Big Brother is Stirring. . .

From an article in today's New York Times (Sunday, March 25). You can access the full article here.

An organization of artists called "Bands Against Bush". . . was planning concerts on Oct. 11, 2003, in New York, Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston. Between musical sets. . . there would be political speeches and videos. "Activists are showing a well-organized network made up of anti-Bush sentiment; the mixing of music and political rhetoric indicates sophisticated organizing skills with a specific agenda," said the report, dated Oct. 9, 2003.

Sounds like democracy in action, doesn't it?

Well, the report was compiled by the Intelligence Division of the New York City police. They were preparing for the Republic National Convention the following year, which would renominate George W, Bush for president, and they wanted to be ready for any trouble. (Remember Chicago, 1968?)

They made friends, shared meals, swapped e-mail messages and then filed daily reports with the department's Intelligence Division. Other investigators mined Internet sites and chat rooms. . . But potential troublemakers were hardly the only ones to end up in the files. In hundreds of reports stamped "NYPD Secret," the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law, the records show. These included members of street theater companies, church groups and anti-war organizations, as well as environmentalists and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government policies. Three New York City elected officials were cited in the reports.

I can understand why New York City would be worried about some violent events planned to coincide with the Republican Convention. And I can understand the need in this day and age to gather information, and the value of plants and informants. But it makes me nervous when the sitting goverment is secretly investigating citizens whose only crime is political dissent.

Here's a longer article from the Village Voice on how the authorities handled protests when the Convention finally rolled around. Is this protecting the peace, or stiffling poltical expression? There will continue to be a lot of tough calls like this in the future.