Be wary of surveillance during RNC '08

Today's New York Times has a story that should give local folks planning on demonstrating during the Twin Cities' RNC convention in 2008 pause. According to the article, the NYPD was doing extensive surveillance on people who were planning on attending to do the same thing prior to the RNC convention in NYC in 2004:

...beyond potential troublemakers, those placed under surveillance included
street theater companies, church groups, antiwar activists, environmentalists,
and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government
policies.

The demonstrators describe

...wrongful detentions of up to two days and other violations by the police to
keep protesters off the streets...

At the center of the issue is a federal judge's rejection today of City efforts to prevent the release of about 2,000 pages of intelligence documents that detail the NYPD's surveillance of the demonstrators. The ACLU is trying to get these documents released, in some degree of detail, because it holds that the details in the documents will disprove a NYPD claim, which is that the demonstrators planned to engage in violence during the convention.

Man, with the legalization of wiretapping this week (the gutting of the FISA law), and now this, there is a good chance that if you are mobilizing to demonstrate (probably anything more than an SUV that drives by your house), you'll be getting a few more "bugs" on you soon.

Watch your back!