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NYPD Caught Editing RNC Arrest Video Evidence

HeadlineApr 12, 2005

This update on the mass arrests made at last year’s Republican National Convention. According to the New York Times, charges have been dropped for over 400 people because video recordings emerged showing thatr the arrested had not committed a crime or that the charges against them could not be proved. In one case it appears the New York Police Department tampered with video evidence. In court the police presented a video of the arrest of a man named Alexander Dunlop who claimed he was wrongly arrested. It turned out that the video presented by the police was edited in two spots–images that showed Dunlop acting peacefully were removed. The court was not told the video was edited. This became known only after a member of the group I-Witness Video found another tape capturing Dunlop’s arrest. Once the second tape was presented to the court, prosecutors immediately dropped the charges. The city now claims that a technician had cut the material out of the video by mistake. Of the nearly 1,700 cases involving convention arrests that have run their full course, 91 percent ended with the charges dismissed or with a verdict of not guilty after trial.

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