The Denver Police Department's spying on peaceful protestors has been well documented. The ACLU provides a chronology. It all came back to me as I read this AP story—

Some people are angry when they see Shasta Bates' derogatory bumper sticker about President George W. Bush -- but she didn't think she'd be threatened with arrest because of it.

The Denver Police Department is investigating a sergeant who allegedly threatened to arrest the 26-year-old for displaying the bumper sticker.

Bates said she was told by the sergeant Tuesday that her bumper sticker was illegal because it was profane. She said he told her he'd arrest her if she didn't remove it.

But City Attorney Cole Finegan said he doesn't believe there's any city ordinance against displaying a profane bumper sticker.

Once an attitude toward protest is established within a police department, it is very difficult to eradicate. Political leaders and police officials have to be consistent in their determination to do so, and that is seldom the case, as we all know.

Denver CopWatch has another story up from Wednesday of police efforts to intimidate at a demonstration protesting two police shootings.

One of the officers involved in the shootings was wearing a tee-shirt at the time that read "Our bravery and courage are held in regard ‘cause our guns don’t shoot blanks and our nightsticks are hard." Sex and violence. Yummy.