XPost: alt.government.abuse, alt.security.terrorism, nyc.politics
From: Ming@Mongo.com
"Freedom Fighter" wrote...
> 9/11 party gets raided
> Cops seize coolers seeking alcohol at fund-raiser
> Originally published on July 8, 2003
> By MICHELE McPHEE and CELESTE KATZ
> DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
>
> Dozens of cops descended on Rockaway Beach on the Fourth of July and broke
> up a fund-raiser for memorials to 9/11 victims, angry partygoers charged
> yesterday.
>
> "When they came [it was] literally a SWAT team," said high school teacher
> Marie McGoldrick, 31. "You can't imagine how bizarre this was. We're
talking
> about families of people who lost their loved ones on 9/11."
>
> Police said yesterday they were simply trying keep alcohol off the beach.
> But people in the tight-knit Queens community, filled with cops and
> firefighters, charged they were harassed on a day that should have been
> dedicated to the memories of fallen family and friends.
>
> The clash began in the early afternoon when police tried to look in
coolers,
> searching for alcohol.
>
> When some of the 500 revelers objected, officers began confiscating
coolers
> and writing tickets - in some cases without even looking inside,
partygoers
> charged.
>
> Things got worse around 8 p.m. when about 50 cops began sweeping people
off
> the beach, as others in dune buggies drove along the shoreline, shining
> spotlights on beachgoers, witnesses said.
>
> Families fled, putting an abrupt end to a party that raised $10,000 for a
> memorial garden at nearby St. Francis de Sales Church and a Beach 116th
St.
> tribute to victims of the terror attack and the Flight 587 crash.
>
> "It was the most disgusting thing you've ever seen in your life," said
> Richard Knott, 46, who was slapped with a disorderly conduct summons.
"They
> raided the beach for no reason.
>
> "I said, 'What is this, Iraq? Is this Tiananmen Square?' One [cop] just
> pointed at me and said, 'You come over here.' ... They threw the handcuffs
> on me in front of my wife, my mother and my children," he said.
>
> Yesterday, police officials defended the cops' actions.
>
> Uniformed sweep
>
> "There were summonses written and confiscations made up and down the
beach.
> This event was not singled out," said NYPD Capt. James Klein. "The police
> were there to enforce the law. They wanted to let people have a good time
> while obeying the law. There's no alcohol consumption allowed on the
beach."
>
> Ten summonses were issued for violations ranging from alcohol to noise to
> disorderly conduct, cops said. Klein said 14 coolers with beer were
> confiscated.
>
> Klein said representatives of the 100th Precinct met with party organizers
> before the event and agreed there would be no alcohol or open fires - but
> both rules were broken.
>
> Emotions were still running high last night in the neighborhood, which
lost
> up to 90 people in the terror attack and five people on the ground in the
> Nov. 12, 2001, plane crash that also killed 260 passengers and crew.
>
> As they raged about the July 4 debacle, angry locals were planning a rally
> tomorrow night to protest what they call general police harassment of
> beachgoers.
>
> Firefighter George Johnson, the man on the left in the famed photo of
three
> firefighters raising the American flag at Ground Zero, said he'll be
there.
>
> He said that during the July 4 raid, a woman showed cops a picture of her
> son, who died at Ground Zero. "She said, 'This is a party in the name of
my
> son. You should be ashamed of yourselves,' and they went right on doing
what
> they were doing."
The reason for such actions by cops is obvious: They can't do any real
good--they only solve about 1% of all crimes, so like the rest of the
parasites in government, they have to show that they are doing *something.*
Plus they just like harassing and bullying people--goes with their
adolescent mentality.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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