Finally!

Many people who went to New York to protest during the Republican Convention this summer -- and many other people who just happened to be in the wrong place (can you say: sitting out front of the library?!) at the wrong time -- got swept up in the extreme police "protection" actions. The stories that came out of their detainment were the scariest thing I've ever heard from our own country -- many different people documented being held for 2-3 days without being allowed contact with the outside world, being kept in a facility that had previously been used to house hazardous chemicals, and generally being treated like subhumans. Introducing this one, we have this:

J. was released after 49 hours in custody -- charged with disorderly conduct. She had been walking down the sidewalk when the police closed in on everyone in that general vicinity, pressing them against walls and parking meters and screaming at them. Some of the others standing around ran away as the police approached, but because J. and S. weren't doing anything wrong, they didn't think running was necessary. The only time she even raised her voice was in the pressing when she yelled out "just tell us what you want, just tell us what you want."

And from another one (a reporter, well aware of his illegal arrest):

It was apparent that some time ago the sides of the facility were sandbagged to protect the Hudson River from the runoff of this facility. This meant that this buildup of pollution would serve as bedding for 1,800 people. Later I would witness fellow prisoners develop chemical burns and white pussy infections that I could only attribute to these conditions.

Well, it's taken three months to document everything, I guess, but now a federal case is being brought against the city. The only way to keep civil rights is to fight for them, but somehow I think that the people who got rounded up (protesters, tourists, and passersby), and their panicked families who spent days not knowing what had become of them, would rather that the city had taken the time to eductate their police force in advance on peaceful containment and to prepare for the inevitable need to house and process an unusually large number of people...

"Guantanamo on the Hudson," it was called.

"All that was missing were the orange jumpsuits," lawyer Jonathan C. Moore said.

Sometimes I think it's not just our economy that's looking more and more like the third world...

(latest news via Atrios)