ACLU: The Government Is Watching #BlackLivesMatter, And It’s Not Okay

[marmar]

The Government Is Watching #BlackLivesMatter, And It’s Not Okay

By Nusrat Choudhury, Staff Attorney, ACLU Racial Justice Program
AUGUST 4, 2015 | 10:30 AM


According to documents recently obtained by The Intercept in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the government is surveilling the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Records from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Operations Coordination show that since August 2014, DHS officials have been trolling public social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, and Vine, to map and collect information on #BlackLivesMatter protests –and supposedly related events. Targeted activities include silent vigils held across the country following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, an anti-police brutality protest in Philadelphia, and an April 2015 #BlackLivesMatter protest in Washington D.C. The documents even show a plan to gather information on a funk music parade in a historically Black neighborhood in the nation’s capital.

Perhaps most troubling are the Google maps and live updates tracking, minute-by-minute, the movements of participants in an April 2015 #BlackLivesMatter protest in Washington, D.C. A DHS email released to the Intercept confirms that on the day before the event, several DHS officials were aware of a Federal Bureau of Investigation joint intelligence bulletin characterizing the protest as a “First Amendment-protected event,” and noting that there was “no information suggesting that violent behavior is planned for Washington, DC.”

What will be done with this trove of information? We know that DHS shares what it gathers with local and federal law enforcement for targeting police stops and investigations. Information about specific individuals can also be funneled into the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting system, which provides reports to the FBI through regional fusion centers. .........(more)

https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/government-watching-blacklivesmatter-and-its-not-okay

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Can't even pretend to be shocked.

Government and law enforcement overreach when it comes to citizen assembly and speech rights has been a staple for forever. Hell, police forces were created to control black people and protestors of the rich exploiting the poor. They've been a deliberately oppressive force since their inception.

[jalan48]

2. So Obama is ok with this? This is totally crazy.

[heaven05]

6. All I know is:

Last edited Wed Aug 5, 2015, 06:26 PM - Edit history (1)

the corporatists and banker/billionaire class don't want things getting to the point where amerikkka makes a shining fool of itself by pushing POC so far that ugliness really hits the streets. Obama, like any damn POTUS ever, kowtows to the monied class/ powers of amerika. Period. These people don't care about whether #Black LivesMatter, they just want to make sure murdered and executed unarmed POC doesn't cause a public relations spectacle and interfere with profit or control.

I hope #BlackLivesMatter stays cohesive and the members/concerned citizens stay unified. Homeland Security is more than two words to the PNAC crowd and the masters pulling the political puppet strings.

That's why you have LSO's on this site.

[AllFieldsRequired]

51. I thought J. Edgar was dead.

[Fred Sanders]

7. Obama does not know all and control all. I realize certain folks believe all black men are super human, but still.

[jalan48]

8. Yes-that could be. But now that it's public I'm sure he will put a stop to it.

[Fred Sanders]

9. Folks in the GOP pretending Obama is not beloved by black folk in America are funny are they not?

[jalan48]

10. You think the ACLU is GOP?

[Fred Sanders]

11. Do you not think Obama and BLM are one and the same?

[jalan48]

13. Oh-sorry, I thought you were referring to the article. I've always been a fan of the ACLU myself.

[jalan48]

15. Of course not. I would assume he supports them though.

[hughee99]

12. I have no doubt that 8 years ago, the story

Would have read "Bush administration watching BLM..."

[Fred Sanders]

16. Yes. Some folks know who really watches the black folks carefully, and with fear, and it is not Obama.

[hughee99]

19. True, but now that Obama (or at least his people) are aware of it, this will surely stop

immediately, right?

[Fred Sanders]

20. Because Obama controls all of the judicial, security and surveillance system from his WH Black Magic room?

He just might!

But then again he did not stop all unjustified killing of black youth so maybe the apparatus he uses is broken?

[Comrade Grumpy]

48. Uh, he is the president. He's in charge of the executive branch.

You know, the home of the people doing the spying.

[Fred Sanders]

50. Are these the same alledged guys who spied on Germany and Brazil? Where was Obama on that also, one might also ask - using

the same "logic"?

Obama is not the All Powerful Overseer of All Things, in the real world.

[Comrade Grumpy]

52. Well, those were probably NSA guys, while these are probably Homeland Security guys.

They are all subordinate to the head of the executive branch. You know, what's his name?

Are you saying that there's an out-of-control cowboy culture in our national security apparatus? And it's not even beholden to the commander-in-chief? And Obama just sits there and lets it happen?

