Intimidation unlimited

A couple of reports of government intimidation have rolled out in the last day or so. I'm not really sure of what I have to add to the first story involving the FBI intimidating suspected demonstrators at the RNC later this month:

With the Republican National Convention less than two weeks away, federal agents and city police are keeping tabs on activists and others they believe might try to cause trouble. They are making unannounced visits to people's homes, conducting interviews and monitoring Web sites and meetings.

The effort has been overshadowed by far-reaching counterterrorism measures planned for the Aug. 30-Sept. 2 event. Officials will not discuss it on the record, other than to say investigators always act within the law.

"We're not engaging in surveillance of groups or individuals without legal predication," said Jim Margolin, a spokesman for the FBI's New York office.

"Just a visit by the FBI has overtones," said John Young, a 68-year-old activist who says the government has been monitoring a Web site he runs ever since agents showed up at his door late last year. "Whether you've done anything wrong or not, you think, 'Oh no.'"

Ann Roman, a Secret Service spokeswoman, said its agents expect to respond to an increase in possible domestic threats against President Bush and other dignitaries as the convention at Madison Square Garden nears.

"How we do that specifically, I'm not going to go into," Roman said.

The New York Times has a more in depth piece that appeared two days ago.

"The message I took from it," said Sarah Bardwell, 21, an intern at a Denver antiwar group who was visited by six investigators a few weeks ago, "was that they were trying to intimidate us into not going to any protests and to let us know that, 'hey, we're watching you.' ''

Also in the New York Times, reports of intimidating elderly black voters in Florida, who happen to lean democratic. They are the ones that scare me most, too:

State police officers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando and interrogated them as part of an odd "investigation" that has frightened many voters, intimidated elderly volunteers and thrown a chill over efforts to get out the black vote in November.

(snip)

The state police officers, armed and in plain clothes, have questioned dozens of voters in their homes. Some of those questioned have been volunteers in get-out-the-vote campaigns.

I asked Mr. Morales in a telephone conversation to tell me what criminal activity had taken place.

"I can't talk about that," he said.

I asked if all the people interrogated were black.

"Well, mainly it was a black neighborhood we were looking at - yes,'' he said.

He also said, "Most of them were elderly."

When I asked why, he said, "That's just the people we selected out of a random sample to interview."

Yes, a totally random sample that involved mostly elderly folks in a mostly black neighborhood that lean democratic. Very nice random sample indeed.