Editorial: NYPD spying violated 4th Amendment

If you really want to know more about this fascist, un-Constitutional scandal perpetrated by Bloomberg's NYPD, read this debate between Paul J. Browne, New York City Police Department's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information, and Jethro Eisenstein, civil rights attorney and co-counsel on the Handschu case, which put limits on how police may carry out "political investigations."


NYPD spying violates Fourth Amendment

From the editors

Posted: 3/26/07

Prior to the 2004 Republican National Convention held at Madison Square Garden, a New York Police Department division dubbed the "RNC Intelligence Squad" traveled around America and to Europe and the Middle East to surveil activist groups interested in protesting or disrupting the event, The New York Times reported.


The NYPD sent representatives pretending to be sympathizers to 15 states and abroad to report directly to New York, which led to the arrest of more than 1,800 people before or during the four-day convention.


While the City of New York could take no shortcuts to ensure the safety of the convention's guests, what authority does a city police department have to oversee the investigation of groups outside its jurisdiction?


The New York Civil Liberties Union, which represents the arrested protesters, contends the NYPD overstepped its boundaries by targeting groups with no obvious plans to break the law.


According to court documents, the NYPD's wide-ranging list of suspects included the theater troupe Billionaires for Bush, which intentionally avoids confrontations that could lead to arrests, and Bands Against Bush, which organized speeches and concerts in five cities during the convention, The Times reported.


While the department's tactics were approved under the outdated Handscu Authority, which was created in 1980 in response to the NYPD's unreasonable surveillance of Vietnam protesters, at no time did the squad have to answer to federal authorities.


While the city cannot rely solely on the intelligence it receives from national agencies, probing groups internationally should require more than the approval of Handscu, which was intended solely to monitor the actions of the NYPD.


The NYPD should have deferred to federal authorities, which have the standing resources and expertise to handle such a task, instead of cutting the Fourth Amendment's corners in its own investigation.