Annals of the Police State, volume 28993

In what has to be one of the more wasteful expenditures of tax dollars, Undercover New York police officers traveled around the United States and to Europe to observe activists who planned to protest at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

One of their targets was Joshua Kinberg's internet-connected, sidewalk-printing graffiti bike. Mr. Kinberg was arrested on criminal mischief charges "prior to the convention start, during an interview on Broadway Avenue with MSNBC's Ron Reagan."

The war on civil liberty had a good year in 2004.