The title is a quote from
Norman Siegel in response to the fact that the NYPD has backed down on their quest to remove New Yorkers freedom of assembly. The proposed rule by the NYPD would have dictated how many people could legally ride their bikes or walk down the sidewalk together without a permit.
He said he would wait to see what new proposals the Police Department made before judging them. But he said the department and the Bloomberg administration would face "continued, organized vigorous opposition" to anything that erodes "our First Amendment rights of expression."
In yesterday's New York Times Police Move to Ease Proposed Rules Regarding Permits for Protests reveals the fact that the police are not done yet but the pressure of the people has forced the NYPD to adjust their assault on New Yorkers.
Details Below.
This is an important victory for a Blue City that has been on a steady march toward Police State. Hence the uplifting title
"People power can beat police power."
The Police Department has scaled back plans to require permits for small protests or processions, abandoning proposals that would have required such permits when pedestrians gather on the sidewalk, or when as few as two bicyclists or walkers ignore traffic laws, officials said yesterday.
According to Paul J. Browne, the department's chief spokesman "The revisions are being proposed to address concerns expressed about the earlier language."
The proposals, announced last month, had drawn criticism from some who said they were too broad and threatened to suffocate spontaneous demonstrations.
This "earlier language" was a direct assault on the basic freedoms of the people of the city of New York. The NYPD does have the right to create laws meant to insure public safety under the City's charter so they came with a means to make almost any New Yorker who wants to see some friends eligible for a night in the tombs!
This may sound like a small issue since Jaywalking is already illegal but the law effectively raised "crossing in-between and not on the green" from a summons to being thrown into the system. Jaywalking is rarely enforced in New York and now the NYPD wanted to handcuff and lock up jaywalkers who jaywalk in pairs to "go downtown" pending arraignment.
Of course when one of these arrest gets to a judge it will be laughed out of court but in a city where "the process" from handcuff to judge often takes seventy-one and a half hours, the penalty for jaywalking was intended to become "cruel and unusual punishment."
There are few things as degrading as three days in "the bullpen." Those accused of every crime are mixed in for a little social event with a shared toilet and an occasional bologna sandwich.
Since New York City holding pens are infamous for assault and there have even been murders while in police custody, it is hard to believe that the motivation of this rule was public safety.
This is a fact! I'm not making it up! Read the pdf. It really would have made it illegal for groups of two or more to travel more than two city blocks without complying with traffic laws.
New Yorkers have only dodged an NYPD bullet on a temporary basis;
In sum, the Police Department wants to replace three rules with two. No longer would groups need permits to gather on the sidewalk, as the department is remaining silent on that issue.
The department wants to require permits for groups of 10 or more bicyclists or pedestrians -- instead of 2 -- who plan to travel more than two city blocks without complying with traffic laws, officials said.
The department is still pushing the previous rule to require permits for groups of 20 or more bicyclists or pedestrians who obey traffic laws.
The fact that this is a direct affront of the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States does not bother the NYPD. Mayor Bloomberg has done little or nothing to reel in the disregard for the people installed in this 41,000 strong bureaucracy by the former mayor. Giuliani was in the habit of passing heinous laws against the people and then spending the taxpayers' money fighting the ACLU and other advocates of the public until a judge finally overturned the mayor's Gestapo tactics. Case in point.
The former mayor doubled the size of the police force and greatly adjusted the mission of police work in New York City. Giuliani was a black mark on this city that just won't go away. A man that made his reputation via the "perp walk" created a mayor's army. In doing so he created many new jobs for so many idle hands. The police department spends much more time involved in politics than the tradition of "protect and serve."
This really was a law that should never even have been proposed in a free nation;
The original proposal was unveiled in a public notice filed with the city in July and would have required a parade permit for groups of 35 or more people on the sidewalk. It also said that groups of two or more bicyclists would be considered a protest and would thus require a permit. This requirement was seen by some as growing out of the department's ongoing dispute with participants of Friday night protests in Manhattan by Critical Mass bicyclists, who advocate nonpolluting forms of transportation.
The clash between the NYPD and Critical Mass during the Republican National Convention is an example of how far police can take revenge. There were laws broken during the clash but almost all of the lawbreakers were wearing NYPD uniforms.
Over a week and a half surrounding the RNC, police arrested nearly 400 bike riders. Since then, activists and civil liberties groups say the City of New York has been targeting bicyclists and Critical Mass in particular.
Bicyclist were rounded up and imprisoned for charges that only deserved a summons. Traffic violations were upgraded to disorderly conduct and parading without a permit so the police could add the intimidation of being locked up.
