This report documents the ongoing reaction of law enforcement to the legal exercise of free speech in the United States. It finds that legitimate concerns regarding public safety have been abused by the United States Department of Justice. The abuses have been so aggressive that rights of free assembly and free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution are simply no longer available to the citizens of this country.
This report surveys federal and local police actions in the United States during the period 1999-2004 involving lawful public expressions of dissent and free speech. All of the police activities cited are from firsthand experience of the National Lawyers Guild, the oldest human rights organization in the country. Hundreds of Guild attorneys, legal workers, and law students around the country have served both as legal observers at First Amendment protected public assemblies and as counsel to individuals who sought to air their views at such public assemblies.
The conclusion of this survey is that rather than protecting First Amendment rights of United States citizens and prosecuting police abuses as it ought to do, the Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft has systematially encouraged these abuses and acted as a cheerleader for government officials using excessive force and abusing their authority against citizens engaged in free speech.
By making enemies of those who speak out, law-enforcement agencies engage in unneccessary, costly, and dangerous practices against law-abiding individuals, wasting limited resources and frightening many from voicing their opinions. And by turning a blind eye to rampant and systemic police unlawfulness, the Attorney General is abrogating his duty to uphold the laws of the United States. [Emphasis added]
This report surveys federal and local police actions in the United States during the period 1999-2004 involving lawful public expressions of dissent and free speech. All of the police activities cited are from firsthand experience of the National Lawyers Guild, the oldest human rights organization in the country. Hundreds of Guild attorneys, legal workers, and law students around the country have served both as legal observers at First Amendment protected public assemblies and as counsel to individuals who sought to air their views at such public assemblies.
The conclusion of this survey is that rather than protecting First Amendment rights of United States citizens and prosecuting police abuses as it ought to do, the Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft has systematially encouraged these abuses and acted as a cheerleader for government officials using excessive force and abusing their authority against citizens engaged in free speech.
By making enemies of those who speak out, law-enforcement agencies engage in unneccessary, costly, and dangerous practices against law-abiding individuals, wasting limited resources and frightening many from voicing their opinions. And by turning a blind eye to rampant and systemic police unlawfulness, the Attorney General is abrogating his duty to uphold the laws of the United States. [Emphasis added]
Speech, Public Assembly, and Dissent: A National Lawyers Guild Report on Government Violations of First Amendment Rights in the United States
2004
by Heidi Boghosian (pdf format)
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