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 Story on infiltration of protesters could be sorted out in court 09/09/00 - by Craig R. McCoy and Linda K. Harris - Philadelphia Inquirer Normally among the most talkative of officials, Police Commissioner John F. Timoney is now mum about the police raid on the "puppet warehouse" during the Republican National Convention. Mayor Street won't comment, either. The state police, through a spokesman, say they decided on their own to infiltrate protest groups before the convention but told Philadelphia police about the move in advance. Critics, including lawyers for those arrested during the convention, insist that is not enough. The public needs to know more about how city police and state troopers cooperated during the convention in investigating the warehouse, they say. They say this is particularly important in light of the Philadelphia Police Department's at-times-shifting accounts of its activities regarding the protesters. In this instance, Timoney appears to have misled the public a bit through omission rather than by commission. "We had not infiltrated any group," Timoney said at one point during the convention. He did not elaborate or qualify his remark. Stefan Presser, legal director of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, predicts that the ACLU and others will sue the city over the raid. He said he was skeptical about the state police's assertion that they took the action on their own. "I know for a fact that there was regular and ongoing communication between the [Philadelphia police] department and state police," said Presser, who had many discussions with city police before and during the convention. The question of what prompted the Aug. 1 raid may prove a crucial one in court. Philadelphia police operate under a mayoral directive stipulating that they will not pose as protesters to infiltrate groups without the permission of the mayor, the managing director, and the police commissioner. Temple University law professor David Kairys was among the legal team that fought for the directive in 1987. It was issued in response to a federal suit brought after an undercover city police officer infiltrated meetings of a leftist organization planning protests during that year's celebration of the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution. In an interview this week, Kairys said this year's infiltration might have run legally afoul of the directive, even if the undercover "plants" were state police. "If you are restrained from doing something, you can't say you didn't do it if you got someone else to do it for you or with you," Kairys said. He and Presser said they were skeptical that the full story had emerged about the infiltration and the search warrants for the raid that were obtained on the basis of the undercover work. Presser noted that the department had initially said that city plainclothes officers were not photographing demonstrators before the convention as they went to and from planning meetings. The department's press office said that such picture-taking would violate the mayoral directive. The Inquirer traced the license plate on an unmarked car used by the photographers - and found that it was owned by city police. At that point, the department acknowledged that police had been taking pictures. The department blamed the initial statement on a mistake by the press office. "Each step of the way, something more comes out," Presser said. State police issued a series of seemingly contradictory statements Wednesday about the undercover work. Initially, state police said their undercover operations "were conducted without the involvement of the Philadelphia Police Department." The agency added: "We did not give the Philadelphia Police Department advance notice of our specific intelligence operations." Asked for clarification, state police issued a new statement. "As a courtesy to the Philadelphia Police Department," the statement said, "state police did tell Philadelphia in advance that we were conducting intelligence operations. We told them in advance that we would be infiltrating certain groups." Jack Lewis, chief spokesman for the state police, said later that the statements were not contradictory. While briefing Philadelphia police and informing them of plans for infiltration, the state police did not reveal specifics of the coming operations, he said. Kairys said a lawsuit could further explore the facts. "It seems to me they are doing some wiggling," he said, in reference to the state police statements. "It's not convincing. It would have to be looked into." Kairys said any challenge to the undercover work would face tough legal hurdles. "The Supreme Court, even in its most liberal periods, has not put any restraints on the infiltration of groups," he said. "The odd thing is that police need probable cause for a search warrant to look into your house or your car, but they don't need anything to send in an undercover agent who is interfering with your basic associational rights as a free citizen." |
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