Police Executive Research Forum: We aren't involved in guiding Occupy crackdowns. Oh wait, yes we are.



A US police organization can't seem to make up its mind about whether it is or isn't playing a significant role in crackdowns on Occupy Wall Street in cities around the US.

Above, a tweet from Chuck Wexler, the Executive Director of PERF, dated November 1.

He's referencing this document (PDF). The contents of the document aren't all that shocking, really, and some of the advice seems reasonable—engaging with large crowds in a non-confrontational way instead of coming out in "Darth Vader suits" (their words, not mine) and full riot gear.


But this is all very interesting when contrasted with a press release issued by PERF today, after last week's reports that PERF, local police chiefs, and mayors participated on a number of conference calls about OWS:

Over the last few days, the Police Executive Research Forum has been the subject of several false articles and blog postings alleging that we have been coordinating police crackdowns on Occupy protests. This is not true.


All of this, by the way, was the inspiration for the PERF website takeover and doxing of Mr. Wexler by Anonymous this weekend.

Related reading: Bob Ostertag in the Huffington Post on the militarization of campus police.

(via @timeoutcorner @heratylaw)