Shen writes: "The New York Police Department has put out a 'police advisory' flyer warning cops and residents to look out for two 'professional agitators,' a Harlem couple who film officers stopping and frisking young New Yorkers of color."
Harlem couple and Occupy Wall Street protesters Christina Gonzalez and Matthew Swaye say they've been singled out by NYPD because they video cops conducting stop-and-frisks and posting them on YouTube. (photo: Susan Watts/NY Daily News)
NYPD Posts 'Wanted' Flyer Targeting Couple That Legally Videotapes Stop-and-Frisks
05 July 12
he New York Police Department has put out a “police advisory” flyer warning cops and residents to look out for two “professional agitators,” a Harlem couple who film officers stopping and frisking young New Yorkers of color.
DNAinfo reports that Matthew Swaye, 35, and his partner Christina Gonzalez, 25, came across the poster, complete with mugshots and the official seal of the NYPD’s intelligence division, taped to a podium in the 30th precinct’s public hearing room while attending a precinct council meeting. The flyer listed the home address of the couple and warned:
Be aware that the subjects are known professional agitators that live at [home address]. Above subjects mo is that they video tape officers performing routine stops and post on youtube. Subjects purpose is to portray officers in a negative way and too deter officers from conducting there responsibilities. Above subjects also deter officers from being safe and tactical by causing unnecessary distractions. Do not feed into subjects propaganda.
Swaye and Gonzalez have been arrested several times in the past year for civil disobedience. Swaye was detained at a stop-and-frisk protest in Harlem, along with a a group of advocates including Cornel West. Gonzalez was arrested at a Father’s Day stop-and-frisk march and, on a separate occasion, spent a few days at Rikers on a contempt charge after refusing to apologize for calling conservative Brooklyn Judge John H. Wilson a “white racist pig.”
The couple post videos on a YouTube channel showing NYPD officers conducting stop-and-frisks and assaulting demonstrators. Swaye explained, “We see ourselves as peace activists. The mug shots were for civil disobedience. They have us here like we robbed a bank.”
Another person attending the meeting told DNAinfo, “I thought: ‘Why isn’t anyone arresting them? When you see something like that, you think there’s a reward out for the person on the flyer.”
According to DNAinfo, the New York Civil Liberties Union recorded 7,550 total stops in the 30th precinct last year, 3,987 which involved a frisk, ranking it 38th in total number of frisks city-wide. On June 20, the NYPD invited reporters to a press conference and demo of an updated stop-and-frisk program after coming under fire for the racially-skewed practice.
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Well, so much for them being "New York's finest". :-}
Now the boy has to do the bureaucratic, paperwork run around to get his arrest records expunged, if he wants to remove the incident from his very public, police record. Then he has to make sure every agency and office he had contact with actually removes the expunged records. Even then his arrest is forever documented in the FBI files and, I'm sure, Homeland Security, etc..., etc...,
(Sarcasm alert) After all, this kid is an amateur agitator training to become a Professional!
It irks me that the police are paid by citizens to cause more trouble than the
so-called criminals.
Crime is 'up' or 'down' based upon many factors and also by the intentional manipulation of statistics by local police departments.
Crime is actually at an all time high in NYC, however, most of the criminals have been given a free pass (just go down to Wall Street and you can find many criminals congregating in their office buildings, with the full protection of New York's finest against that 'scourge of democracy', Occupy protesters. Better you stay in the MidWest, Tom and keep your head buried in those prairie dog holes.
I have to laugh. Don't be surprised if you don't get anywhere! By the way, did you know they can get you on perjury at any time they want to? All they have to do is get you to call the judge "your honour" while you're under oath.
Very often, stealth trumps frontal attack.
I am Zippy
If someone came to where you work, and taped you, and you werent doing anything wrong...would you retaliate? Thats what I dont get. If they are following the law as police, then why should they care they are being taped. These citizens are keeping them accountable for their actions. In my view the police are trying to hide what they are doing by intimidating this couple and trying to make them out to be the bad guys. If the police are doing their job properly there shouldnt be any problem with them being taped.
This is just my opinion, and honestly if someone came where I worked and was taping me, I would love it! Thats just me though because I have nothing to hide!
Calling the harassment and intimidation of this couple by armed and violent "peace officers" a "clever response" is condoning repression of peaceful first amendment activity. Conservatives love the constitution as long as it doesn't get in their way.
I have been photographed and interviewed while working on numerous occasions. I regard this as good public relations, even though I have been mis-quoted by journalists who were more interested in expressing their opinions than in documenting events.
"A new video taken by activists who were branded "professional agitators" for filming police stops — and shown on an NYPD "Wanted" poster at their local precinct — appears to show officers monitoring the pair's Harlem apartment building." Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20120704/west-harlem/professional-agitators-on-nypd-wanted-flier-eyed-by-cops-activists-say#ixzz209NZvUIx
When the police are being filmed, no one (to my knowledge) has posted their personal addresses (which would be an invitation for misconduct and harassment, as it is in this case))
I think I'll get that printed on a T-shirt.
After all they actually voted Bloomberg back in as Mayor.
You get the government that you vote for . . . .
If you do not vote than you get the government that others vote for.
Welcome to the real world.
Folks better pay attention.
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