From daveyd.com:
What do you get when you 'diss' Jay Z, LL Cool J Russell Simmons and Alicia Keys? You get a Federal Court order to release the diss to the public.
By. Troy Nkrumah of the NHHPC
(Nat'l Hip Hop Political Convention)
Yo, did you see that new diss-track that the NYPD put out? Check it: THE ULTIMATE DISS!! Yup, and in it they diss Alicia Keys, Jay Z, LL Cool J, Russell Simmons, P. Diddy and hundreds of other activists and organizations who the NYPD feared would disrupt the 2004 Republican National Convention (RNC).
A Federal Court Judge ruled that the City of New York, defendants in a civil suit filed by two individuals who were arrested during RNC protests, must release the 600 pages of material that the NYPD collected through the use of agents and spies that where sent to meetings, rallies and events critical of President Bush and/or the Republican Party prior to the 2004 Republican National Convention.
So how did Hip Hop artists make that list? Well we know Diddy asked folks to get out and vote while Russell toured artists around and helped register young people from the Hip Hop generation, but does that justify spying and intelligence gathering? How big of a threat do they feel Alicia Keys is, and the last I heard, LL was endorsing the New York Republican gubernatorial candidate George Pataki, the man responsible for bringing the RNC to New York. I guess the NYPD didn't get that memo.
Here is part of what the spies had to say about the inclusion of Hip Hop artist's inclusion into the political realm via Russell's Hip Hop Summits:
What this really shows us is that COINTELPRO is alive and well in 2007. Social justice activists and entertainers with even the slightest desire for change are being spied on and intimidated by police agencies. Prior to G.W. Bush's Presidential term, this was unconstitutional according to the First Amendment of the Constitution, which restricts the government's ability to limit or deny an individuals right to assemble peaceably.
Check out the full "diss" that the NYPD compiled at: http://www.nyclu.org/rncdocs/, who knows, you might be on the list, or maybe one of the groups you worked with prior to the 2004 RNA might be. The question that we need to ask today is can we get the full list from the NYPD and the rest of their files on the activist and artist community.
Remember, these are just the files regarding the 2004 RNC, and most of this is blacked out anyway.
Direct Links to the NYPD Files and the Federal Court order.
An index of political groups mentioned in the documents is available here (PDF).
RNC Documents
Document set 1 of 5
Document set 2 of 5
Document set 3 of 5
Document set 4 of 5
Document set 5 of 5
All documents are in Acrobat PDF format.
Judge Francis's decision of last week is available here (PDF).
RNC-related documents previously released by the NYCLU, after the NYPD lost another secrecy battle earlier this year, are available here.
What do you get when you 'diss' Jay Z, LL Cool J Russell Simmons and Alicia Keys? You get a Federal Court order to release the diss to the public.
By. Troy Nkrumah of the NHHPC
(Nat'l Hip Hop Political Convention)
Yo, did you see that new diss-track that the NYPD put out? Check it: THE ULTIMATE DISS!! Yup, and in it they diss Alicia Keys, Jay Z, LL Cool J, Russell Simmons, P. Diddy and hundreds of other activists and organizations who the NYPD feared would disrupt the 2004 Republican National Convention (RNC).
A Federal Court Judge ruled that the City of New York, defendants in a civil suit filed by two individuals who were arrested during RNC protests, must release the 600 pages of material that the NYPD collected through the use of agents and spies that where sent to meetings, rallies and events critical of President Bush and/or the Republican Party prior to the 2004 Republican National Convention.
So how did Hip Hop artists make that list? Well we know Diddy asked folks to get out and vote while Russell toured artists around and helped register young people from the Hip Hop generation, but does that justify spying and intelligence gathering? How big of a threat do they feel Alicia Keys is, and the last I heard, LL was endorsing the New York Republican gubernatorial candidate George Pataki, the man responsible for bringing the RNC to New York. I guess the NYPD didn't get that memo.
Here is part of what the spies had to say about the inclusion of Hip Hop artist's inclusion into the political realm via Russell's Hip Hop Summits:
What this really shows us is that COINTELPRO is alive and well in 2007. Social justice activists and entertainers with even the slightest desire for change are being spied on and intimidated by police agencies. Prior to G.W. Bush's Presidential term, this was unconstitutional according to the First Amendment of the Constitution, which restricts the government's ability to limit or deny an individuals right to assemble peaceably.
Check out the full "diss" that the NYPD compiled at: http://www.nyclu.org/rncdocs/, who knows, you might be on the list, or maybe one of the groups you worked with prior to the 2004 RNA might be. The question that we need to ask today is can we get the full list from the NYPD and the rest of their files on the activist and artist community.
Remember, these are just the files regarding the 2004 RNC, and most of this is blacked out anyway.
Direct Links to the NYPD Files and the Federal Court order.
An index of political groups mentioned in the documents is available here (PDF).
RNC Documents
Document set 1 of 5
Document set 2 of 5
Document set 3 of 5
Document set 4 of 5
Document set 5 of 5
All documents are in Acrobat PDF format.
Judge Francis's decision of last week is available here (PDF).
RNC-related documents previously released by the NYCLU, after the NYPD lost another secrecy battle earlier this year, are available here.
