FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
NEW YORK – The New York Civil Liberties Union today made public reams of
documents and dozens of hours of video about the New York Police Department’s
policing of the 2004 Republican National Convention. The release follows a
federal judge’s ruling last month that New York City could not stop the NYCLU
from sharing the documents with the public.
"The public has a right to see
these documents," said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. "The court
recognized that democracy dies behind closed doors, and today we carry out that
court's mandate to keep it alive."
The judge's ruling came in connection with
the NYCLU's two post-RNC lawsuits challenging mass arrests and detentions during
the 2004 Republican National Convention. The documents and videos were obtained
by the NYCLU in pre-trial discovery. New York City said the documents in
question were secret and could not be shared; the NYCLU countered that there was
nothing sensitive about the documents and that they should be part of the public
record. The judge, James C. Francis IV, ruled on the side of the NYCLU. The city
did not appeal.
The documents illuminate the how the 2004 Republican
National Convention was policed. Highlights include:
• The Pier 57 NYPD
Officer Medical Reports, which were filed with the NYPD's own medical division
by 40 of the NYPD's own officers. NYPD complainants (whose names are redacted)
report that they were exposed to various harmful substances - including
asbestos, carbon monoxide, unidentified fumes, and an unidentified black liquid
- while assigned to Pier 57 during the convention. The reports indicate that
protesters' concerns about conditions of detention at Pier 57 were shared by the
officers assigned to the area.
• The RNC No-Summons Memo of May 4, 2004,
which announces that NYPD officers would not give summonses to protesters during
the convention, instead arresting and fingerprinting them. This policy caused
lengthy detentions of demonstrators; without it, 1,500 of the 1,800 arrestees
would have been eligible for summons and quick release.
• The RNC
Arrest-to-Arraignment Charts, which show that RNC arrestees were arraigned much
more slowly than non-RNC arrestees during the week of the convention. The charts
raise troubling questions as to why protesters arrested for minor offenses were
being held much longer than people arrested for serious crimes during the
convention.
The documents are available on the NYCLU's website at: www.nyclu.org/rncdocs