For almost 2 years, the Miami Police Department has desperately been trying to ensure that the 2003 FTAA police operations plan remains a secret, even from the city's own Civilian Investigative Panel which is charged with investigating the large scale police brutality that took place on November 20-21, 2003. MPD has finally revealed it's reasoning for the secrecy: releasing the plan could "jeopardize future operations nationwide" because "authorities THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY have adopted the plan". This is a stunning, yet frightening admission, as it confirms the deep suspicions of political activists who have personally witnessed the same repressive tactics travel from city to city, protest to protest. This also lends further support to the ominous statements made earlier by Miami Police Chief John Timoney, that the FTAA was "the first big event for Homeland Security...the first real realistic run-through to see how it would work."

The Pittsburgh Police Department displayed an excessive use of force at a demonstration yesterday outside a military recruitment station located near the University of Pittsburgh. Five were arrested, two were hospitalized and several others received injuries as a result of police unwarranted use of Tasers, pepper spray, retracting batons and K-9 units. Two others were issued citations when they complained about police misconduct.

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) documented a number of types of police misconduct during the OAS protests on June 4 and 5, 2005, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The NLG trained and coordinated Legal Observers to monitor and document police conduct and also worked as part of a legal team, Mobilization for Activist Defense, to set up a legal hotline for activists to use to make reports from the street.

Dozens of incidents in which police officers have used electric stun guns to subdue unruly students have led school officials around the USA to restrict the use of the devices on campus.

Today, May 25, 2005, the Stern Commission, an independent group investigating the police shooting of 21-year-old Victoria Snelgrove on October 21, 2004, released their findings. Their report concludes that Snelgrove's death was caused by series a mistakes made by the Boston Police, starting with the purchase of the weapon that was used in the shooting.

Snelgrove, a broadcast journalism student at Emerson College, was killed after being hit in the eye by a pepper-spray projectile while celebrating the Boston Red Sox's victory over the New York Yankees in the American League playoffs. The projectile was fired by a FN-303 "less lethal" launcher that was purchased earlier in the year with funds earmarked for DNC security. Earlier this month the city of Boston paid her family a $5.1 million settlement to avoid a wrongful death lawsuit, and the Boston ACLU released their recommendations for so-called "less lethal" weapons used by the Boston Police Department and other law enforcement agencies in the Commonwealth.

However, members of Save Our Civil Liberties feel that there are reasons to be concerned with the Stern report.

[ Stern Commission report | Boston ACLU report | feature about settlement | original feature about Snelgrove's shooting ]

(Washington, DC)—Today Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), released the following statement regarding documents listing Taser International executives, consultants and businesses partners as panelists in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) TASER study. This discovery reported over the weekend by the Arizona Republic marks the third time in five months that the manufacturer has been linked to "independent" studies:

WASHINGTON -- May 20 -- The National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee, with lawyers from Southern Legal Counsel and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida, filed a lawsuit on May 19, 2005 in the Southern District Federal Court in Florida, seeking to bar law enforcement from enforcing a sweeping security perimeter around the site of the Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly in early June in Fort Lauderdale, as well as challenging a series of antiquated laws regulating the use of public property for expressive activities.

WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union charged today that the FBI and local police are engaging in intimidation based on political association and are improperly investigating law-abiding human rights and advocacy groups, according to documents obtained through a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. ACLU affiliates today filed FOIA requests seeking similar documents in ten states.

Police get rowdy at a Halliburton protest in Houston, TX on Wednesday, May 18th. At least two indymedia videographer were arrested as police used horses to trample and harm protesters outside Halliburton's annual shareholders meeting. Inside, police used "pain compliance" techniques to arrest people doing peaceful civil disobedience.

The City of Boston announced yesterday that it will pay the biggest wrongful death settlement in its history, $5 million, to the family of Victoria Snelgrove, the college student killed in October by police trying to control a crowd outside Fenway Park.