A23 Lawyers Fight Monitoring A 1985 consent decree that curtails police monitoring of political groups does not fetter the New York Police Department in its pursuit of terrorists, a group of civil liberties lawyers contended in papers filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
A 1985 consent decree that curtails police monitoring of political groups does not fetter the New York Police Department in its pursuit of terrorists, a group of civil liberties lawyers contended in papers filed yesterday in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
In an unusual alliance, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association is joining the New York Civil Liberties Union and groups representing black and Hispanic police officers to discuss their concerns about the Police Department's possible monitoring of the groups, which are often critical of the department.
Part of the increase was due to success of MI5 monitoring of extremist groups, he indicated.
Maina Kiai, a UN special rapporteur on the freedom of peaceful assembly, called the monitoring of protest groups "raw, unvarnished intimidation and activist-busting.
In a shift in strategy, officials have been seeking to intensify the monitoring of suspected groups and collect intelligence on them, rather than simply moving to arrest suspects.
Monitoring of opposition groups is common: one lobbyist from agency Edelman talks of the need for "360-degree monitoring" of the internet, complete with online "listening posts... so they can pick up the first warning signals" of activist activity.
Because the convention was treated as a possible target for terrorists, the F.B.I. was aggressive in its monitoring of protest groups; Mr. Darby was made an informant.
Asked at the Policing Board meeting if he backed the restoration of the IMC, the chief constable said: "The monitoring of paramilitary groups as conducted, for example, by the IMC until 2011, was part of a political agreement.
Hughes has however shared his copy of the documents with a website that records the monitoring of political groups, the Special Branch Files Project, and they are published here (with an analysis).
