrests," covert surveillance and psychological tactics at political demonstrations in 2002, and recommend that those approaches be employed at future gatherings. Among the most effective strategies, one police captain wrote, was the seizure of demonstrators who were described as "obviously potential rioters." The reports also made clear what the police have yet to discuss publicly: that the department uses undercover officers to infiltrate political gatherings and monitor behavior. Indeed, one of the documents–a draft report from the department's Disorder Control Unit–proposed in blunt terms the resumption of a covert tactic that had been disavowed by the city and the federal government 30 years earlier. Under the heading of recommendations, the draft suggested, "Utilize undercover officers to distribute misinformation within the crowds." Capt. Timothy Hardiman wrote that "the use of undercovers from narcotics provided useful information." And on Inspector Michael E. Shortell's list of positive aspects of the strategy, he listed "the use of undercover personnel in the ranks of the protesters." In another report, a police inspector praised the "staging of massive amounts" of armored vehicles, prisoner wagons and jail buses in the view of the demonstrators, writing that the sight "would cause them to be alarmed." Parts of that document and others were made public, over the objections of the city, by a federal magistrate who said the excerpts went to the heart of a lawsuit brought by 16 people who were arrested at an animal rights demonstration during the World Economic Forum, which met in New York in 2002. Many of the issues in the animal rights case, which challenge broad police tactics and arrest strategies, resonate in well over a hundred other lawsuits brought against the city by demonstrators who were arrested at war protests, bicycle rallies and during the Republican National Convention. Daniel M. Perez, the lawyer representing the people arrested at the animal rights demonstration, argued that the police tactics "punish, control and curtail the lawful exercise of First Amendment activities." Perez said that the police documents–heavily edited at the request of the city– show a policy of preemptive arrests. "The message is, if you turn out, be prepared to be arrested, be prepared to be sent away for a long time," he said.