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NYPD Detained Protester On May Day In Case Of Mistaken Identity
By
Christopher Robbins
Published May 6, 2012
Modified May 6, 2012
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published May 6, 2012
Modified May 6, 2012
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Last week we learned that the NYPD and the FBI attempted to glean information on the May Day protests by executing bench warrants on people they believed were involved with planning Occupy Wall Street demonstrations and interrogating them. One of those people, who goes by the pseudonym Shawn Carrié, spoke to WNYC about how he was detained by the NYPD on May Day for over 13 hours on a warrant for a public urination charge that didn't belong to him.
The warrants were for charges brought in 2007, but they were actually brought against someone with a different birth date and address—and name—than this Shawn Carrié, a fact discovered after police attempted to interrogate Carrié.
When he arrived at Police Headquarters in Lower Manhattan, Carrié said there were several other people waiting to be processed, but he skipped ahead of them. He said he police quickly led him to a room filled with boxes of files where he was alone, except for one officer staring at him from a table.
“And he said, ‘Go ahead, sit down,’” said Carrié. “He asked me, ‘Do you know why you’re here?’” said Carrié. “And he said, ‘Tell me about what you were doing today.’”
Carrié said he didn’t say anything. The NYPD declined to comment, and would not verify Carrie’s account of events.
Others detained by the NYPD leading up to the May Day protests tell similar stories. While police legally execute search warrants every day, it is illegal to execute them to monitor political speech. Police must prove that they would have executed them regardless of any First Amendment activity.
“Since these are the kind of warrants that typically sit for years and years, I think it's fair to say that they wouldn't have done it but for their desire to question these people about their First Amendment activities,” attorney Jethro Eisenstein, who involved in the Handschu case that has dictated NYPD surveillance power in the post-9/11 era, tells WNYC.
Gideon Oliver, the president of the National Lawyers Guild—New York City Chapter, told us last week that the motivation for the execution of these warrants is to monitor political activity. "Of course, [NYPD spokesman] Paul Browne says the NYPD always goes and executes warrants and there's nothing extraordinary about this, but it's obviously to target people the police believe are political. You don't ask who protest leaders are if you're just going after a warrant that's totally unrelated."
Actually in this case, it was Commissioner Ray Kelly, who told the outlet, “We do what we have to do to protect the city and obviously that is a legitimate police function." Carrié sees the NYPD's actions as serving a different function: “It’s making people scared to freely communicate, and making them feel like they're watched. ‘Even if you're not doing anything wrong, we're watching.’”
Tagged
May Day
nypd
occupy wall street
police surveillance
Ray Kelly
war on terror
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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