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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Eric Laursen, (212) 679-5822 December 8, 2003 NO NYPD VIOLENCE AT THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION! PRESS CONFERENCE AND RALLY TO KICK OFF CAMPAIGN AGAINST POLICE USE OF MILITARY WEAPONS AND TACTICS AGAINST NON-VIOLENT DEMONSTRATIONS What: Rally and press conference against police violence. When: Wednesday, Dec. 10, noon. Where: One Police Plaza (NYPD Headquarters), Chambers and Centre Streets, Manhattan. NEW YORK - The New York-based Campaign to Demilitarize the Police (CDP) will gather near One Police Plaza on Wednesday in the first of a series of public events to protest growing police use of military-style weapons and tactics. The Republican National Convention, to be held in New York Aug. 30-Sept. 2, 2004, is expected to draw tens of thousands of protesters outraged at Bush Administration policies. CDP members are concerned that the New York Police Department are preparing to greet them with the same brutal and illegal violence the Miami police recently used against activists at the anti-Free Trade Area of the Americas protests. "The militarization of law enforcement is tied to state efforts to repress and suppress protest," says author and CDP founding member Frank Morales. "We can no longer sit idly by and allow the increasing repression of protest in America." Participants at Wednesday's press conference will include Episcopal priest and author Frank Morales, legal coordinator Elise Miller, and World War III Arts & Action Theatre. Invited speakers include representatives of the Center for Constitutional Rights, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and street medics who cared for injured activists in Miami. DON'T LET MIAMI 2003 BECOME NEW YORK 2004! The Campaign to Demilitarize the Police is demanding: Full disclosure and civilian representation in NYPD planning for the RNC 2004. No NYPD use of chemical weapons such as tear gas and CS gas - outlawed as weapons of war under the Geneva Convention. An end to antagonistic NYPD use of interlocking metal barricades, preventing people from reaching demonstration sites by providing false information, unwarranted searches, seizures and destruction of personal property, aggressive mounted police attacks, and denial of freedom of movement - all of which serve to spread panic and anger among demonstrators. An end to harmful and invasive surveillance of protesters - including monitoring of telephone and computer activity, facial recognition scanning, etc. - under the guise of the so-called "war on terrorism." An end to harassment and preemptive arrests. The CDP has compiled a fact sheet on the growing pattern of police scaremongering and violence against activists who take to the streets in the U.S., from the Seattle WTO protests to the present. Please contact us at the phone number above for a copy. # # #

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