NEW YORK, May 20 - Over several hours about one hundred New Yorkers filed into the gymnasium at the Chelsea Recreation Center on West 25th Street to sign their name to a list and get in line for their five minutes of free speech at a public hearing about proposed new Parks Department rules to restrict large gatherings on Central Park's Great Lawn.

[ NYCLU press release ]

Today, the City of New York settled the contempt proceedings initiated by New York State Supreme Court Judge John Cataldo on September 2, 2004 when City officials violated multiple release orders Judge Cataldo issued on the afternoon of the 2nd in response to habeas corpus writs filed by attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild and the Legal Aid Society the prior day.

Independent videos shows how police lied and selectively edited video to justify wrongful arrests at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City.

On Friday, police arrested 37 riders and confiscated dozens of bicylcles. Last week, the city filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the group TIME'S UP! from promoting or advertising events that the city alleges to be illegal. The lawsuit also states that TIME'S UP! and the general public cannot participate in riding or gathering at the Critical Mass bike ride.

In the first jury trial stemming from the mass arrests at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, video and photographic evidence showed that police testimony in the case appeared to have been entirely fabricated. Judge Gerald Harris granted a motion to dismiss all charges against Dennis Kyne on December 16th, 2004, after the defendant’s attorneys produced the evidence contradicting statements made by NYPD officer Matthew Wohl while under oath.

October 7, 2004 -- The New York Civil Liberties Union today filed two lawsuits against the City of New York in federal court, challenging the NYPD's treatment of peaceful and lawful protesters during the recent Republican National Convention in New York City. The NYCLU lawsuits specifically challenge the indiscriminate, mass arrests of people - protesters, observers, and bystanders -- who had assembled peacefully and lawfully on public sidewalks; their unjustified and unexplained lengthy detentions in a filthy bus depot (Pier 57); and the systematic fingerprinting of people arrested for minor offenses. The cases, the first filed since the RNC, seek court orders that these practices are unlawful so that they are not used at future demonstrations in New York City. 

[ read more | NYCLU Plaintiffs | Complaint 1 | Complaint 2

When cops play peacekeeper, free speech too often becomes the enemy. (A decent article from the Village Voice.)

These images, presented in no particular order, provide evidence that the NYPD used diverse means to interrupt and discourage Constitutionally protected dissent, through illegal arrest, intimidation, and other tactics. Photos were taken between 8/28 and 9/1/2004.

Click on a photo to see a larger version.

A woman shows her chemcial burns from "Guantanamo on the Hudson."

A lone media outlet reports the facts and finds evidence that the police are inciting violence and crushing dissent.