The Police State - Controlling Manhattan (part 1)

NY Times
Sep. 8, 2008.

When the New York Police Department refused to release its database of hundreds of thousands of civilian stop and frisk encounters, the New York Civil Liberties Union sued to obtain the data.

The group went to court again last month after police officials resisted its requests for data on the races of people shot by officers.

On Monday, lawyers with the civil liberties group opened up a new front, filing a suit seeking information about the departments proposed Lower Manhattan Security Initiative.

The security plan envisions a London-like ring of steel around downtown, with mobile teams of heavily armed officers as well as technology including closed-circuit television cameras, license plate readers and explosive trace detection systems. In a segment of the plan called Operation Sentinel, the department also proposes to photograph every vehicle entering Manhattan, scan the license plates and use sensors to check for radiation, and then keep the information on file for at least a month.

While Operation Sentinel was not specifically mentioned in the lawsuit, Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the civil liberties group, said her organization wanted details on that program as well.

We are trying to get information about all of that stuff, and what weve gotten, which is outlined in our petition, is bare bones, Ms. Lieberman said. We dont know what the geographical scope is, and we dont know what the data-collection scope is.

In a statement, the group said that with a system expected to cost about $100 million, public knowledge and input was essential.

The N.Y.P.D. is planning blanket surveillance of millions of law-abiding New Yorkers, but it refuses to disclose even the simplest details of this costly proposal, Ms. Lieberman said. A plan of this scope, expense and intrusiveness demands robust public debate and legislative oversight. The public has a right to this information.

Paul J. Browne, the Police Departments chief spokesman, said the department had already released as much information as it could without compromising its plans for an area of the city — and nation — that has repeatedly been a target of terrorists.

We have already provided the N.Y.C.L.U. with information short of a road map for terrorists to use in another attack on the financial district, Mr. Browne said.

The civil liberties group has raised questions about how long the police will warehouse the information on cars entering Manhattan, how it will be used and whom it will be shared with. Officials of the group said that the department handed over 91 pages of documents but that those papers did not satisfy its quest for information.

On Monday, Mr. Browne stressed that if information was not linked to a suspicious vehicle or to a law enforcement investigation, it would be eliminated.

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/nyregion/09steel.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• The
• Police
• State
• Controlling
• Manhattan
• (part
• 1)

[RaabBlog]

9/11 gave the government a label to put on everything so they can control us. Terror this terrorists that its all a bunch of shit for them to say so they can use these damn body scanners and control cities with the fucking military.

[republicansarecool]

@tone4624 i agree!

[tone4624]

Were all conspiracy theroist? When will Americans wake up to what 9-11 was all about? It worked 2 wars, no constitution, camaers every fu**in where, police do what ever they want and courts back them,,, NWO-Police State it here and WARN everyone you know!!Its no joke or conspiracy folks!!I got to this vid, from watching one about NY time reporter taken to custody, NYers bein stopprd an frizkrd.

[doctorjn]

This is ridiculous! The gov't is going crazy - police state.

[RadioReporter01]

Stupid because you could have a stolen , fake or obscured plate. Magnetic plate removed to change ID.

Or you could bring anything over the bridge on a cart.

As far as deleting the info after a while, baloney.

[RadioReporter01]

No it's not. This is what congestion pricing thing was, just a scam to get these cams in place.

The police state is already here.

As far as those stop and frisk, I've been stopped and my info not recorded so I know those stats are really phony

[kenjams]

This is NOT about terrorist attacks.