A secretive law enforcement convention scheduled in Seattle next week has drawn the ire of civil liberites and minority groups--to the point where demonstrations are planned for 11 area Starbucks. Starbucks is one of the suppliers for the convention.

Top FBI and White House anti-terrorism experts will join law enforcement colleagues in Seattle next week for a police intelligence convention that is drawing fire from a coalition of local social justice and minority organizations.

The Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit -- a private group of local and state police intelligence officials -- is for the first time allowing federal intelligence personnel to participate in the conference. On the table will be initiatives instituted since the Sept. 11 attacks to improve the sharing of federal intelligence with local agencies.

The conference is closed to the public and the media.

And that concerns members of the People of Color Coalition Against the War at Home and Abroad. The ad hoc collection of groups considers the response by police to Sept. 11 to be an attack on civil liberties that especially hurts minority and immigrant communities.

Michael Woo of the Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office slammed the law enforcement group and the Department of Homeland Security as "the KGBs in our modern era" bent on stripping away our rights and civil liberties.

Starbucks response? "I don't think it is appropriate to have an expectation that Starbucks can resolve issues of civil liberties."

[link via Balasubramania]