Is the NYPD Prepared to Avoid Abuse of RNC Prisoners?

 

Alex S. Vitale

 

August 23, 2004

 

With dozens of protests planned during the upcoming Republican National Convention, the city’s police, jails and courts may be taxed by the mass arrest of protestors. Unfortunately, these agencies do not appear to be well prepared for such an eventuality.

 

Large protest events in other cities such as the anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle in 1999 and the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in 2000 saw the arrests of hundreds of protestors. In New York City, the NYPD arrested over 350 people at last February’s anti-Iraq war protest. In each of these cases major problems emerged over the processing and treatment of these people due to the lack of adequate facilities, planning, and respect for basic legal standards.

 

Last February 15th the NYPD held hundreds of detainees in unheated vans without access to food, water or medical care. Some were even chained together outdoors for several hours in below freezing weather. Those held indoors were denied access to lawyers and were interrogated about their political beliefs and activities.

 

The use of mass arrests is itself a troubling practice. Rather than identifying specific individuals engaged in illegal activity, the police surround large groups often including innocent bystanders. In some cases these arrests have been without any legal basis and have been thrown out by the courts.

 

Some important steps have been taken. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau has arranged for extra courts to be open and the Department of Corrections has prepared extra jail space at some of its currently empty facilities. The biggest remaining problem is  the processing of arrestees in a timely and humane manner.

 

Those charged with infractions and minor crimes should be released with Desk Appearance Tickets within a few hours of arrest, and by law, those with more serious charges must appear before a judge within 24 hours or be released. In addition, arrestees have the right to food, water, medical care, and access to their lawyers. They also should not be interrogated about their political beliefs, affiliations, or activities. Recent court rulings have also made it clear that strip searches and pat downs by opposite gender officers are also improper.

 

To avoid these problems the NYPD needs to have sufficient transport capabilities, appropriate indoor holding spaces, and booking officers. They must also have food, water, and medics available on site to handle large numbers of prisoners.

 

New York’s Finest have an opportunity to demonstrate their position as the nation’s most advanced police department. A repeat of the appalling treatment of prisoners on February 15th, however, would badly undermine those claims. With the recent increase in public awareness over the treatment of prisoners at home and abroad, city officials should act quickly to insure that nothing happens to prisoners during the RNC to tarnish the city’s reputation.

 

Alex S. Vitale is Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and co-author of “Arresting Protest: A Special Report of the New York Civil Liberties Union on New York City’s Protest Policies at the February 15, 2003  Antiwar Demonstration in New York City.