RW ONLINE:RNC Puppet Police\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Know yourself and know the enemy and you can win a hundred battles\r\n RNC Puppet Police\r\n <\/p>
Revolutionary Worker #1076, October 29, 2000<\/i>, rwor.org \r\n <\/b><\/p>
INFILTRATORS IN THE WAREHOUSE<\/p>\r\n
On August 1, as demonstrations against the criminal injustice system were \r\n about to hit full speed at the Republican National Convention, the \r\n Philadelphia police staged a raid. The target, a warehouse in West \r\n Philadelphia, was being used by activists to prepare political puppets. These \r\n puppets were to have been part of demonstrations against the criminal justice \r\n system and the death penalty--and to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal. \r\n Instead of making it to the street, the puppets were destroyed by police and \r\n the 75 people in and around the warehouse were arrested.<\/p>\r\n
The story of the warehouse raid, however, did not start on August 1, but \r\n about a week before. It was then, during preparations for the protests, that \r\n four men showed up at the warehouse at 41st and Haverford. The four, known as \r\n Tim, Harry, George and Ryan, were older than most of the puppet building crew. \r\n They said they were union carpenters from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, who \r\n built stages. According to those working on the puppets at the warehouse, they \r\n were hard workers, but did not seem very political.<\/p>\r\n
In fact the four were Pennsylvania state police, working undercover. Their \r\n job was to gather intelligence on those organizing protests and lay the basis \r\n for a \"search warrant\" being issued that would lead to the raid in the \r\n warehouse. What else these police spies were doing during that time has not \r\n yet come out.<\/p>\r\n
News of the agents was revealed in an affidavit filed in court before the \r\n raid (sealed at the time) and made public in September. The affidavit \r\n specifically acknowledges the spies saying, \"This investigation is utilizing \r\n several Pennsylvania State Troopers in an undercover capacity that have \r\n infiltrated several of the activist groups planning to commit numerous illegal \r\n direct actions.\"<\/p>\r\n <\/b>
National Police Web<\/p>\r\n
The affidavit itself is written by two Pennsylvania State Police officers \r\n who say they are part of a task force \"consisting of various operational units \r\n within the Pennsylvania State Police assigned to the RNC.\" It opens with their \r\n \"resumes\" and is a window into the web of police operations going on during \r\n the RNC.<\/p>\r\n
One of the cops, Corporal Howard W. Shepard, is described as a member of \r\n the Pennsylvania State Police and unit supervisor of the Bureau of Criminal \r\n Investigation, Criminal Investigation Assessment Unit. The other cop, Trooper \r\n Gregg J. Kravistkly, describes himself saying he has participated in more than \r\n 125 undercover investigations, and that \"I have received specialized training \r\n in the investigation of illegal drug trafficking and criminal investigation \r\n from the PSP [Pennsylvania State Police], the Office of Attorney General of \r\n Pennsylvania (OAG), the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), \r\n the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Middle Atlantic Great Lakes \r\n Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network (MAGLOCLEN).\"<\/p>\r\n
Amid the tangle of acronyms this cop trots out, something is being \r\n revealed. \"MAGLOCLEN\" is part of the U.S. Justice Department funded Regional \r\n Information Sharing System--a law enforcement network set up to share \r\n intelligence and coordinate efforts against what it calls \"criminal networks\" \r\n that cross jurisdictional lines. The DEA training he mentions sounds similar \r\n to \"Operation Pipeline\" training--a national program to teach local police how \r\n to turn traffic stops into drug busts, and for filling police databases with \r\n information gained during such \"Pipeline\" stops. Pipeline has been responsible \r\n for the huge wave of a certain kind of racial profiling that has swept across \r\n the U.S. In any case, to see state police with this type of national training \r\n utilized at the RNC is certainly interesting--especially from the standpoint \r\n of how these federal initiatives tie together local police agencies into a \r\n more cohesive law enforcement unit for political suppression.<\/p>\r\n <\/b>
Criminalizing Dissent<\/p>\r\n
The affidavit is revealing of how the power structure viewed tackling the \r\n protests during the RNC. The bulk of the document deals with describing the \r\n political forces who were in the field around the RNC and specifically \r\n mentions a number of groups. Among them: Direct Action Network, ACTUP \r\n Philadelphia, Kensington Welfare Rights Union, Ruckus Society, Black \r\n Box-Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc, R2K Committee of the Pennsylvania \r\n Consumer Action Network, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia \r\n Abu-Jamal, National People's Campaign\/Worker's World, and Refuse & \r\n Resist!. As it describes the organizations, it cites statements from \r\n organizers and refers to actions at previous demonstrations, in an attempt to \r\n raise the specter of \"lawbreaking\" during the RNC. The police proceed from the \r\n standpoint that these forces, by their very declarations that they will \r\n demonstrate, are criminal.<\/p>\r\n
It was by \"criminalizing dissent\" that police attempted to preempt a strong \r\n message indicting the injustices of their system during the RNC. The affidavit \r\n is filled with speculation and hearsay about what could happen in Philly and \r\n recounts what happened at the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle and \r\n anti-IMF (International Monetary Fund) demonstration in Washington, DC. It is \r\n very concerned that demonstrators might effectively block traffic and create \r\n greater disruptions--and it attempts to cast this in a sinister criminal \r\n light.<\/p>\r\n
