The following story is a fictional account of planning and preparation leading up to the mythical
Democratic-Republican National Convention (DRNC) event in Miami, Florida. The story is
loosely based on an amalgamation of real life occurrences in the lead up to the Free Trade Area
of the Americas conference in Miami, Florida in 2003. The names of all the characters in the
story are fictional.
Case Study
Political conventions have long attracted protestors from myriad political and social action
groups from all over the world. Organizations such as Greenpeace, the Earth Liberation Front
(ELF), the Earth Liberation Army (ELA), and Earth First! view large scale special events such as
the DRNC as a perfect opportunity to bring attention to their causes. These political action
groups view the large scale events as ideal venues because of the large number of people
gathering at the same time, at the same place, and for the same purpose. Where there are large
concentrations of television cameras and reporters, it is fairly predictable that the political action
groups will come to make a statement and get “free” publicity for their movement.
That was the case in 2003, where Greenpeace and several other environmental organizations
came to protest, first in Cancun, Mexico for the World Trade Organization, and later that year in
Miami, Florida, for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Conference. Miami, of course is
now the selected site for the upcoming DRNC convention. It can be reasonably expected that
these political action groups will once again come to the South Florida area to take advantage of
the “free” television coverage.
In 2003, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted and boarded the Greenpeace ship Esperanza off the
Port of Miami, one week before the FTAA Conference. A search of the ship by Coast Guard
personnel revealed several large wooden crates filled with canvass, ropes, cables, carabiners,
PVC pipes, and other tools and supplies expressly used by protest groups such as Greenpeace
to construct tripods, “sleeping dragons,” and large banners. This preemptive action conducted
by the Coast Guard in coordination with the Miami-Dade Police Department’s (MDPD) Criminal
Intelligence Bureau and Environmental Crimes Task Force resulted in the seizure of the tools
and supplies that Greenpeace operatives had counted on to use in their disruptive protests
during the Conference. This early preemptive strike was credited by many police officials as one
of the key factors for the success of the police response to the FTAA disruptions.
Greenpeace and other environmental protest organizations have long used tactics whereby they
climb high construction cranes to hang their signs from. Other tactics involve dozens of
protestors chaining themselves together and lying down in the middle of a heavily trafficked
street. Unlike other more violent groups, such as Black Bloc and Anarchists that have resorted
to the use of projectile weapons such as slingshots, Molotov cocktails, and the hurling of human
feces and urine, groups such as Greenpeace use low-grade civil disobedience tactics that
usually result in only criminal misdemeanor charges once they are arrested by police. This tactic
allows Greenpeace protestors to avoid being charged with more serious felonies; therefore, they
are able to get their point across without having to face serious consequences related to felony
charges. This tactic forces law enforcement agencies to expend considerable time and
resources, such as the training and deployment of CUT teams to render safe the contraptions
and barriers erected by the protestors, while at the same time, it allows Greenpeace to avoid
putting their operatives in long term legal peril.
Organizations such as Greenpeace and Earth First! have formed partnerships and work closely
with The Ruckus Society to provide training to protestors in order to further their shared political
agenda of “Implementation of strategic nonviolent direct action against unjust institutions and
policies” (Ruckus Society, 2015). Many of the protestors that came to Miami in 2003 were
trained at Ruckus Society training camp in small town of Arcadia, Florida, about a three-hour
drive northwest of Miami.
Recent intelligence gathered by the newly constituted Southeast Florida Environmental Crimes
Multi-Agency Task Force (E-CAT) has indicated that a new Ruckus Society training camp has
been established in the small town of South Bay, Florida, on the southern tip of Lake
Okeechobee, only an hour-and-a-half drive from Downtown Miami. The information is being
relayed by two undercover MDPD detectives that are currently participating in the South Bay
Ruckus Society training camp. The word from the officers is that an unknown eco-terrorist
organization is currently making plans to dump large amounts of chlorine and muriatic acid into
the pools at several Downtown Miami hotels during the upcoming DRNC Convention. The
protestors’ intent is to cause the people using the pools to have eye irritation and difficulty
breathing. The undercover officers stated that the volume of chlorine and muriatic acid will be
enough to cause considerable discomfort to the swimmers in the pool, but should not be in high
enough concentrations to cause great bodily harm, or death. Along with their written report, the
undercover officers were able to take a cellphone picture of one of the banners that they
observed at the training camp. The banner stated, “This is how marine mammals feel every
day,” and had a picture of a 55-gallon drum with a skull and crossbones on it (Figure 1).
The undercover detectives could not provide any additional information at this point. It is
unknown who the planners of this toxic protest are, or what organization they represent. It is
also unknown at this time the hotels that are being targeted for this chemical agent attack.
Figure 1
Assignment Instructions
Assignment
You are to play the role of Frank Rom, the MDPD lieutenant in charge of the Southeast Florida
Environmental Crimes Multi-Agency Task Force (E-CAT). Respond to the following questions
regarding the case study you have just read:
Based on the limited information provided so far, what initial investigative actions would
you consider taking at this point?
What safety precautions should you be considering to prevent, or at least, mitigate the
effects of the intended chemical attack?
Explain the role of environmental crimes task forces in the policing of the environment. Is
the role of the E-CAT task force consistent with the investigation into the Ruckus Society
training and the possible use of chemical agents to stage a protest during the DRNC
event?
Assess the effect of politics and the political process on environmental issues and
crimes.
