"Why is OWS Blanketed with NYPD Cameras?"
 

Why Is OWS Blanketed With NYPD Cameras -- And Are Police Breaking the Law?
By Tana Ganeva, AlterNet
Posted on November 2, 2011, Printed on November 3, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152896...eaking_the_law

On October 15, the day OWS solidarity protests broke out as far away as Australia and Japan, and thousands of people poured into Times Square, a line of NYPD TARU (Technical Assistance Response Unit) officers stood on the street, pointing handheld digital cameras at the protestors jammed behind metal barricades. The SkyWatch tactical platform unit -- a "watchtower" with tinted windows like the one that's loomed over Zuccotti Park for most of the occupation -- stood at one corner, its four cameras roving across the crowd. The whole scene unfolded under the NYPD security cameras stationed all over Times Square and in most parts of the city.

Like the massive crowd control arsenal unleashed on OWS -- riot gear, smoke bombs, rubber bullets, pepper spray, horses, metal blockades, helicopters, plastic cuffs, and the police motorcycles, cars and vans that clog the streets -- the three-tiered surveillance seemed like overkill for an overwhelmingly peaceful movement, where the occasional slur thrown at police is usually shouted down with reminders not to goad cops because they're part of the 99 percent.

It's unclear what the NYPD plans to do with footage obtained by TARU. But recording legal protest activity violates the Handschu decree, a set of legal guidelines designed to check the NYPD's historic tendency to steamroll First Amendment rights. The order emerged from a class-action lawsuit prompted by revelations that the NYPD had spent much of the 20th century and millions of dollars monitoring legal protest activity, an endeavor that generated up to a million files on such dangerous radicals as education reform groups and housing advocates. The Handschu decree prohibits investigations of legal political activity and the collection of data, including images and video of protests, unless a crime has been committed.

The ruling has had a complicated life post-9/11, mutating in response to terrorism fears and authorities' willingness to exploit them. A judge relaxed the order in 2003 after the NYPD argued it needed more flexibility to deal with terror threats. The department promptly proved its trustworthiness by secretively shooting hundreds of hours of footage of protestors at the Republican National Convention. In 2007 the court ruled that the NYPD had repeatedly violated Handschu and tightened the guidelines, limiting videotaping to cases where there's specific evidence that a crime has taken place.

An internal department memo sent out in 2007 instructs police to comply with the new order by only rolling the tape when "it reasonably appears that unlawful conduct is about to occur, is occurring, or has occurred during the demonstration." But Franklin Siegal, a lawyer who has spent years fighting for Handschu in court, tells AlterNet he's received multiple complaints about police videotaping OWS protesters for no good reason.

"Your photo shouldn't be taken and made into a record if you're not engaged in anything illegal. At demonstrations with no illegal activity taking place, cameras shouldn't be on," says Siegal.

The NYCLU has called on police commissioner Raymond Kelly to stop surveillance of the protests, citing the cameras pointed at Zuccotti Park and an incident where NYCLU representatives observed TARU members filming a peaceful march.

"This type of surveillance substantially chills protest activity and is unlawful. In light of the mayor's recognition of the peaceful nature of these protests, we call on you to stop the videotaping of lawful protest," read the letter.

Another camera has more recently been hoisted above Zuccotti Park, joining the four sitting on top of the tactical platform unit (police claim the cameras are only transmitting a live feed and do not record video). Those cameras are visible, at least. Donna Lieberman, executive director of NYCLU, told AlterNet over the phone that Zuccotti can be seen from any number of NYPD security cameras in the area, both by private cameras attached to businesses that are accessible to police and NYPD security cameras.

A 2005 NYCLU survey found over 4,000 cameras below 14th street in Manhattan; five times more than they'd tallied in 1998. Lieberman says that number was a lowball because there are so many cameras that NYCLU didn't have the manpower or the time to count all of them.

Authors of the report warned at the time about a "massive surveillance infrastructure" creeping across the city, unattended by adequate public oversight or outside regulation. Five years later, there's no exact count of all the cameras in New York, but Lieberman says, "We believe if we were to try to repeat the survey today, we would find that there are so many more cameras. Way beyond our wildest imagination."

Today that task would be complicated by the roll-out of the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, a plan launched in 2005 to cover the area below Canal Street in video cameras constantly streaming footage that's analyzed at a centralized location. In 2009 police commissioner Raymond Kelly announced that the Initiative would be expanded to midtown.

In a macabre twist, journalist Pam Martens has discovered that the law enforcement center where much of the camera footage is examined can be accessed by high-level Wall street employees. Martens obtained 2005 correspondence from Commissioner Kelly promising Edward Frost, a then-Goldman Sachs VP, the creation of "a centralized coordination center that will provide space for full-time, on site representation from Goldman Sachs and other stakeholders."

Martens writes, "According to one person who has toured the center, there are three rows of computer workstations, with approximately two-thirds operated by non-NYPD personnel. The Chief-Leader, the weekly civil service newspaper, identified some of the outside entities that share the space: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, the Federal Reserve, the New York Stock Exchange. Others say most of the major Wall Street firms have an on-site representative."

