The Criminalization of Protest

[Are_grits_groceries]

Police and politicians ignore the First Amendment when we need it the most.

I’ve lived in the Washington, D.C., area for the better part of the last 10 years. So I’ve seen my share of demonstrations, although more often than not I just try to avoid the traffic nightmares they cause. Among the various classes of protests—pro-life, anti-war, environmental, and now tea parties—the most destructive are the anti-globalization marches. So when cops clashed with anti-globalization demonstrators at the Pittsburgh G-20 summit in September, it was easy to assume that most of the altercations represented justified police responses to overzealous protesters.

But a number of disturbing photographs, videos, and witness accounts told a different story. Along with similar evidence from other recent high-stakes political events, they reveal an increasing, disquieting willingness to smother even peaceful dissent.

On the Friday afternoon before the G-20 meeting kicked into high gear, a student at the University of Pittsburgh snapped a photo showing a University of Pittsburgh police officer directing traffic at a roadblock. What’s troubling is what he’s wearing: camouflage military fatigues. It’s difficult to discern a practical reason why a man working for an urban police department would need to wear camouflage, especially while patrolling an economic summit. He’s a civilian dressed like a soldier. The symbolism is clear, and it affects the attitudes of both the cops wearing the clothes and the people they’re policing.
<snip>
The most egregious actions took place on September 25, when police began ordering students who were in public spaces to disperse despite the fact that they had broken no laws. Those who moved too slowly, even from public spaces on their own campus or in front of their dorms, were arrested. A university spokesman said the aim was to break up crowds that “had the potential of disrupting normal activities.” Apparently a group of people needn’t actually break any laws to be put in jail. They must only possess the “potential” to do so, at which point not moving quickly enough for the cops’ liking could result in an arrest. That standard is a license for the police to arrest anyone anywhere in the city at any time, regardless of whether they’ve done anything wrong. In all, 190 people were arrested during the summit, including at least two journalists.
<snip>
These are precisely the kinds of events where free speech and the freedom to protest need protection the most: when influential figures make high-level decisions with far-reaching consequences. Instead, we see the opposite. The higher the event’s profile, the more powerful the players involved, and the more important the decisions being made, the more determined police and politicians are to make sure dissent is kept as far away from the VIPs as possible. Or silenced entirely.

More here: http://reason.com/archives/2009/12/30/the-criminalization-of-protest

The other troubling aspect of the arrests that are made are those that are charged with terrorist activities. This ups the ante considerably because conviction carries significant jail time.

[annabanana]

1. A clear "we can do whtever we want" attitude has

been growing for quite awhile in Police departments. The paper they require to justify it was given to them post 9-11 in the Patriot Act.

[malaise]

2. On the one hand they're criminalizing protests in the US

and Britain (remember the death of the man by police) while financing protests in Iran and other places.
Apparently they don't see the contradictions.

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. I think that DHS

and other groups had 'contradiction' removed from dictionaries.

[G_j]

4. "Hope and history are on the side of those who peacefully seek their universal rights

Regarding repression of protests in Iran.

Western countries were quick to criticize the reports of the Sunday protests, with the White House strongly condemning the "violent and unjust suppression" of civilians and pronouncing its support for the riots.

"Hope and history are on the side of those who peacefully seek their universal rights, and so is the United States."


hypocrisy

[murdoch]

5. My story

In early 2002, I don't think I had ever been at a protest or political march, ever. However, when the World Economic Forum came around in early 2002 in New York, I was interested in opposition to the WEF. I talked with a friend, and we went to a talk by some economists and professors who were against the WEF on a Friday night. Then we took a taxi and went to a restaurant to eat. While we ate, the idea came to him that we were near an anti-WEF organizing center, ABC No Rio. He had not been there in over a year. We decided to go there. We walked in and it was very crowded. He walked upstairs to look for his friend, I stayed downstairs and watched an anti-WEF video. He came back down and said he could not find his friend and we left.

We took a taxi to a location two miles away. We were looking for a bar he had been to once and while walking he said we were going in the wrong direction. We both quickly did a 180 degree turn and walked in the exact opposite direction we were walking in.

About twenty feet in front of us (what had been behind us) was a middle-aged man, who was out of place in the area due to his age, and due to his dress - a middle-aged man walking alone in Greenwich Village on a Friday night although somewhat rare is usually dressed up a little bit. The man had a look of surprise when we turned around. He suddenly slowed down and stopped walking and was staring at us. Me and my friend passed him, and when we were out of his earshot, I whispered "Did you see that?" My friend said, "Yep!"

Months later, the ACLU, NLG etc. revealed how widespread police monitoring of the protests against the WEF were. It was really spooky, it felt a lot like those memoirs of people who were "behind the Iron Curtain" and were against their governments, and had to deal with these spooks following them and tracking them wherever they went. As we had the most peripheral of contacts with these protests, and managed to pick up at least one (probably more) agents on foot, I can only imagine the extent of the surveillance of people opposed to the policies of the World Economic Forum.

For the first time in my life, before I even went on a protest against the World Economic Forum, I already had spooks from the government following me. I went to the protest anyhow, it did not frighten me off but made me even more determined.

[Captain Hilts]

6. Reagan prohibited protests in Lafayette Park. nt