To give some flavor of the police method here, the affidavit quotes a \r\n pretty straightforward section of the Independent Media Center's mission \r\n statement, \"the focus will be on what happens outside the convention center: \r\n the impact on the city and its people's lives, and the diverse range of \r\n perspectives that will be represented in a variety of protest marches, rallies \r\n and other events during convention week.\" It then tries to paint this with the \r\n brush of criminality by saying there were Independent Media Centers during the \r\n protests in Seattle and Washington, DC and that \"Information indicated that \r\n members of the IMC conducted counter-surveillance of law enforcement. They \r\n also monitored broadcasts of police radio communications and provided real \r\n time broadcasts of the same over the internet. The IMC provided communications \r\n between groups of demonstrators and orchestrated their movements.\"<\/p>\r\n
Given the undercover operatives the political police fielded in \r\n Philadelphia, this charge of \"conducting counter-surveillance\" is particularly \r\n outrageous. Why shouldn't an independent media be interested in what the \r\n police were doing! As for the charge of monitoring police radio and the \r\n like--that's exactly what the mainstream media does day in and day out. Only \r\n they do this deliberately to aid the authorities in everything from \r\n controlling demonstrations to building support for the cold-blooded war on the \r\n people they call a \"war on crime.\" The message here is that the police and \r\n other state authorities have the right to surveil, infiltrate, arrest, \r\n interrogate, etc. at will. On the other hand, people stepping out and opposing \r\n the system, including by monitoring how the police are conducting their \r\n repression, is not only off-limits, it is evidence of a \"criminal \r\n conspiracy.\"<\/p>\r\n
And the police image of planned mayhem in the street was <\/i>projected \r\n and reinforced by the mainstream media during the RNC. It was widely reported \r\n that a piece of equipment for holding puppets was \"a giant sling shot\" and \r\n that fire-twirling props were \"kerosene soaked rags.\" Just how far \"out there\" \r\n things got came out in the sensational reporting of the seizure of a bus \r\n filled with lizards, mice, frogs, crickets, snakes and toads (some of them \r\n poisonous according to the press) by gun-wielding police. Cops suggested that \r\n the animals might be used as weapons against the police, or perhaps were set \r\n to be released at the GOP arena to disrupt it. Ten days later police quietly \r\n released the bus and most of the 1,000 animals, which were in fact destined to \r\n go to a pet store<\/i> before being swept up by the police.<\/p>\r\n <\/b>
Lies and Denials<\/p>\r\n
In the aftermath of the raid, police flatly denied that they had \r\n infiltrated any groups. These were the same cops who just as forcefully denied \r\n that they were responsible for surveillance in advance of the convention. In \r\n other words, they lied.<\/p>\r\n
Activists in early July reported on how men with cameras had been staked \r\n out across the street from where they were meeting. The PPD denied this at the \r\n time with Deputy Commissioner Robert Mitchell saying, \"All I can say is no. \r\n [It's] not us.\" Two weeks later, after one newspaper traced the license plate \r\n numbers to the PPD, police spokesperson Susan Slawson admitted, \"We were \r\n surveilling.\" In the same interview she said flatly, \"We are not infiltrating \r\n groups.\"<\/p>\r\n
Revelations of these police agents was disturbing for those who ended up \r\n working with them. One young protester who worked with the four undercover \r\n cops on a float told the Philadelphia Inquirer <\/i>that he was suspicious \r\n based on how the four \"volunteer carpenters\" looked but thought that he was \r\n just responding to stereotypes. \"I remember thinking to myself, 'Why does \r\n everyone who looks like that have to be a cop?' I didn't like that I thought \r\n like that.\" One problem is that looks really aren't a good way to figure out \r\n such a difficult matter. A better clue that something was wrong came out in \r\n the fact that, according to demonstrators (talking to the Philadelphia \r\n Inquirer<\/i>), \"They did not seem particularly political or well-informed.\" \r\n There are deep lessons here for political activists about knowing the enemy \r\n and knowing the people.<\/p>\r\n
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This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker \r\n Online
rwor.org
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(The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.) \r\n<\/p>\r\n\n","contact":"","link":"www.rwor.org","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Report on political police operations againt the R2K protestors in Philadelphia this summer, including the targeting of the Philly IMC.","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2000\/10\/rw_onlinernc_puppet_police.htm","filesize":"10.9 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2000\/10\/4299.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":4307,"heading":"The lesson here","article":"R2K showed many of us who participated in it what not to do sometimes. We were infiltrated. Agent provocateurs were among us. But it was also a learning experience for many.\r\n\r\nThe knee-jerk reaction of many after Aug. 1st who were not swept up and arrested was to point fingers at anyone we didn't know. Some people who genuinely wanted to help were given the cold shoulder, and this is not the solution. What is important is to keep an affinity group and stick to it. If someone pops out of nowhere offering assistance, talk to them, see if they are actually motivated. See if they know the issues. There are things that all of us know that an undercover would most likely not be informed about.\r\n\r\nTwo examples: One undercover, a woman, wore a red bandanna over her face and was with anarchists, but she wore a Penn State sweatshirt and Nikes. Does that seem out of place? Yeah, a little.\r\n\r\nAnother thing to look for is for a relative unknown suddenly coming up with an idea for a direct action. Direct actions should be planned and decided on before hand.\r\n\r\nFinally, a problem is centralized storage or convergence. Centralized storage has hurt us in the past and it will continue to do so. We got nailed in Philly because everything was at that Warehouse.\r\n\r\nThis is not a call to go underground or anything, don't get me wrong. Secrecy and paranoia can be just as bad as carelessness. Just be alert, and plan ahead.\r\n\r\nSolidarity.","author":"A former puppetista","parent_id":4299,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-11-01 04:32:39","modified":"2000-11-01 05:00:00","fileurl":""}]}