Police Memos Say Arrest Tactics Calmed Protest
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/17/nyregion/17police.html

In five internal reports made public yesterday
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
on Fifth Avenue 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."

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."

Besides the draft report, the documents released
yesterday included four final reports written by
commanders to assess police performance during the
World Economic Forum, which met in New York from
Jan. 31 to Feb. 4, 2002.

Parts of that document and others were made public,
over the objections of the city, by a federal magistrate,
Gabriel W. Gorenstein, 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
economic forum. The police said they were blocking the
sidewalk and had refused to obey an order to disperse;
the demonstrators said no one told them to move.

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."
The Police Department and the city have said that
preserving public order is essential to protecting
the civil rights of demonstrators and bystanders.

The disorder control unit's commander, Thomas Graham,
is listed as the author of the report, but the
document is not signed and the word
"draft" is handwritten across the top.

"In addition to mainly peaceful protesters,
the W.E.F. attracted hard-core, violent elements
that were surveilled by the N.Y.P.D.," Mr.
Browne said, citing the incident at the Plaza.
"Yes, we used surveillance techniques to track
and hopefully disrupt violent elements. That's proactive."

About 30 people were arrested there, and virtually
all their cases are now sealed, indicating that the
charges were either dismissed by prosecutors or
dropped after six months without further incident.

Mr. Perez said the show of force sent a deliberate
warning to people expressing their opinions.
"The message is, if you turn out, be prepared
to be arrested, be prepared to be sent away for
a long time," he said. "It sounds like something
from a battle zone."

Demonstrators arrested during the economic forum
were held by the police for up to 40 hours without
seeing a judge — twice as long as people accused of murder,
rape and robbery arrested on those same days, Mr. Perez said.

The power of the police to secretly monitor political
gatherings was tightly controlled by a federal court
between 1985 and early 2003, the result of a lawsuit
by political activists from the 1960's who charged
that police undercover officers had disrupted their
ability to express their opinions. Many of the
restrictions from that case, known as Handschu,
were eased at the request of the city in 2003.

The proposal to use undercover officers to spread
misinformation — which the Police Department says
was not adopted — recalled the origins of the
Handschu lawsuit, which was based in part on the
actions of undercover agents and officers who
instigated trouble and spread lies among a group
of military veterans who opposed the Vietnam War.
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