[DP] Fwd. human rights news---USA ----death penalty implications

[Laura and Bill]

   Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 16:03:29 -0600 (CST)
   From: Rick Halperin <rhalperi at post.cis.smu.edu>
Subject: human rights news---USA ----death penalty implications





March 13



USA//COLORADO:

Denver police accused of keeping illegal files on peaceful protest groups 


The American Civil Liberties Union has accused the Denver Police 
Department of keeping illegal files on peaceful protest groups 
including Amnesty International and the Nobel Peace Prize-winning 
American Friends Service Committee. 

The ACLU's Colorado legal director, Mark Silverstein, showed reporters 
files he said came from the police department. 

Silverstein wouldn't say how he obtained the files. He said they were 
marked as permanent, not simply reports that would be discarded at the 
end of the day. 

''These are a small sampling of documents we have that show Denver police 
are monitoring peaceful protest activities of individuals and law-abiding 
groups,'' he said at a news conference Monday. 

The ACLU has asked the mayor to stop all monitoring, make all files 
available to their subjects and have police disclose who has been given 
the information, Silverstein said. He threatened to sue if the practice 
isn't stopped. 

Andrew Hudson, spokesman for Mayor Wellington Webb, said Webb had asked 
police for a full report to answer the group's concerns. 

''The mayor thinks their concerns are legitimate,'' Hudson said. 

Denver Public Safety Department spokeswoman C.L. Harmer said police would 
comply with the mayor's request. 

Stephen B. Nash, who was identified in one of the files as an event 
organizer for Amnesty International, said police could not say the files 
were needed for security because of the Sept. 11 attacks. 

''My file goes back to 2000, well before Sept. 11,'' Nash said. 

The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group, ''acts in the 
best tradition of nonviolence,'' said Barry Leaman-Miller, who was 
identified in one file as a member of the ''American Friends Service 
Committee (criminal extremist G).'' 

There was no immediate explanation for the ''criminal extremist'' note. 

Harmer said people named in the files were not considered criminals and 
the files were collected because legal gatherings are sometimes the scene 
of illegal actions. 

''Law-abiding groups sponsoring lawful assemblies can be unwitting 
magnets for unlawful activity,'' she said. 

''If you go to a peaceful demonstration, is your name going to come up 
when you get a traffic ticket? The answer is no, because the data isn't 
shared,'' she said. ''I don't think this is a retreat to the era of J. 
Edgar Hoover.'' 

Harmer said that although the intelligence-gathering started before the 
terrorist attacks, the attacks illustrated the need for such files. 

Among the events mentioned in the files were a protest of an Italian-led 
parade honoring Columbus, protests of a killing by a police SWAT team 
that went to the wrong house, protests against the International Monetary 
Fund and World Bank, and demonstrations by the Chiapas Coalition against 
alleged civil rights violations in Mexico's poorest state. 
source:  Associated Press)
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