Austin police infiltrated Occupy Austin

[jsr]

Source: Austin American-Statesman

Soon after Occupy Austin protesters began their months-long demonstration at City Hall last fall, Austin police officials assigned at least three undercover officers to infiltrate the group to gather intelligence on any plans that might break the law.

The officers camped with other participants in the movement, marched in rallies and attended strategy meetings with Occupy Austin members.

The officers also may have crossed a fine line in undercover police work: They helped plan and manufacture devices — often called "lock boxes" — that allowed Occupy members to tie themselves together during a protest in Houston, according to interviews and court records. The use of the devices, which makes it harder for police to break up human chains, resulted in Houston police filing felony charges against seven protestors who had attempted to block a port entrance in Houston on Dec. 12.

The revelations reveal behind-the-scenes details of the lengths the police department went to in its efforts to monitor and control the Occupy Austin movement, which maintained a presence at City Hall for nearly five months. According to court documents, police brass up to and including Chief Art Acevado approved the infiltration operation.



Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/local/austin-police-infiltrated-occupy-austin-2447850.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Ok now how surprised and shocked should I pretend to be?

[randome]

2. Not sure what the revelation is for you.

If a large group of people from outside my city took up long-term residence at city hall, I would want the police to have an idea of what was going on.

That is not the same as the accusations of a national crackdown on OWS.

It's the police doing their jobs. Sounds like they actually helped the protesters manufacture their lock boxes so they may have done them a favor. Now the charges can probably get tossed out.

[hobbit709]

5. Q: You know how to play Russian Roulette?

A: You have six people in a room telling anti-state jokes and you don't know who the informer is.

[reACTIONary]

11. A: First, Move to Russia

[hobbit709]

36. Was an old Soviet bloc joke about the secret police.

also applies here.

[tavalon]

10. You must be absolutely ecstatic that your country is continuing to listen in to

your cell phone calls and monitoring your email. But then, you aren't a terrorist, so why SHOULD you be bothered.

[randome]

15. Ecstatic? No. I don't want anyone listening in to my conversations.

And the vast majority of Occupiers are not terrorists. We both know that. Do you think police should NEVER conduct undercover operations?

Or do you mean they should only conduct undercover operations for organizations you disapprove of?

[tavalon]

38. I think their ability to do undercover operations should be severely curtailed

and only allowed after a non-interested third party or a group of judges has deemed it important and necessary. But then I also think regular cops shouldn't be able to mace or use other forms of crowd "control" unless, well, see above.

Cops have way too much power right now. Way too much. And the government has not rolled back any of that power as they should have. When cops look like shock troops, something has gone seriously awry.

[reACTIONary]

12. I agree. As long as the meetings were public...

... and they were just listening to head off illegal activities, they were just doing their jobs. I've been to occupy events in TX, and they were doing everything out in the open. If there were cops hanging around, they might have benefited from being there.

[marmar]

19. "and they were just listening to head off illegal activities"

Uh huh, and I've got this bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn to sell you for cheap.

[reACTIONary]

20. So, what were they listening for? Any evidence this was used...

...for any purpose other than maintaining a reasonable level of public safety? Was anyone disapeared? Did any reasonable, legal protest get shut down?

In my (limited) experience with Occupy in San Antonio the uniformed police were a constant presence. The protesters were assertive, but cooperative. The police were assertive, but permissive within the bounds of reasonable public order. Maybe the police had undercover informants among the protesters, maybe they didn't, but it didn't seem to make any difference. The protester's rights were respected and the protesters behaved in a civil and reasonable manner.

[tavalon]

9. You and I aren't

but the poster under you thinks it's fine and dandy. That shocks me. They violated so many amendments by doing that, it makes my head spin and I live in the era when it's okay, not just okay, but okayfine to listen in to my phone calls without a warrant.

[reACTIONary]

13. Listening in on your phone calls...

... is different from attending a public meeting where public activities are being planned. Maybe the cops did something wrong, but it isn't evident from the excerpt posted above.

[randome]

14. What amendments were violated?

Or did you mean laws? If so, what laws?

