Berkeley police posted activists' mugshots on Twitter and celebrated retweets, emails reveal

[mysteryowl]

WTF? I thought California was progressive.

A California police agency that published the names and photos of anti-fascist protesters on Twitter said it was creating a “counter-narrative” on social media and celebrated its high rate of retweets and “engagement”, internal records reveal.

The Berkeley police department (BPD) faced widespread backlash last month after posting the personal information of arrested activists online, leading to Fox News coverage and harassment and abuse against the leftwing demonstrators at a far-right rally. New emails have shown that the city has an explicit policy of targeting protesters with mugshot tweets, with the goal of using “social media to help create a counter-narrative”.

The records have sparked fresh scrutiny of the northern California police department, with critics accusing law enforcement of aiding the “alt-right” by shaming anti-fascists online after making questionable arrests. City lawmakers, citing the Guardian’s reporting, have now proposed an ordinance that would ban police from posting mugshots on social media unless the arrested individuals posed an immediate public safety threat.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/14/berkeley-police-california-twitter-anti-fascist-protesters

[brush]

1. Hope the city puts a stop to this as some cops will always be cops.

[Mc Mike]

2. No matter how progressive the elected officials, most often there'l be rightwing police intel units.

I remember an event in UC Santa Cruz in '87 where the UC system bussed down a ton of UC Berkeley cops, real strongman thugs, to manhandle the non violent student demonstrators. One of the guys they mauled is currently on the SF board of supervisors, I saw him on a PBS show recently.

I can imagine what the Berkeley city PD is up to, along the Oakland Berkeley border.

[mysteryowl]

3. It is an aggressive profession being a cop.

I think aggression and alt-right go hand-in-hand.

[Mc Mike]

5. You'll get some actual rancid neo nazi infiltrators, for sure.

The system is structured toward the police being more accountable to the truly rich and powerful, than they are accountable to temporary officials we elect.

[Blue_true]

7. City officials need to clean house.

In a city that elects traditionally progressive leaders like Berkley, there is no need to cater to cops that target liberal protesters while protecting alt-right ones. That situation is bullshit. The cops most likely DON'T live in Berkley, they don't vote there or pay taxes there. Screw them, let them protest, do what Reagan did to air traffic controllers to them (a rightie firing righties), screw their union's protests or legal action, if they don't treat everyone the same, they have no standing.

[SamKnause]

4. Fuck the police.

They are always on the wrong side of everything.

[Blue_true]

6. The problem is that cop jobs pay well compared to local alternatives.

Throw in Detail money, some do real well compared to what they would make in other jobs for their skillset. So, many people end up policing populations that they are philosophically hostile to, not all, but too many. Cops targeting left wing protesters instead of the rightwing ones come as no surprise to me, most cops and firefighters, even in very liberal cities tend to be rightwing, and the most often DON'T live in the cities that pay their salaries and offer opportunities to make money on detail work.