The surveillance gadgetry available to the NYPD, and apparently to the very finance industry forces that OWS is protesting, is sophisticated. There are license plate readers that can capture license plate numbers and match them to a database. The cameras can be programmed to alert officers to activities like loitering, and people can be followed as they move from camera to camera.

Over the past year, reports have come out suggesting that the NYPD has plans to integrate face recognition technology into the operation.

As the AP reported, "New facial-recognition technologies will soon make it possible to track exactly who is walking down the street," [Bloomberg] said, adding that he believes "we're going in that direction."

The mayor then opined, "As the world gets more dangerous, people are willing to have infringements on their personal freedoms that they would not before."

At the beginning of the year, local outlets reported that the NYPD was recruiting officers for a new face recognition unit. The NYPD has not replied to repeated requests for comment, so it's not clear if the face recognition technology is in use, and if so, in what cameras -- but a representative of ICX Technologies, the company that builds tactical platform towers like the one stationed at Zuccotti Park, tells AlterNet that the cameras on the tower are compatible with face recognition software.

That would mean an image can be matched up to a mugshot in any criminal database, or any non-criminal database for that matter -- including one of the largest public identity databases in the world, Facebook.

Right after 9/11, when airports and cities enthusiastically embraced face recognition, the technology was fairly crude and a lot of the programs were dropped. But in the past 10 years advances in the software -- including 3-D imaging and "skinmetrics," which maps marks and imperfections in the skin of the face -- have revived law enforcement and Homeland Security's interest.

Sophisticated face recognition software, combined with cameras that can track activity all over the city, would be a useful tool if police wished to collect dossiers on people involved in OWS, as they so casually did pre-Handschu.

Whatever the advances in technology, Siegal says that core principals should remain. "Police should not be keeping records about the legal, political, non-criminal activities of anyone."

Tana Ganeva is AlterNet's managing editor. Follow her on Twitter. You can email her at tana@alternet.org.

all it takes is 5 minutes
 

I just wrote nasty (sort of) letters to the republican Senators of Pennsylvania telling them if they vote NO on the extension of unemployment benefits to 5 million Americans.....I will personally spearhead the campaign to vote them out of office. I am sick of them!

Please do the same. *In god we trust* gets voted on and passed,

before our fellow Americans are taken care of :|

[QUOTE=SoNotHer;453785]Why Is OWS Blanketed With NYPD Cameras -- And Are Police Breaking the Law?
By Tana Ganeva, AlterNet
Posted on November 2, 2011, Printed on November 3, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152896...eaking_the_law


Yes, of course they are breaking the law. SOME, not all. Remember this, when the police show up wearing riot gear, someone told them to do so. Putting the police officers on the immediate defense comes on order. Those officers have many layers of supervisors. In the ONY beatings, it was Police Commanders who were beating unarmed citizens.

For the most part :police:, is not the bad guy. As per the usual, the BIG GUY.

[quote=Yellow band;453804]Everyone always has a choice to do the right thing.

http://news.yahoo.com/occupy-protest...161355762.html


http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749...-27142668.html

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749...-27147886.html


i need to learn how to post vids. sorrrieeessss! BUT...it looks like the violence is starting to tip. bittersweet, really.

wow. classy.

i was a bit taken aback by the Exxon ad at the beginning of the vid link promoting oil sands processing. whoa. really? is nothing sacred? lol

I thought the same thing, P. In fact, it feels like reading a Kindle version of 1984 only to interrupted by micro-marketing and given a list of suggested reading. Exxon, BP and the likes have infiltrated Maddow, YouTube and some of my other places.

Hey folks sorry I didn't get to posting yesterday. I was really tired when I finally got to my computer after a busy day. Some thoughts about the Oakland strike:

I was really psyched that there were so many protestors who peacefully shut down several banks. Many businesses closed their doors in solidarity with the general strike and that was heartening to see. That they shut down the port of Oakland was beyond amazing and a great victory! Yay!

It is frustrating, however, to see the local anarchist group come into the protest and break windows and throw rocks/bottles, things like that. Those people wearing black and hiding their faces weren't part of Occupy. They were there just to cause trouble. What is even more frustrating is that some of the media called them "protestors" when reporting on those incidents of violence and destruction. They didn't make a distinction, and that gives a totally wrong impression of Occupy. Violence and destruction of property is usually the first and biggest stories that the media seizes on, so that tends to overshadow the message and victories of the general strike. I don't know how Occupy can keep these anarchist hoodlums away from the protests, however. I don't think they can. That fact frustrates me.

Thank you everyone who is keeping us up to date on all the latest details of the protests and political actions, and sharing your ideas. I am going out of town this weekend so I probably won't be able to post, but I will be keeping up as best I can and will be back next week to participate more. :)

I heard estimates of up to 10,000.

Something on my mind- I understand fully targeting a port in terms of it symbolizing how the US trade agreements and "shipping" of US jobs outside of the US has hurt the 99%. Yet, I can't help but think of the truck drivers and all of the folks working at the port in "regular" jobs could be hurt by this if this becomes a continued tactic.

