Confirming what many of those who have participated in peaceful protests already know, undercover police purposely became unruly to escalate a peaceful protest at the DNC in Denver.
The Denver Post reports that:
"During a melee that occurred Aug. 25 between protesters, police and bystanders near Civic Center Park, undercover Denver detectives staged a struggle with a police commander in order to get out of the crowd undetected."
"A Jefferson County deputy, unaware of the presence of undercover police, thought that the commander was being attacked and deployed the pepper spray, according to a police use-of-force report obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado."
Now the ACLU is taking action, reports the Denver Post:
"On Thursday, the ACLU of Colorado sent a letter to Denver's Independent Monitor, Richard Rosenthal, asking for the Internal Affairs Bureau to conduct an investigation of the pepper-spraying incident.
'The actions of the undercover detectives on Aug. 25, 2008, may have had the effect of exacerbating an already 'tense situation,' as their feigned struggle led nearby officers and the public to believe that a commanding officer was being attacked by protesters and that the situation necessitated the use of chemical agents,' says the letter, written by ACLU staff attorney Taylor Pendergrass.
'Such actions may have escalated the overall situation by causing officers on the scene to fear that the protesters threatened their safety, when in fact, the struggle was only between uniformed officers and undercover officers,' he wrote."
How many peaceful protests have been ignited into riots by the very police that are supposedly there to keep order, and how many of the rioters have been the police themselves? It’s a surefire way to tarnish the image of the protesters and to bring down police-state crowd suppression tactics to crush free speech.
As the ACLU demands, this incident must be investigated to the fullest extent.