[cstanleytech]

21. I am going to asume they largely mean the

part where the article goes on to say

"The officers also may have crossed a fine line in undercover police work: They helped plan and manufacture devices — often called "lock boxes" — that allowed Occupy members to tie themselves together during a protest in Houston, according to interviews and court records. The use of the devices, which makes it harder for police to break up human chains, resulted in Houston police filing felony charges against seven protestors who had attempted to block a port entrance in Houston on Dec. 12."

Though I am not so sure how successful that will work out because wouldnt they have to prove that the officers enticed them to build the devices in the first place rather than just assisted them to build something they were already planning on and or were building already?

[randome]

23. I would think the opposite would be true.

Houston will need to prove the devices were NOT encouraged and/or built by undercover officers.

I think there would be enough doubt to throw the charges out. If the author of the article thinks there's room for doubt, why wouldn't a judge or a jury? Regardless, I'm not certain what felony charges are involved. Is it illegal to block the port? Illegal to manufacture lock boxes? Not sure.

[cstanleytech]

34. "I'm not certain what felony charges are involved."

"Garza's attorney, Greg Gladden, said the case against his client should be dismissed because Dowell and other undercover police played a central role in the charges filed against Garza. While 10 protesters who didn't use the lock boxes were charged with lower-level misdemeanors, Harris County prosecutors charge Garza and six others with a felonies, using an obscure statute that prohibits using a device that is manufactured or adapted for the purpose of participating in a crime. They face up to two years in jail."

[defacto7]

25. What do we call them now.... hmmmm

The STASI?

[awoke_in_2003]

17. No doubt...

Wow, you are now over 100k posts.

[greytdemocrat]

31. Nadin, come on...

A 12 year old could "infiltrate" these clowns.

In fact, they probably are all 12 year olds. Well, except the cops...

[jtuck004]

3. J. Edgar Hoover would be proud. And I suspect many see it as SO reasonable...

I mean, what could happen?

[Fumesucker]

7. See post #2 in this thread..

[Octafish]

27. What a coincidence.

That poster agrees with another poster who accused me of supporting anti-Semitism.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=830831

Amazing. Not really.

[randome]

33. Not quite.

My post relates to a poster who said he had unspecified 'problems' with you in the past. Not taking sides for either of you and I have no idea of your history with the other poster nor what you previously argued about.

It was an obvious -and sometimes entertaining- sub-thread on that thread.

[Octafish]

37. Got ya.

Ask your bud about his bibliography.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=311425&mesg_id=311546

[lib2DaBone]

4. A large number of "Protesters" at the RNC in Tampa were Police.....

Local radio station Host this morning in Tampa.... talking about how she went to downtown to see what was going on with the RNC Protestoers , and she saw 4 or 5 old friends from Tampa Police .....dressed as "Protesters".

[valerief]

8. All the world's a stage, it seems. nt

[HooptieWagon]

16. Which radio station? Any link?

[limpyhobbler]

6. Sounds like entrapment. This stuff was going on all across the country.

[marmar]

18. Ah, the spirit of Cointelpro lives......

And I can see it has a few enthusiastic DU boosters.

[fascisthunter]

29. they are fascist trolls

[Trillo]

22. "Political Surveillance." In a "police" state.

Note the similarity of two words:
police
political

There are lots of news stories about the generalized topic.

[randome]

24. Yeah, well, 'please' sounds similar, too.

'Homophones' -my new word of the day.

[Trillo]

32. We don't get many stories on DU of polite police,

though every once in awhile we get a hero archetype.

politic
police
polite

[obliviously]

26. Some where a basement cries-

Occupy me, and a bag of Cheetos cries eat me, answer that call so the adults can reelect our president.

[fascisthunter]

28. somewhere a loser authoritarian is shitting his diaper

"adults"-coockoo bird

[oldsarge54]

30. Meanwhile

City officials are making donations to the tea party. which group, in the long run, has done more damage? What is the cost so far for our lowered national credit rating?

[arely staircase]

35. the apd is a proud organization with a long history

of embarrasing themselves.