September, 24 2010, 02:35pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Paige Cram, Communications Coordinator, 212-679-5100, ext. 15
National Lawyers Guild Issues New Report on Unlawful Police Tactics
The National Lawyers Guild has released its third comprehensive
report on government violations of First Amendment rights on the
one-year anniversary of the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. "The Policing of
Political Speech: Constraints on Mass Dissent in the U.S." documents how police over-reaction to protected speech
has informed unlawful police tactics at National Special Security
Events, such as the 2008 Republican National Convention and the 2009
G-20 Summit.
WASHINGTON
The National Lawyers Guild has released its third comprehensive
report on government violations of First Amendment rights on the
one-year anniversary of the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. "The Policing of
Political Speech: Constraints on Mass Dissent in the U.S." documents how police over-reaction to protected speech
has informed unlawful police tactics at National Special Security
Events, such as the 2008 Republican National Convention and the 2009
G-20 Summit.
The report lays out age-old government tactics that have been
reintroduced under new anti-terrorism policies and legislation. Spying
on and infiltration of activists' meetings, the use of agents
provocateurs, raiding organizers meeting spaces and the misuse of grand
juries to collect information are some of the practices that are backed
up with recent incidents observed and being challenged in court by
National Lawyers Guild members.
Much of the report deals with recent prosecutions of activists on
terrorism-related charges based on fabricated evidence and the attaching
of inflated meaning to protest rhetoric:
"Protesters' calls to "crash the convention" or "shut down the
convention" are political rhetoric and are not direct calls for the
commission of crimes. Despite a body of Supreme Court decisions holding
that hyperbolic political speech is protected by the First Amendment,
and law enforcement's own awareness that there is no threat posed,
police continue to justify vast intelligence initiatives based on such
protected speech."
Copies of the report are available by calling the National Lawyers
Guild at 212-679-5100, ext. 15, or by downloading it from from our publications page.
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) works to promote human rights and the rights of ecosystems over property interests. It was founded in 1937 as the first national, racially-integrated bar association in the U.S.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 Americans and pardoning 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes, a move the White House described as "the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history."
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According to a White House fact sheet, those who received commutations "have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the Covid-era CARES Act," a law that extended the amount of time in which people could be placed in home confinement to reduce the spread of the virus in prisons.
The White House did not name those who received pardons or commutations but said the list includes a "decorated military veteran," a "nurse who has led emergency response for several natural disasters," and "an addiction counselor who volunteers his time to help young people find their purpose."
The Biden Justice Department paused federal executions in 2021, but President-elect Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to expand the use of the death penalty and is expected to allow the executions of the 40 men on death row to take place if they're still there when he takes office next month.
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Biden, who campaigned on ending the death penalty at the federal level, vowed to "take more steps in the weeks ahead" as his administration reviews clemency petitions, leaving open the possibility of commutations for death row prisoners.
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