Cops expect unexpected with GOP

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA, Staff Writer (Newsday)

August 13, 2004

Water balloons. Sleeping dragons. A drummer really into the beat.

These are some of the tools of anarchy that police have been told to watch for as they prepare for protests during the Republican National Convention.

According to an NYPD guidebook printed for the convention and obtained by Newsday, cops assigned to convention duty are likely to have their hands full with strident protest groups that don't have permits to march and generally don't play by the rules.

The 35-page booklet, "Legal guidelines for the Republican National Convention," was printed to let cops know what to expect when the protest groups that police generally call anarchists roll into town the last week of August, police sources say.

The booklet deals in great detail with First Amendment issues, media accessibility and what cops should and should not allow. It also lays out the various tricks, tactics and methods that police say many protest groups use to get their message out.

Rigged balloons and more

Seemingly innocent balloons may not be so harmless, the booklet says, as protesters have been known to fill them with metal shavings and launch them "towards electrical power lines" in hopes of causing a blackout.

Cops are also told in the booklet to expect protesters to hurl objects at them. Weapons of choice for the protesters, according to the booklet, include frozen water balloons thrown off buildings, as well as billiard and golf balls and hockey pucks hurled from street level, often with slingshots.

The problem with the groups coming here with no permit and intent to wreak havoc is that police do not know where or when some of them are likely to act.

Hurling projectiles, on cue

Police sources say undercover cops have infiltrated at least some of the groups they expect to cause trouble. That should help them nip some of the problems in the bud, but there is still some concern, according to the booklet, that protesters may hide items on the streets that they intend to hurl at police. Often, the signal to start throwing or to rush to a predetermined location is the faster beat of the drummer from the band that accompanies many groups.

Eric Laursen of A31 Coalition, a group organizing civil disobedience on Aug. 31, said that the warnings in the NYPD booklet are "urban legends" that only increase the likelihood of conflict.

"The unanswerable question is how conscious the top brass are that these are basically urban legends," Laursen said. "If they aren't, they need to be more responsible. If they are aware, then you have a really reckless, nefarious effort to discredit people who haven't done anything wrong."

The booklet also warns cops that protesters have been known to target police horses by stringing wire at street level to trip them, tossing marbles in their paths or slicking streets with vegetable oil.

Police expect to make hundreds of arrests, but even then, protesters have plans, according to the booklet: faking police brutality, with protesters impersonating cops and beating other protesters; falling limp; securing themselves to others or to fixed objects with bicycle locks or by inserting their arms into "sleeping dragons," concrete-enforced pipes often rigged with chicken wire.

Words will be rubber

The booklet also serves as a legal primer for cops. It explains the First Amendment, warns cops against arresting someone if they don't like what they are saying, and tells them they must have "thicker skins and tolerate verbal abuse that would otherwise constitute harassment if directed at an ordinary citizen."

"With few exceptions," the booklet notes, "a person may say anything he or she wants, no matter how offensive."

Staff writer Daryl Khan contributed to this report.

Posted by Palabris at August 16, 2004 06:55 AM