New York Police Are The Republican Party’s Bitches

The NYCLU find that if you were a protester at the 2004 republican wankfest then you were treated worse and held much longer than your run of the mill criminal:

-More than 1,800 people were arrested at the four-day convention at Madison Square Garden, where President Bush accepted his party’s nomination for a second term in office.
The legitimacy of the arrests was challenged on civil rights grounds in lawsuits brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of some of those detained.
A judge last month rejected the city’s effort to keep secret most of the files and videotapes documenting the arrests, leading to their release.
Christopher Dunn, associate legal director at the NYCLU, said the documents “reveal that the long detentions of the thousands of protesters arrested for minor offenses at the convention were the result of deliberate policy decisions by the NYPD.”
“During the convention, you got to a judge much faster if you were a bank robber than if you were charged with parading without a permit,” he said.
Instead of issuing summonses – similar to traffic tickets – police held everyone who was arrested for later court appearances. The concern, according to police Chief John J. Colgan, was the need to positively identify everyone arrested.
Records show that arrested protesters on Aug. 31, 2004, were held an average of 32 hours before appearing in court, while those arrested on other offenses were held less than five hours.-