ACLU wants probe into police-staged DNC protest

[G_j]

ACLU wants probe into police-staged DNC protest

By Felisa Cardona
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 11/07/2008 10:25:14 AM MST

When a Jefferson County deputy unleashed pepper spray at unruly protesters on the first night of the Democratic National Convention, he did not know that his targets were undercover Denver police officers.

Now the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado is questioning whether that staged confrontation by police pretending to be violent inflamed other protesters or officers during the most intense night of the four-day event.

The protest occurred Aug. 25 at 15th Street and Court Place near Civic Center. Police ultimately arrested 106 people, the highest number of arrests in a single day during the convention.

According to a use-of-force police report obtained by the ACLU, undercover Denver detectives staged a struggle with a police commander to get pulled out of the crowd without blowing their cover. The commander knew they were working undercover, and the plan was to pull them out of the crowd and pretend they were under arrest so protesters would be none the wiser.

A Jefferson County deputy, unaware of the presence of undercover police, thought that the commander was being attacked and used pepper spray on the undercover officers.

The report says that the commander and an undercover detective were sprayed, but it does not indicate how many others were affected. The report also doesn't say whether the pepper spray used on the undercover police was the first deployment of chemicals that night or whether the riot was already underway.

..more..

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_10920817

[Ian David]

1. On the one hand, it's good that the thug cops got pepper-sprayed. But on the other...

... they REALLY need to go to JAIL.

[MrScorpio]

2. COINTEPRO is not dead

It's just all spread around for more to use

[slampoet]

3. He should have tazed the undercovers as well. Heck it was within his rights.

[gratuitous]

4. Lose jobs and pensions, go to jail

I think that's what it's going to take to stop these police riots. An empty SUV or logging truck gets set on fire, and the powers that be are all up in arms. Eco-terrorism! they shriek. It's an attack on freedom and democracy! The perpetrators must be tracked down relentlessly, made to confess, tried, and imprisoned to the fullest extent of the federal law!

But cops go through a systemic, deliberate program to deny citizens their basic constitutional rights to assemble peaceably, speak freely and petition their government for redress? Nothing. Zip. Nada. Bupkis. Maybe if the participants lost their jobs, were denied their pensions and the ringleaders sent to jail we might finally move past this COINTELPRO-style bullshit. If Michele Bachmann is still all hot to find "anti-American" people in positions of trust, she could start with the Denver police. Who thought up this little caper? Who planned it? Who executed it? Jail, jail, jail.

[lib2DaBone]

5. ..and while they are at it... investigate who was breaking windows in St. Paul...

.. Newspaper said it was "a hippy with a brand new hammer". How many hippies do you know that carry around a brand new hammer to a protest? The hippy with the brand new hammer was later seen in the park getting into an unmarked police car. WTF?

[hootinholler]

7. I didn't hear about him getting into an unmarked car.

I also questioned WTF an anarchist with a hammer? It is: a) useless at a protest, b) heavy to carry around, c) Opens the individual to weapons charges should they be detained and searched.

-Hoot

[zbdent]

8. You'd probably remember selling a hammer to a hippie ...

I mean, you don't see them running around much these days.

Most of the time, the guy who looks like an "old hippie" seems to be the kind of guy with a confederate flag sticker on his truck ...

[G_j]

9. sounds like the Seattle WTO protests

infiltrators breaking windows, a tried and proven tactic.

[Downtown Hound]

10. Take a look at this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEO4rlKfh5U

Kind of interesting how everybody was promising a peaceful march, but then a small group of masked "anarchists" suddenly comes out of nowhere and starts trashing the place. And then, I love the last quote of the story, "They then climbed a wall, and mysteriously disappeared."

[formercia]

6. This is SOP

The police use the argument that sending undercover officers into the crowd to detect and arrest troublemakers is part of their job. Unfortunately, the police often are the ones instigating the trouble.

What would their justification for bigger budgets and more officers on the tactical teams if the crowds posed no problem?

We have been warning about this on DU and elsewhere for a long time.

Read the book: Agents of Repression.

[Festivito]

11. Toronto police did this in Canada and had to apologize on camera.

They put and X on the soles of the ROCK-CARRYING plants. Made everyone detained to lie down, then sorted them out for processing.

Think we'll get an on camera apology?

[Selatius]

12. All I can say is that I hope those undercover thugs got a good face-full of pepper spray.

They need to be revealed as agent provocateurs.