Philadelphia Police: A Constitutional Atrocity

["Seth Sandronsky" <ssandron@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

Advance apolgies if this story of police (dis)service to peaceful protesters
in the City of Brotherly Love has already been posted to PEN-L.

Seth Sandronsky

> Subject: Philadelphia Police: A Constitutional Atrocity
> THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER - September 7,2000 FRONT PAGE
>
> The police's actions - now confirmed - are reminiscent of McCarthyism
> at its worst.  John Street, Lynn Abraham and John Timoney should be
> indicted for violations of the civil rights of all of the
> protestors -
> and the citizens of Philadelphia.  This is an outrage of unparralled
> proportions that would make J. Edgar Hoover proud.  Beyond the fact
> that they now undeniably lied about their actions, the references to
> the "left", "trade unions" and "the former Soviet Union" in their
> affidavits are either terrifying or laughable - or both. THE
> PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER - September 7,2000 FRONT PAGE State police
> infiltrated protest groups, documents show Search-warrant affidavits
> reveal an undercover operation aimed at activists in Philadelphia for
> the GOP convention.
>
> By Linda K. Harris,, Craig R. McCoy and Thomas Ginsberg
> INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
>
> State police undercover agents posing as demonstrators infiltrated
> activist groups planning the protests at the Republican National
> Convention, search-warrant documents made public yesterday showed.
>
> The undercover operation was detailed in legal documents filed Aug. 1
> by Philadelphia police seeking search warrants for a raid that day on
> a so-called "puppet warehouse" at 4100 Haverford Ave. in West
> Philadelphia. The documents were under a court seal until yesterday.
>
> About 75 people were arrested in the raid at the warehouse.
>
> The infiltration was immediately condemned yesterday by the state
> chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the city public
> defender's office.
>
> "It's worse than sleazeball," said Stefan Presser, the ACLU's legal
> director. "This is an outrage."
>
> Presser and other critics said dissenters needed the right to rally
> and to organize without fear that police were spying on them. They
> said they feared that police undercover officers could cross the line
> from intelligence-gatherers to provocateurs.
>
> "The legality and propriety of this potentially unconstitutional
> police conduct will certainly be an issue at the time of trial in all
> of these cases," said Bradley Bridge, a senior lawyer with the
> defender's office.
>
> During the convention, Police Commissioner John F. Timoney repeatedly
> denied that police had engaged in infiltration.
>
> "We had not infiltrated any group," he said the day after police
> raided the warehouse that had become one of several gathering spots
> for demonstrators during the convention.
>
> A spokeswoman for the commissioner said yesterday that he would have
> no comment. Lt. Susan Slawson, commander of the police public-affairs
> unit, said the commissioner could not talk because "it's in
> litigation," a reference to a civil suit filed by demonstrators
> challenging their arrests during the protests.
>
> The use of state police as the undercover operatives took place as the
> city itself was restricted from using its own officers for such
> infiltration under a long-standing mayoral directive. The directive
> says the police may not infiltrate protest groups without the
> permission of the mayor, the managing director, and the police
> commissioner.
>
> Mayor Street and City Solicitor Kenneth Trujillo declined comment
> yesterday.
>
> In seeking search warrants, police cited the work of the undercover
> operatives and detailed the intelligence gathered as the convention
> approached. The information is sketched out in affidavits of probable
> cause seeking warrants to search the warehouse, a U-Haul van, another
> van, and a pickup that police deemed suspicious.
>
> "This investigation is utilizing several Pennsylvania state troopers
> in an undercover capacity that have infiltrated several of the
> activist groups planning to commit numerous illegal direct actions,"
> said one affidavit, signed by Detective William Egenlauf of the
> Philadelphia Police Department.
>
> It says the state police undercover operatives arrived at the
> warehouse on July 27, four days before the convention began.
>
> Once there, the agents assisted "in the construction of props to be
> used during protests," the affidavit says.
>
> It says agents observed demonstrators building street barriers and
> "lock boxes," devices used by protesters to lock arms together when
> blocking streets. The papers say they overheard discussions that
> indicated protesters planned on "using the puppets . . . as
> blockades."
>
> The operatives also reported that "persons indicated they would be
> throwing pies, bottles and cardboard boxes filled with water at the
> police," the affidavits stated.
>
> Timoney held a news conference after the convention to display items
> seized during the raid, including two massive slingshots and chains
> wrapped in kerosene-soaked rags. Such devices were not used during the
> protests. Police also displayed seized "lock boxes."
>
> Protesters have claimed the facility was nothing more than an art
> studio to fashion the puppets, floats and other props that were a
> hallmark of the demonstrations.
>
> Demonstrators also said their protests would be nonviolent, with
> illegal actions limited to the blockading of streets. Their lawyers
> have complained that numerous people were arrested in the warehouse
> without any proof they had any connection to illegal items.
>
> A key subject of controversy has been the raid on the warehouse.
>
> The request for the search warrants for the warehouse and lengthy
> affidavits detailing police intelligence-gathering was made yesterday,
> a month after Municipal Court President Judge Louis J. Presenza
> approved the searches.
>
> At the request of the District Attorney's Office, the warrants were
> sealed - barred from public inspection - for a month as soon as they
> were issued. The legal request for the warrants maintained that
> premature "disclosure of this affidavit could endanger the lives" of
> the undercover operatives.
>
> The affidavits cite sweeping police intelligence-gathering before the
> convention. This included monitoring of unspecified "electronic
> messages" sent among demonstrators, an apparent reference to police
> scrutiny of Web sites and electronic mailing lists.
>
> The police documents identified what investigators viewed as the key
> protest groups and their goals. Funds for one group "allegedly
> originate with Communist and leftist parties and from sympathetic
> trade unions" or from "the former Soviet-allied World Federation of
> Trade Unions," according to the affidavits.
>
> The affidavits go on to identify a handful of leaders of the various
> groups. Among those cited by name are John Sellers and Kate Sorensen,
> who were later arrested during demonstrations in Center City. The two
> were held in jail for days in lieu of $1 million bail - a sum critics
> said was extraordinary. In recent interviews after their release from
> jail, people who were inside the warehouse said that they had
> suspected early on that four undercover officers were working among
> them. Four men - known as Tim, Harry, George and Ryan - showed up
> together at 41st and Haverford about a week before the convention,
> introducing themselves as union carpenters from Wilkes-Barre who built
> stages, several demonstrators said.
>
> They were big, burly men who were older than most of the people
> working in the warehouse. They did not seem particularly political or
> well-informed, according to demonstrators. All four, however, were
> considered hard workers.
>
> Soliman Lawrence, 20, of Tallahassee, Fla., worked closely with the
> four on a massive satirical float built for a protest march.
>
> "They gained our trust," Lawrence said. "The fact that we didn't know
> them very well wasn't a big deal.
>
> "I remember thinking to myself, 'Why does everyone who looks like that
> have to be a cop?' " Lawrence said. "I didn't like that I thought like
> that."

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