Who are the brain police?

[catscradle]

This is taken from the Rocky Mountain Independent Media http://rockymountain.indymedia.org

Amateur photographer was "threat to national security"

An amateur photographer, Mike Maginnis, was arrested and detained in Denver, on Tuesday Dec 3rd, for simply snapping a photo of the Adam's Mark Hotel where Dick Cheney was staying. Black-bereted paramilitaries were stationed outside with M-16s, as well as the nefarious snipers on neighboring rooftops. Local police approached him and asked him to relinquish his film and camera.

After being arrested for photographing the VPs security a supposed "threat to national security", a Secret Service agent interrogated him, calling him a "raghead collaborator" and "dirty pinko-faggot" and threatened to charge Mike on terrorist charges under the USA-PATRIOT ACT. After an hour he was allowed to make a phone call and decided to call the Denver Post. An officer overhead his attempt to contact the media and immediately hung up the phone, placed him in a cell and was denied any subsequent calls. He was released 6 hours later without charges and without his camera.

The plot thickens as he made a later follow-up call to the DPD that has denied he was ever there. He tried to contact the Denver Post again and was told, "without evidence they would not report on the incident."

The Adam's Mark Hotel, which has a history of race-related complaints, has become somewhat of a bunker and staging ground for political repression in Denver. Nearly 3000 activists surrounded the hotel in September when UnPresident Bush had a $1000 a plate luncheon. Two weeks later during the Transform Columbus Day march, a couple dozen activists were detained by officers in the parking garage of the hotel.

Some more info on it here: http://www.ccmep.org/2002_articles/General/120702_photograph_cheneys_hotel.htm

Comments

[almostnever.livejournal.com]

My knee-jerk reaction is anger, of course, and disgust at the violation of civil liberties.

But then I started wondering. If there's no corroboration, and apparently no one saw this happen, and the DPD says he was never there-- well, I hate to say it, but what if the guy's making it up?

After all, not too long ago, Gabe Hudson invented his tale of receiving a letter from President Bush about his book, Dear Mr. President. I can't help worrying that we're hearing a few loud cries of "Wolf!" and chasing them down blindly while the sheep are quietly being slaughtered out of sight.

[catscradle.livejournal.com]

Certainly there's always a chance that someone is lying. But you've got about as much chance, if not more, of getting the truth as you do turning on CNN, FOX, CBS, ABC or NBC. What if he's lying, but what if he's not? What recourse would the guy have? The only people that would listen were the Indy Media. The Rocky Mountain Indy Media has a good reputation - I don't think they just took the guy's story and ran with it without asking a few questions like "Did anyone know you were going out to take pictures and can they cooberate the story?" There's also a recorded interview with the man that's got more info on it that the printed story.

I'm far more apt to believe this because the Denver police have a long record of this sort of shit. The reason they released their "spy record" to the public and dumped all the files the had on people (several thousand over the past few years) was because they got in serious trouble for violating rights of the people by not following proper procedures. The mayor's people starting checking into police operations, found the misconduct and ordered all the files destroyed.

I also know some first hand stories of people getting arrested at random at peace demonstration. Same story: held without being charged for several hours or over night, being verbally abused, having personal belongings such as camera's confiscated, then being released. All legal under the PATRIOT Act.