SOYMB repeats here a damning indictment of the out of control Police of NYPD and the shocking treatment of protestors at the recent Occupy Wall Street protests, fowlloing hot on the heels of the British Police getting away with murder in the Courts of 'Justice'. This report is from the Guardian:
"The first systematic look at the New York police department's response to Occupy Wall Street protests paints a damning picture of an out-of-control and aggressive organization that routinely acted beyond its powers.
In a report that followed an eight-month study (pdf), researchers at the law schools of NYU and Fordham accuse the NYPD of deploying unnecessarily aggressive force, obstructing press freedoms and making arbitrary and baseless arrests.
The
study, published on Wednesday, found evidence that police made violent
late-night raids on peaceful encampments, obstructed independent legal
monitors and was opaque about its policies. The NYPD report is the
first of a series to look at how police authorities in five US cities,
including Oakland and Boston, have treated the Occupy movement since it
began in September 2011. The research concludes that there now is a
systematic effort by authorities to suppress protests, even when these
are lawful and pose no threat to the public. Sarah Knuckey, a
professor of law at NYU, said:
"All the case studies we collected show the police are violating basic rights consistently, and the level of impunity is shocking".
To be launched over the coming months, the reports are being done under the Protest and Assembly Rights Project, a national consortium of law school clinics addressing America's response to Occupy Wall Street.
The NYPD appears to be the worst offender, in large part because it has made little attempt – unlike Oakland, for example – to reassess its practices or open itself up to dialogue or review. The NYPD practices documented in the report include:
• Aggressive, unnecessary and excessive police force against peaceful protesters, bystanders, legal observers, and journalists. This included the use of batons, pepper spray, metal barricades, scooters, and horses.
• Obstruction of press freedoms and independent legal monitoring, including arrests of at least 10 journalists, and multiple cases of preventing journalists from reporting on protests or barring and evicting them from specific sites.
• Pervasive surveillance of peaceful political activity.
• Violent late-night raids on peaceful encampments.
• Unjustified closure of public spaces, dispersal of peaceful assemblies, and trapping of protesters.
• Arbitrary and selective rule enforcement and baseless arrests.
• Failures to ensure transparency about government policies.
• Failures to ensure accountability for those allegedly responsible for abuses.
The report argues that the lack of transparency and accountability is especially troubling because the public does not know whether police actions are guided by specific written policies, or whether they are random or ad hoc.
The NYPD turned down multiple requests to meet the researchers, who say they were keen include the police's point of view in the report. The other four police departments examined for the project all sent representatives to meet researchers. The NYPD did not provide a comment to the Guardian by the time of publication of this article.
In New York, researchers had to obtain documents by filing freedom of information requests with the NYPD, and Knuckey said some requests have still not been answered. The researchers also requested meetings with the mayor, Michael Bloomberg, the department of parks and recreation, the public advocate, and the district attorney's office, none of whom responded.
As a legal observer during the Occupy protests, Knuckey recalled being subjected to verbal abuse, arrested and witnessed fellow police officers covering for errant colleagues. "The message all of this sends out, especially to younger officers in the force, is one of impunity," she said."
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Clearly the State is more worried about mass dissent than it lets be known in the press and the conclusions being drawn by protesters regarding whereby the real power lies within capitalism is giving them the jitters. The so-called land of the free isn't, just like much of the west and indeed rest of the world. Freedom is a charade, the reality is you and I are merely slaves to the machinery of profit.
SussexSocialist
* And before the grammar police arrive, I know the literal translation of the Latin is 'who watches the watchmen', but the more common translation into modern parlance is as titled.
"All the case studies we collected show the police are violating basic rights consistently, and the level of impunity is shocking".
To be launched over the coming months, the reports are being done under the Protest and Assembly Rights Project, a national consortium of law school clinics addressing America's response to Occupy Wall Street.
The NYPD appears to be the worst offender, in large part because it has made little attempt – unlike Oakland, for example – to reassess its practices or open itself up to dialogue or review. The NYPD practices documented in the report include:
• Aggressive, unnecessary and excessive police force against peaceful protesters, bystanders, legal observers, and journalists. This included the use of batons, pepper spray, metal barricades, scooters, and horses.
• Obstruction of press freedoms and independent legal monitoring, including arrests of at least 10 journalists, and multiple cases of preventing journalists from reporting on protests or barring and evicting them from specific sites.
• Pervasive surveillance of peaceful political activity.
• Violent late-night raids on peaceful encampments.
• Unjustified closure of public spaces, dispersal of peaceful assemblies, and trapping of protesters.
• Arbitrary and selective rule enforcement and baseless arrests.
• Failures to ensure transparency about government policies.
• Failures to ensure accountability for those allegedly responsible for abuses.
The report argues that the lack of transparency and accountability is especially troubling because the public does not know whether police actions are guided by specific written policies, or whether they are random or ad hoc.
The NYPD turned down multiple requests to meet the researchers, who say they were keen include the police's point of view in the report. The other four police departments examined for the project all sent representatives to meet researchers. The NYPD did not provide a comment to the Guardian by the time of publication of this article.
In New York, researchers had to obtain documents by filing freedom of information requests with the NYPD, and Knuckey said some requests have still not been answered. The researchers also requested meetings with the mayor, Michael Bloomberg, the department of parks and recreation, the public advocate, and the district attorney's office, none of whom responded.
As a legal observer during the Occupy protests, Knuckey recalled being subjected to verbal abuse, arrested and witnessed fellow police officers covering for errant colleagues. "The message all of this sends out, especially to younger officers in the force, is one of impunity," she said."
-----------------------------------------------
Clearly the State is more worried about mass dissent than it lets be known in the press and the conclusions being drawn by protesters regarding whereby the real power lies within capitalism is giving them the jitters. The so-called land of the free isn't, just like much of the west and indeed rest of the world. Freedom is a charade, the reality is you and I are merely slaves to the machinery of profit.
SussexSocialist
* And before the grammar police arrive, I know the literal translation of the Latin is 'who watches the watchmen', but the more common translation into modern parlance is as titled.
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