We're All Undercover in Some Way or Another
The Times has a mildly disturbing (but not really surprising) piece today revealing that since 2004, NYPD officers have participated undercover in a number of local protests, demonstrations and rallies. The covert surveillance has been revealed in a video of unofficial archive footage made available to the Times:
In a tape made at the April 29 Critical Mass ride, a man in a football jersey is seen riding along West 19th Street with a group of bicycle riders to a police blockade at 10th Avenue. As the police begin to handcuff the bicyclists, the man in the jersey drops to one knee. He tells a uniformed officer, "I'm on the job." The officer in uniform calls to a colleague, "Louie - he's under." A second officer arrives and leads the man in the jersey - hands clasped behind his back - one block away, where the man gets back on his bicycle and rides off.
Don't bother getting creeped out about Big Brother. What we have here is the key to evading arrest! It's perfect: as you're being handcuffed for public drunkenness, just tell them you're "on the job," and they'll let you go. Even better, we've found this method also works when being arrested for possession and statutory rape.
