Fifteen years ago, the Republican party was gathering in New York City to officially nominate President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for reelection. The 2004 Republican National Convention, themed "Fulfilling America's Promise by Building a Safer World and a More Hopeful America," was held at Madison Square Garden, between August 30th and September 2nd. And with the convention, came the protests—and arrests... and the lawsuits.
As soon as the convention's NYC locale was announced in January 2003, groups started planning their actions. United for Peace and Justice unsuccessfully sued to get a permit for a rally in Central Park, but they did march around MSG, as well as in other parts of Midtown and through Union Square. The two-mile long "river of demonstrators" on August 29th, 2004 numbered at least 100,000 (United for Peace and Justice said about half a million people participated). Protesters clashed with police, and the NYPD ended up arresting hundreds, during that march as well as others (during a Critical Mass bicycle ride a few days before the convention, hundreds of cyclists were detained and their bikes seized).
The NYPD presence was outsized, with nearly 12,000 officers and supervisors assigned on each day of the convention; Newsday pointed out that during the 2000 RNC in Philadelphia about 3,500 officers were used while the 2004 Democratic National Convention had 3,000 officers daily in Boston.
The police would take arrestees to a "filthy, toxic pier"—Pier 57— by the Hudson River. J Iddhis Bing wrote in the Guardian about marching peacefully but then, suddenly, being kettled by officers near Union Square:
A strange, existential drama unfolded. We couldn't leave even though we weren't charged with anything. We were told to stand still or sit down – that included little old ladies out walking their dogs and restaurant take-out guys. Cops on bicycles appeared and handcuffed us, while menacing riot police glowered from the corners. I can still remember bystanders waiting to see what would happen next, counseling us that if we all behaved, the cops would eventually let us go. It was all a terrific error, a case of mistaken identities. Good luck with that. What happened next defies imagination. Over a thousand people from all over the city were deposited at a pier, an old bus terminal, on the West Side and hustled in to a large fenced-in area with two benches and toilets for four.... Oil and gasoline was spilled everywhere on the floor; a sign announcing the presence of asbestos hung from the ceiling in plain view. We had nowhere to sit, to sleep. If we begged for food, we were given an apple. Our belongings were confiscated; we hadn't been charged with a crime. As the hours passed, more and more arrestees were brought in, we found friends, made new ones. Men and women mixed freely, something rather obviously against the rules. Years ago there was a 30-second video of the scene made on someone's cell phone on YouTube. I don't know if it's still around.
It turned out that the NYPD had started spying on protesters in 2003 (and earlier), and the NY Times reported, "[T]eams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and interviews. From Albuquerque to Montreal, San Francisco to Miami, undercover New York police officers attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or fellow activists, the records show." There was also a lot of surveillance of protesters during the various rallies and marches—Fuji even lent the NYPD its blimp to capture footage of groups.
Lawsuits were filed against the city and NYPD, claiming that some of the arrests—as well as fingerprinting and surveillance—of protesters, journalists, bystanders and legal observers had been unlawful, and, in 2014, the city agreed to a record $18 million settlement. A federal judge had ruled that the arrests were illegal. While referring to hundreds of arrests during a protest on August 31st, 2004, which spanned from the World Trade Center to Madison Square Garden, Judge Richard Sullivan wrote, "No matter the circumstances, an arresting officer must believe that every individual arrested personally violated the law. The Fourth Amendment does not recognize guilt by association."
