City Asks Court Not to Unseal Police Spy Files

[cal04]

Lawyers for the city, responding to a request to unseal records of police surveillance leading up to the 2004 Republican convention in New York, say that the documents should remain secret because the news media will “fixate upon and sensationalize them,” hurting the city’s ability to defend itself in lawsuits over mass arrests.

In papers filed in federal court last week, the city’s lawyers also say that the documents could be “misinterpreted” because they were not intended for the public.

“The documents were not written for consumption by the general public,” wrote Peter Farrell, senior counsel in the city’s Law Department. “The documents contain information filtered and distilled for analysis by intelligence officers accustomed to reading intelligence information.”

Because the materials have not yet been used to decide or argue any issues in the civil lawsuits, Mr. Farrell said, “there is no right of public access.”

The documents show that the Police Department’s Intelligence Division sent undercover detectives around the city, the country and the world to collect information on political activists and others planning to demonstrate at the 2004 convention, according to a sampling of records reviewed by The New York Times that were the subject of an article yesterday. The records included intelligence digests and field reports from detectives, known as DD5s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/26/nyregion/26infiltrate.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[Kagemusha]

1. Your honor, these documents make us look guilty as hell!

You can't unseal them!

(Is that pathetic or what?...)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. "An Horse And Pony Show!"

"A Fishing Expedition!"

"A Show Trial!"

"Um, err..."

[C_U_L8R]

3. No right to public access???

who do these creeps work for ???

[LiberalFighter]

4. Of course they weren't meant for public consumption.. That is why done secretly!

[HuffleClaw]

5. "should remain secret because the news media will “fixate upon and sensationalize"?

that is hardly a legitimate reason. in fact i'd say it would be a justification for making them public.

[Gman]

6. Every argument they make to not release the files

is a damn good reason to release them.

[Old and In the Way]

7. The "RNC Intelligence Squad"

Did they have a unit called "DNC intelligence squad? If not, why not?

[bonito]

8. More than just the city's involvement is at stake here

I bet.

[H2O Man]

9. In a democracy,

there are not supposed to be "secret police."