Bloomberg Likes San Gennaro - and Police Spying

Though not necessarily together. The Mayor believes in zeppole and fair games, telling reporters: "I understand the frustration of the community, who has their streets blocked and a lot of noise at night. On the other hand, it is part of New York."

But yesterday the Mayor also spent some time defending the spying the NYPD did prior the Republican National Convention, chalking it up to "a fundamental responsibility to learn whether groups might include any potential terrorists or anarchists planning to cause or take advantage of any disruptions." Though the mayor said the city was focused on groups that could resort to violence, the NY Times suggests otherwise:

But the records show that the police did covertly monitor political activity. Virtually every intelligence report, even those about expressly peaceful groups, described the political viewpoints of the organizations.

For example, a Feb. 6, 2004, police report said that Leslie Cagan, the national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice, an antiwar organization, would speak at a conference later that month at City University Graduate Center. Her presence, a headline in the report said, “indicates a reinforcement of ties between organizers and expanding activist youth movement.”

And speaking of spying, the city dropped its lawsuit against Times Up! over Critical Mass. On NY Turf writes "the City dropped this case because it did not want to disclose information that was going to come out in the discovery process, including: documentation of the NYPD's undercover operations at Critical Mass, all police video of Critical Mass, plans and internal documents relating to Critical Mass."