Systematic suppression of the Constitutional rights of lawful political activities of activists, politicians, and journalists to observe police actions against Occupy Wall Street protesters.
Deputy Inspector Edward J. Winski, on orders from City Hall : Mayor Michael Bloomberg and approval (either tacit or express) by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn engages in use of police force, misuse of authority, no professional, lack of respect and courtesy, not to mention abridgment of the Constitutionally-protected Freedoms of Speech and Assembly, to thwart the lawful political activities of citizens. Note how police officers selectively pick activists from within a crowd and use force to make false arrests. One person also provides testimony that a legal observer is arrested by the NYPD.
In this video, some activists deliver first-hand witness accounts of Deputy Inspector Winski misusing his official authority for the sole purpose of interfering, thwarting, and destroying the rights of these activists. The intent of Deputy Inspector Winski can solely be to destroy any chance activists have to peacefully and lawfully assemble and express themselves.
According to the video's description on YouTube, the above video was filmed on September 15, 2012 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and it shows "some of the major events," which took place during livestreamer Luke Rudkowski's live broadcast at the "Occupy Wall Street #S15 action."
And no amount of independent monitoring, oversight, community regulation, not even the existence of the Civilian Complaint Review Board or Internal Affairs investigations, can correct the abuse of authority when it is ordered by and/or is carried out with the tacit or express approval of the politicians, who give orders to NYPD. Here is past evidence about how Deputy Inspector Winksi and the NYPD have misused their authority against peaceful and lawful #OWS activists, I'm sure this can't be the rest of it.
To change the system, you have to join community organising efforts to challenge the oppressive conditions, which violate citizens' rights, and this includes taking action to vote out of office the politicians, who give these orders to NYPD.
NEW YORK, September 6, 2012--At the 8:30 am protest against construction of a Spectra fracked gas pipeline at Gansevoort and Hudson River Parkway, Monika Hunken and Sandra were arrested by the NYPD.
They were among five activists who climbed over the low concrete barricade surrounding the drilling site and sat down in the dirt in front of a backhoe, thus blocking the machine from operating ; at first Hunken announced that they would leave the pit, but then she and Sandra Coponen changed their minds and returned to the pit facing arrest. The backhoe was adjacent to the drilling rig itself, which was fenced in by a high wire mesh fence. The rig had been in operation prior to the sit-down action.
The Spectra pipeline is delivering Marcellus shale potentially radioactive gas containing native radon; in addition, the hydrofracking process pumps 5 billion gallons of water laced with 600 toxic chemicals into the shale to extract the gas. The Henry Hudson Parkway is owned by the state and not the city ; Mayor Bloomberg's supposed "girl-friend" Diana Taylor known for her involvement with Bloomfield Properties graces the board of Hudson Parkway, too. The Spectra pipeline will run in the vicinity of a children's playground in the West Village. In the interests of clean air, clean water and public health, activists are urging Governor Cuomo to step up to the plate and ban hydrofracking in New York State and Mayor Bloomberg not to enable its arrival and dissemination In New York City.
Filmed by Liza Béar. Press inquiries: lizajbear@gmail.com; 646-246-1869.
By putting up barricades and security checkpoints all over Lower Manhattan, which has not been done since 9/11, is this how the NYPD thinks it is going to serve and protect us ? Is it trying to protect us from our own Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Speech ?
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2012 Police State Watch: NYPD to Install Checkpoints, Demand ID in Lower Manahttan on OWS Anniversary Since when are Americans required to carry and show ID to the police to go about their daily business? Apparently since the 1% became sufficiently afraid of the 99% so as to regard the Constitutionally-guaranteed rights to assembly and free speech as security threats. This notice gives a flavor of what to expect for the September 17 celebrations of the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street (click to enlarge; hat tip nathan):
Three former members of the Pataki administration created a legal defense fund for John Haggerty, the Queens political operative convicted of stealing nearly $1 million from Mayor Michael Bloomberg through an elaborate money-funneling operation through the Independence Party, Celeste Katz reported. Tom Doherty, one of the former government officials, who is not a political consultant, serves as the trustee for the legal defense fund.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo are bickering with each other, over who is going to be the boss of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, The New York Times has reported.
"Aides to Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Cuomo have so far been unable to resolve their differences over which government agencies will pay the operating costs of the museum, which is intended to document the terrorist attacks of 2001 and honor the nearly 3,000 victims. The two sides also remain at odds over who will have oversight of the museum and the surrounding memorial."
The infighting means that the 9/11 museum will not be open in time for this year's anniversary of the September 11 attacks, or even in time for next year's anniversary.
The on-going disputes between Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo may delay the completion of the 9/11 museum, so much so that The New York Times estimates that construction on 1 World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, may be finished in early 2014 -- before the 9/11 museum can be completed.