Anyone who spends any time in the Broadway district, where the concentration of police is greatest, can witness the resentment toward bicyclist, as police officers issue summons to riders for something a silly as an improper bell. Usually during this selective enforcement there is an automotive driver who has decided to stop in the middle of a crosswalk, forcing pedestrians into oncoming traffic while the autos behind that driver are defining everyone with their horns but the cop is taking care of the bicyclist.
But Critical Mass is just a cover story. The recent history of the NYPD points to an orginaztion that is paid for by taxpayers and serving the powerful. The actions of this powerful force are focused on supressing the voice of the people.
Not all of the lawbreakers were wearing uniforms. Plainclothesmen were deliberately inciting Riots! People can die in a riot and the NYPD was trying to start one to make protesters look bad while making Republicans look good.
Just like the many bicyclist who had nothing to do with Critical Mass, innocent pedestrians were rounded up with protesters and thrown in jail. The behavior of the NYPD and the City was so bad that a judge imposed a $1,000 fine for every person who was not released.
One person had been in custody for 58 hours, said Colin Starger, a volunteer attorney with the lawyers association.
Attorneys with the Legal Aid Society said most of 595 people detained at central booking in downtown Manhattan are being held for minor violations, while more serious offenders, including some arrested Wednesday (the following day) for shoplifting, have already been released.
Consider the fact that the FBI launched a Criminal Civil Rights Investigation of the NYPD's behavior during the RNC.
During the week of the 2004 convention, police arrested some 1800 protesters - more than at any previous political convention in the country's history. It is unclear as to the extent of the Justice Department"s criminal investigation of the NYPD, but the FBI appears to be focusing on the arrest of Dennis Kyne, a Gulf War veteran turned anti-war activist. Kyne was arrested on the steps of the New York Public Library on multiple charges including inciting a riot. His case went to trial but it was dismissed after his legal team presented videotaped evidence that proved the police lied to the court.
Consider the treatment of Cindy Sheehan. New York's Finest pulls move even Bush wouldn't have tried as they yanked away her microphone and Paul Zulkowitz was arrested for failing to obtain a sound permit. Once again arresting people for charges that usually warrants no more than a summons.
"Since when can't you talk out here in Union Square?" demanded an Upper West Side social worker who identified herself as Quha, who said she'd taken her lunch break to hear Sheehan because she has a 20-year-old son who is considering enlisting. "I've seen everyone and their mother come out and speak nonsense out here in this park, and for them to shut down Cindy Sheehan is just not right."
"They came in like gangbusters. It was really ridiculous," said Margaret Rapp, a retired teacher from Inwood who added that she planned to file a complaint after an officer forcibly shoved her in the chest. A mother of a 19-year-old, she said she'd come to hear Sheehan because she lost her fiancee during the Vietnam War. "This is very close to home. There is a chord that Cindy hits among people that have lost people in this war and other wars, or who have draft age children like me. We're scared to death."
Then there was this weeks diary Limits on photography now! One more step closer to police state!. Why can't I take a photo of a cop with a machine gun? My taxes are paying for both his gun and his Ninja uniform.
Let us not forget the fact that for a time it was illegal to take a photo of landmarks and the New York City subway system. It only went away because it was unenforceable in a tourist town but the signs are still there telling tourist that they can go to jail for photographing the George Washington Bridge.
That's the state of police work in NYC!
As a result of the NYPD's plan for some new language the August 23rd public hearing mentioned in Sleeps in Trees first diary, Outlawing Spontaneous Assembly in NYC has been canceled.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelley's NYPD canceled a public hearing which had been scheduled for August 23rd. The hearing was going to allow public comment on a change in the rules of the City of New York. The rule withdrawn by the NYPD wanted to make two people jaywalking subject to arrest as an unauthorized parade.
The cancellation came the day after three city council members, Rosy Mendez, Alan Gerson, and Gale Brewer, spoke out against the proposed changes at an event known as the "People's Public Forum."
It is comforting to see that a few city council members still have the power to curtail the making of laws by the NYPD but shouldn't the elected officials be making up the laws governing the people of the city of New York while the police department enforced those laws.
"If the City Council doesn't take the proper role here, they've sold us out on a fundamental issue of our right to protest," Norman Siegel said. "We don't lose our civil liberties with a big bang. We lose them incrementally and quietly."
The NYPD Brass (who really should not be writing laws in a representative government) hasn't given up on their law. They have only gone back to the drawing board. This gun wielding force of oppression isn't finished in their political quest to silence the people.
Something has gone very wrong here in New York City and the NYPD will be back with another rule that puts citizens in holding pens for trying to exercising their Constitutional freedoms.