-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.boulderweekly.com/uncensored.html
}}}>Begin
Criminals R Us
Quaker guerillas are coming to a protest near you
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by Pamela White
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
It was October 2000, and I was covering the protest against Denver's reinstated
Columbus Day Parade. A man stood at the base of the east steps of the city and
county building with a video camera pressed to his eye.
Thinking he was media, I went over to introduce myself.
"Are you with Free Speech TV?" I asked.
He smirked. "No."
"Who are you with?" I asked.
He ignored my question.
I wondered if he was FBI or Denver police-or perhaps just rude-but the protest had
started, and I had work to do.
About an hour later, as police lines closed and women sat down in the street to block
the parade, I noticed the man with the camera slip through the crowd and duck
behind a wall of cops in riot gear, where he resumed filming.
Now, almost two years later, this encounter makes perfect sense. No doubt this man
was part of Denver Intel-the not-so-public branch of the Denver Police Department
that has been spying on activists and maintaining permanent files on people who
hold certain political points of view.
The American Civil Liberties Union announced on March 11 that Denver police have
been keeping "spy files" on local activists and activist groups long before Sept. 11.
An estimated 3,200 individuals and 200 organizations are included in the top-secret
files. The ACLU has demanded that Denver Mayor Wellington Webb put a stop to
the practice and make full public disclosure regarding the files. The civil-liberties
organization has also demanded that police notify the people and organizations
included in their files. The matter is now headed for court, as Colorado ACLU has
filed a lawsuit. vWhat's so astonishing about this news is not that police were
violating the law to spy on activists and their organizations-an act of political
profiling-
but that police were daring to label people and groups in a highly inflammatory and
prejudiced way.
Stephen Nash, a prominent member of several activist groups including Amnesty
International and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group,
discovered that he was one of the people who'd been spied on when ACLU made its
files public. Police records include a table listing places Nash had been seen, places
he frequents, organizations to which he belongs and protests around the nation in
which he has participated. Documents also include his home address and
information about his wife and cars.
Kerry Appel, owner of the Human Bean Company, is also in the files. Appel travels to
Mexico, where he buys coffee beans from Indigenous farmers and brings them back
to his coffee shop in Denver. A member of Chiapas Coalition, Apple works openly to
raise awareness about U.S. policies that cause suffering among Mexico's original
inhabitants and to raise money for humanitarian aid in Mexico. Appel's file is much
like Nash's. Documents tell where Appel has been seen, where he lives, which
protests he's participated in, and which groups he's joined.
More shocking are documents on the Chiapas Coalition, Amnesty International and
the American Friends Service Committee. The three organizations, known for their
dedication to non-violence, are listed by Denver police as "Criminal Extremist"
groups.
Criminal extremists?
When most of us think of criminal extremists, we think of people who've actually
committed crimes, particularly crimes of violence-people like Tim McVeigh or
abortion clinic bombers. We don't think of people with no criminal record. We don't
think of peaceniks who so despise violence that they don't eat meat. And we certainly
don't think of Quakers.
On the one hand, it's quite funny. Imagine a headline that includes the words
"Quaker guerillas" or "coffee-bean-laden terrorists" or "human-rights paramilitary."
On the other hand, it's infuriating. That police could apply such a designation without
due cause demonstrates clearly that these spy files were part of an operation
intended not only to keep tabs on people with unpopular opinions, but to build a body
of evidence and a strong police bias against them. How's the average street cop
supposed to react when a routine traffic stop turns up someone who's listed as a
member of a "criminal extremist" group?
The cops say everyone does this and that the files were never intended to be shared
with anyone outside Denver Intel. This is bunk. Boulder, despite other Big Brother
tendencies, doesn't keep files on activists even though it's an activist mecca. And
there's evidence to suggest these files have already been shared with other law-
enforcement agencies. Appel says the last time he traveled to Mexico, Mexican
officials quizzed him using information they'd obviously gotten from someone in
Denver.
There's evidence, too, that Denver Intel is working with informants. Documents that
made their way to Boulder Weekly show that police did checks with the Department
of Motor Vehicles, as part of a criminal investigation, on everyone who attended a
certain activist meeting. But they didn't stop at merely identifying people who
attended. They took the time to make notes about the activists using information
from someone who spent time with the activists.
In the case of one young man, police have written by hand, "Wears hat backwards
with bandana-fatalist type."
In another, police were clearly trying to figure out how to classify someone. "WAAKE-
UP? CU student?" they've written, again by hand. In this case, they shot wide of the
mark, as the person in question is a journalist who used to work with me and who
attended the meeting as part of his job.
So much for the intelligence part of Denver Intel.
The only way to respond to this kind of anti-activist activity: Call (720) 913- 6018
and
demand to be included on Denver Intel's list as a criminal extremist. You'll be in good
company.
Respond: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
© 2002 Boulder Weekly. All Rights Reserved.
End<{{{
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