Police Stop Collecting Data on Protestors' Politics When a series of large antiwar protests began nearly eight weeks ago, the New York Police Department started questioning hundreds of people arrested at the demonstrations about their prior political activity and recording the information in a database. But yesterday, after the practice came to light, the Police Department said it would destroy the database, created with a debriefing form, and largely abandon the initiative, which civil libertarians and constitutional law experts said was deeply troubling.
So this would be more newsworthy if your brown-shirted friends were recorded in a police database. Understood.
"He also said that because the department viewed the questioning of the arrested demonstrators as "debriefings" rather than "interrogations," they were not entitled to a lawyer, a position with which Mr. Dunn and other civil liberties lawyers vehemently disagreed." This is the sort of stuff that makes me glad I'm a card carrying member of the ACLU.
LOL.... Tell me you didnt just say that.. Did the box of tissue and eye drops come with the membership?
Ditto, it's frightening to me that law enforcement thinks that they can get away with this sort of shit. Even worse is that many Americans seem not to care.
The ACLU is not mentioned at all as protesting this in that article. They're too busy tearing down stautes of Santa Claus and burning poinsettas. EDIT: Sorry if I'm wrong, is the NYCLU a branch of the ACLU or what?