In another hardly surprising revelation, a feature in today’s New York Times presents video and photographs of police officers from NYPD under cover at protests, such as antiwar demonstrations and Critical Mass cycling rallies. (Unlike San Francisco’s SFPD which doesn’t even bother going under cover for its surveillance of peaceful protests – see accompanying image).

As the Bush Administration defends the illegal tap dance on the constitution that authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to eavesdrop on American citizens without a warrant, the notion that America’s First Amendment protects dissent is fast becoming nothing more than a myth.

Although following a public outcry, the Administration was forced to drop Operation TIPS – an insidious program designed to allow anonymous tipsters to report “suspicious” activities to the “authorities,” it appears the real reason was probably logistical.

If too many of the suspicious activities appear to be those of undercover officers, too many resources would be spent on real culprits rather than the surveillance of Americans exercising their constitutional rights.