NY Times: Police Infiltrate Activist Groups

Remember the RNC? Remember how there were often suspicious agitators in our midst who the police totally ignored? The New York Times finally gives mainstream legitimacy to "conspiracy theories" about police surveillance: Police Infiltrate Dissident Groups Yes, we've known this all along, but it makes a difference when it's on page one of the Times.

The article discusses how the work of I-Witness video undeniably proves that the police not only infiltratd and monitored activist groups, but acted as agitators to instigate violence and to promote arrests at demos.

My favorite character in this tale is "the man with vivid blonde hair," as Jim Dwyer immortally describes him, a police spy who egged on protesters near Rosario Dawson to get more violent and who was almost arrested on E.23rd St., until he identified himself as "under."

You can kind of see him in the lower left panel of this NY Times graphic. Look how lame he is! Does he really think that's a "protester" outfit? What's with those sunglasses??? And people wonder how we could identify the police spies.

Anyhow, I think his image is even more clear in this archival footage:


















This blog does a very good analysis of Times coverage now vs. Times coverage during the RNC vs. Amy Goodman's coverage during the RNC, showing that (please feign shock here) the Times has a pattern of ignoring these issues (i.e., police misconduct, anything even touching on meaningful critiques of class, etc.).

After the jump, the response of my friend and uber-activist Jackie Vimo, who was a speaker at one of the RNC marches that the cops infiltrated and perverted.

I am particularly enraged at the coverage of the videos showing agitators at the Still We Rise March during the RNC. I was one of the speakers at this march (on behalf of another organization where I am the Chair of the Board, The Commission on the Public's Health System), and the organization where I worked at the time, The New York Immigration Coalition, was one of the sponsors. This stuff cuts really close to home for me.

Still We Rise was supposed to be the non-violent poor people's march (New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS, New Yorkers who are or have been homeless, immigrants, New Yorkers struggling with the welfare system and New Yorkers who have experience with the repressive drug laws and the criminal justice system.) Still We Rise was supposed to be the march for people who couldn't afford to get arrested because of their criminal records, immigration status, or poverty. An inordinate amount of work went into making sure that this march would be a safe place. It is not just unacceptable, it is simply immoral, to think that the police acted as agitators in this march. The march website is: Still We Rise

In another instance of police misconduct during the Critical Mass ride that kicked off the RNC, the Times article talks about a police surveillance video that includes extensive footage of a couple making out on the rooftop of their apartment. Why the hell are the police taping this? You can see the video at: video

I know that everyone is exhausted and burned out and desensitized to more news about the ever-increasing police state. I know I am. But it's only going to get worse if we stop paying attention.

--j.

Tags: RNC, New York Times, news and politics, New York, police surveillance, police state, , Jackie Vimo, , surveillance, , activists, , I-Witness Video