Punishing Protest, Policing Dissent: What Is the Justice System for? | Truthout

Punishing Protest, Policing Dissent: What Is the Justice System for? | Truthout

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Occupiers, though, have racked up many more detentions, with 6,526 arrested in 110 US cities so far, according to OccupyArrests.com. This wave of action and reaction has kept National Lawyers Guild (NLG) chapters and members very busy working to protect demonstrators' constitutional rights. Founded 75 years ago to use the law to advance social justice and support progressive social movements, NLG coordinates attorneys, legal workers and law students, and provides legal briefing, case law research, legal strategy and tactical advice to activists. Over the past several months, its members have filed constitutional rights challenges, represented protesters in criminal court, trained and acted as Legal Observers®, and often provided 'round-the-clock legal advice to Occupy encampments.

Their director, Heidi Boghosian, told me that guild members " ... have probably pulled more all-nighters in the past few months than they did in all of college. But we hope that the Occupy movement continues, in as many creative incarnations as possible. For most of us, this kind of grassroots activism is what we live for."

So, I asked Boghosian this weekend how her view of the hierarchy of governmental threats to the exercise of political speech described in her 2007 book, "Punishing Protest," has changed. She responded that two new significant trends are evident: "One, the use of high-technology and sophisticated military equipment, and two, cooperation between law enforcement and the private business sector, especially with regard to surveillance/spying and controlling media access to police actions."

In some cities, such as New York, she said, "police are scanning irises of arrestees and are detaining those who refuse to be scanned. The stated purpose of the scans is to avoid mis-identifications in court, but this unregulated taking from those arrested for engaging in free speech activities is ominous; it would not be surprising if a database is being amassed of iris scans of political activists."

In addition to police in Washington, DC, using a truck with an infrared scanner to determine if individuals were sleeping at McPherson Square after they cleared tents from the Occupy encampment, other high-tech threats exist: "The federal government and local police agencies are using Predator drones with increasing frequency to spy on suspects domestically. The drones are equipped with high-resolution cameras, heat sensors and radar - it does not take much stretch of the imagination to see how the drones can be adapted for spying on political activists. These aircraft are capable of flying for up to 20 hours, making them more powerful than police airplanes or helicopters."

Beside the high-tech threats, local governments preparing for large-scale protests before the political conventions are bolstering their standard toolbox with military equipment such as armed tanks. "The Tampa City Council voted to spend part of the federal grant money for the 2012 Republican National Convention - $50 million - for police 'upgrades,' including a Lenco BearCat armored vehicle to supplement two older armored vehicles the city purchased through a military surplus program," Boghosian said.

"Partnerships between law enforcement and corporations, including the news media, are cropping up with increasing frequency," she continued. "Routinely, police shut down entire city blocks sweeping up everyone in sight, and control or prohibit credentialed journalists' access during the process. That happened in New York when members of the press were kept away from a middle-of-the-night closing of Zuccotti Park, and in Los Angeles in late November when the LAPD shut down Occupy Los Angeles." Boghosian noted in this case, "Reports indicated that television news helicopters stopped sending images of officers marching toward City Hall because the news station entered into an agreement with the LAPD to not reveal their plans. The police imposed an air space blackout forbidding all but law enforcement helicopters to film above Solidarity Park."

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