This is pretty obnoxious:

For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and interviews.

Aside from the civil liberties, what a fucking waste of tax dollars. Undercover officers all over the country? What the hell did they think was going to happen? What were they going to do with this information? Did they really think that there were going to uncover a secret plan of some kind?