The blogger and artist Suzannah B. Troy rode her bicycle past a battallion of NYPD officers earlier this afternoon. Ms. Troy speculated that the police are practising to make mass arrests in the upcoming Occupy Wall Street anniversary demonstrations. The police must be on strict orders from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Commissioner Raymond Kelly to thwart the First Amendment rights of activists, again. This is how Mayor Bloomberg runs this city : with a heavy hand with his own private army.
Note how NYPD filmed the evacuation of Liberty Square/Zuccotti Park :
Are NYPD Intelligence Division violating terms of the Handschu Agreement ?
On September 6, 2012, activists against the Fracking Pipeline that is proposed to run through the West Village organised a demonstration along the West Side Highway. At that protest, a white shirt police officer was caught video taping lawful political activities of the protesters. If the protesters were only engaged in lawful political activities on September 6, as it surely does appear, then does the monitoring of the protesters by the NYPD not violate the Handschu Agreement ?
The Handschu agreement is a court ruling from the case Handschu v. Special Services Division, 605 F.Supp. 1384, affirmed 787 F.2d 828, that brought about guidelines that regulate police behavior in New York City with regard to police monitoring of citizens' political activity (Wikipedia).
A large coalition of activist groups accused police of compiling information to punish and repress lawful dissent, according to Wikipedia.
"Filmed September 1, 2012, 5.55pm, Outside the 24 hr protest of Trinity Church. I saw Captain Timoney walking down the street scanning the protesters up-and-down looking for something. He then stopped, and tried to get the attention of some patrol officers standing across the street. And when nobody came, he walked over to issue orders to the cops to..... take a cardboard box with political messaging on it. Justin Stone-Diaz tells us the backstory to this."
15 Dead From Engine 54/Ladder 4/Battalion 9 At World Trade Center
A replica of the Statue of Liberty that came to be called "Lady Liberty" was placed outside the firehouse of Engine 54/Ladder 4/Battalion 9 in Midtown. That firehouse lost 15 of their men at the World Trade Center on 9/11. The memorial Lady Liberty statuette became adorned with ornaments and tribute by people paying respect to the 15 fallen first responders from FDNY and the other heroes of that day. (National 9/11 Memorial Museum)
Police are investigating why an NYPD Officer shot and killed an innocent Bronx bodega worker early Friday morning. The worker, named Reynaldo Cuevas, was 20 years old, and and pronounced dead at the hospital. PIX11 News was told there were at least two gunmen who were attempting to rob the store before police arrived. (WPIX-11)
Mayor Bloomberg takes the subway periodically, about once a month according to his staff, so that he can be with the people. Unfortunately he picked the day when WeAreChange.org and Infowars.com reporters were outside City Hall. The ride lasted about 15 minutes and Luke, Tom, Nate and several other concerned citizens used every minute to bring up questions from parking tickets to 9/11.
The New York Police Department may be involved in some unlawful activities, reported Jason Leopold and Matthew Harwood on Truthout. (If the NYPD has become lawless, then are social movement activists being targeted for silence and arrest to prevent government reforms that would hold police accountable ?)
According to an e-mail that was leaked by Anonymous, a high-ranking FBI official repeated information on a what appears to be an official listserv :
I keep telling you, you and I are going to laugh and raise a beer one day, when everything Intel (NYPD's Intelligence Division) has been involved in during the last 10 years comes out - it always eventually comes out. They are going to make [former FBI Director J. Edgar] Hoover, COINTEL, Red Squads, etc look like rank amatures [sic] compared to some of the damn right felonious activity, and violations of US citizen's rights they have been engaged in.
During the last 10 years, Michael Bloomberg has been mayor and Raymond Kelly has been commissioner of the police department.
Are citizens living under laws of order that do not apply to police ? These and other important questions are raised from the information, which was contained in an e-mail sent to Fred Burton, a former counterterrorism official at the State Department, who is now an intelligence officer at Stratfor.
"Mr. Bloomberg knows that his reputation has taken hard blows in the fight over term limits. But he is apparently betting that the passage of time will restore whatever he may have lost in respectability." -- Clyde Haberman, The New York Times, October 27, 2008.
"Mr. Bloomberg's popularity is high, but his handling of protesters to the 2004 Republican National Convention, when thousands of demonstrators were swept off the streets and detained, is a black mark on his record for many New Yorkers and civil libertarians." -- The New York Times
"For more than a year before the convention, the Police Department monitored Web sites and sent undercover detectives around the nation to collect information on Bush opponents planning to demonstrate in New York. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has said the operation helped keep order. " The New York Times, April 3, 2007