Private property was damaged by some (very small group) of demonstrators. Shutting down the port for a few hours is a big deal and makes a point- and ZI don't see how smashing up someone's house or business is going to help bring all of the groups of the 99% that need to join together- get together.

I can see that the tactic of closing down candidate offices as something that can get attention at the source. This movement taking hold in the midst of a general election year is one of the best aspects I see in terms of getting our politicians to "get" that we are sick and tired of being duped. And that the deadlock in Congress is not acceptable! This is a time in which what does work in our political processes is needed more than ever. Congress has not passed one bill since the 2010 mid-terms that can significantly promote job growth.

There is a part of me that wants to see OWS take some of the same steps in coalition building to have an effect on elections. And fight the voter supression tactics going on. The Obama administration is taking action with this, but, this should outrage every voter in the US.

Sounds like the Occupy folks that do not agree with smashing things up are out apologizing for the actions of a few today and helping clean up some of the damage.

Video of anarchists smashing windows and vandalizing properties at the General Strike in Oakland yesterday
 

These anarchists in black had nothing to do with the Occupy movement. They were there just to cause mayhem and destruction. You can see here that the Occupy protestors were trying to stop them without much luck.

And they always show up at these kinds of things. I think it was really great that Occupy people even made signs yesterday telling this group to knock it off. It is really important for Occupy demonstrators to let people know that they do not agree with the anarchist groups that simply want to use a protest to their advantage.

Lots of Occupy people are making points today about not supporting destruction of property or violence. It is really important that this movement recognize all "walks" of the 99%. I think they are doing a good job overall with this.

Some great pictures of the general strike in Oakland yesterday:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...0185115&type=1

Drew, thanks for your thoughts and actions you are taking for the 99%. I watched the ABC, CBS, and KRON news shows early this morning before coming into work and I thought the coverage of Occupy Oakland was balanced. I understood clearly by their reports that the anarchist were not part of Occupy Oakland. I also saw video of the the Occupy people assisting in the clean up of some of the anarchist vandalism.

I work in downtown Oakland and me and most of my coworkers are real people with responsibilities to our families and community. I do understand peaceful civil protest but I will never understand the violence. Much of the property and people that get destroyed are not the Fat Cats with no sense of humanity beyond their next take over, buy out, financial scam.

16 Arrested in March on Goldman Sachs
 

Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011...ogle_news_blog

Thats great to hear, Greyson. I guess the news sources I was watching on the internet weren't reporting on it the same way. I am glad local news is getting it right.

Bill Moyers: "Our Politicians Are Money Launderers in the Trafficking of Power and Policy"
 

The article is much longer, but it won't all fit here lol. You can read the rest here:

http://www.truth-out.org/how-did-happen/1320278111

Here's the keynote speech itself:

Moyer is a person of light and conscience. I've been following him since the Joseph Campbell interviews for Parabola. Thank you for posting this, Drew. :-)

Study proves many U.S. corporations pay zero taxes


Dozens of US corporations paid no federal taxes in recent years, and many received government subsidies despite earning healthy profits, a new study showed Thursday.

The report by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which examined 280 US firms, found 78 of them paid no federal income tax in at least one of the last three years.

It found 30 companies enjoyed a negative income tax rate — which in some cases means getting tax rebates — over the three-year period, despite combined pre-tax profits of $160 billion.

“These 280 corporations received a total of nearly $223 billion in tax subsidies,” said the report’s lead author, Robert McIntyre, director at Citizens for Tax Justice.

“This is wasted money that could have gone to protect Medicare, create jobs and cut the deficit.”

The study looked at 280 corporations from the Fortune 500 list, all of which were profitable in each of the last three years and provided sufficient data to analyst profits and taxes.

It found the average effective tax rate for the 280 companies in the study over the three years period was 18.5 percent, well below the statutory rate of 35 percent.

The study concluded that 78 of the companies had at least one year in which their federal income tax was zero or less.

Thirty companies had a negative income tax rate over the entire three year period on their combined pre-tax profits of $160 billion.

The study said banking giant Wells Fargo topped the list of corporations receiving the most in tax subsidies, getting nearly $18 billion in tax breaks in the last three years.

The report comes as US lawmakers are struggling to find ways to curb a bulging US deficit and are looking at possible revenue sources, despite opposition by conservatives to any tax increases.

I'm seeing this a lot. Today I heard someone say, "I don't think some of these people know what they are protesting." He said, "I don't know what they are protesting."

I think it becomes confusing when people are arrested and police have to take action against unpeaceful protests and violence. That is a sad situation when some want to resort to violence to get their own ideas across and it may not even have to do with the "american dream" or jobs, healthcare, taxes, etc..

Very interesting what is playing out in Oakland and Denver. I look forward to seeing what develops with those two cities over the next couple weeks. I would hate to see this OWS movement turn into something of domestic terrorist attacks somewhere. I hope.. I can't reiterate it enough, I HOPE it doesn't come to that. I hate to be cynical but I also can see the daily violence and the bigger picture. I also do see some changes, for the OWS movement too though, in a positive way.