What are you saying?

[ismnotwasm]

21. Yeah because Obama is all powerful like that

It's really Too bad this turned out to be an opportunity to slam Obama, but given the state of DU (Will the last one leaving DU turn out the lights?) --- Not surprising

[jalan48]

23. You miss the point.

It's not about slamming Obama, it's about agreeing with the surveillance of US citizens regardless who is President. If Bush was doing it would you say the same thing about him?

[Fred Sanders]

25. Give it up, your "point" fell off the logic train an hour ago.

[jalan48]

26. Ah yes, I see you are a true believer Fred.

[Fred Sanders]

29. I am bored of the folks believing in nothing more than generalities and slaps to the intellect, is all.

[jalan48]

30. Hey, it's all good. At least the government is spying on both sides.

That makes me feel better to know it's not all one sided.

[Fred Sanders]

24. A chance to slam Obama because....reasons!....but rather incompetently played out, so it is all good.

[hughee99]

33. If you're looking for imcompetence, take a look at the "Obama has no control over his own agencies"

argument that you're making.

[jalan48]

41. Fred, I thought about it and I think you may be right.

If the Obama Administration thinks it's necessary to spy on BLM because they may pose a threat to our security I'm going to trust Obama on this one.

[Fred Sanders]

46. The think some folks have been playing too long in open fields of strawmen.

[jalan48]

47. Absolutely. Who can you trust these days?

[hughee99]

32. Such an unbelievable bullshit copout.

The president has no power to send a message to Homeland Security and ask them to stop a particular activity of questionable legality? Are you fucking serious? He doesn't need to be some omniscient super-being to make this happen, he's the person ultimately in charge of the agency that's conducting the activity and run by a person he appointed. I can certainly believe he may not have been aware it was going on, but now that he does, don't give me this "he's powerless to do anything about it".

[jalan48]

34. I think it's called the inability to think critically. Not sure it can be fixed quickly.

[ismnotwasm]

37. You know that really hurt my feelings

Why are you being so mean?

[jalan48]

40. I'm sorry. How else do you explain folks being ok with the Obama Administration spying on BLM?

Boggles the mind really.

[ismnotwasm]

43. Who is ok with it?

What I actually do (you didn't really hurt my feelings) in situations like this is do a little research on what Obama could do. Read wiki, (bad page) read a couple of scholarly papers. This is why I like still DU even when it's horrible like lately. Someone will make a very broad statement, misrepresenting presidential powers, for instance, I go research. Obama had a huge fight with Congress regarding the NSA and the patriot act. Did his best to dial it back. He does not micromanage the very complicated agency and is bound by congressional law.

[jalan48]

44. Good, I can be a bit sarcastic at times but I didn't intend to hurt.

Yes, I don't hold Obama personally responsible for the spying, it happens to a lot of groups in our society-Occupy comes to mind. It's what the people in power do today, whether Republican or Democrat. I would be interested though to see BLM's response to this news as well as the candidates running for President.

[ismnotwasm]

45. Yes indeed

It's definitely newsworthy and something to pay attention too.

[ismnotwasm]

38. Whatever dude

Slam away.

[L0oniX]

18. He's in that bubble unless someone points this out to him.

[sub.theory]

42. There have been attacks on cops, so I don't mind them looking

I don't actually have a problem with the government making sure there is no indication of violence given that there have been attacks on cops. No matter how angry people are, there is not justification for that. I suspect that's Obama's position. Of course, interfering with people's rights or preventing people from seeking needed changes to policing is not in any possible way acceptable and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It must not be a tool to sustain the status quo, which I think is why many of you are upset about this. I get that. I think transparency is the main thing here to ensure that there is no funny business from the government either.

[oldandhappy]

4. Dear Government trolls

I want freedom for all citizens to be allowed to vote. #blacklivesmatter
I want freedom of expression #blacklivesmatter
I want freedom of assembly #blacklivesmatter
I want freedom to light a candle #blacklivesmatter

I am allowed to vote. Please keep that in mind.

[stevenleser]

5. This should provide an interesting conundrum for some folks.

You have the Intercept and Greenwald warning the Government is watching a group that some Bernie supporters here, who I would guess are largely Greenwald supporters, have been trying to say is Hillary controlled and irrelevant.

In other words

[L0oniX]

17. ~

[ismnotwasm]

22. Perfect!

[Comrade Grumpy]

35. Or not.

[Comrade Grumpy]

49. Jesus, Leser, give it a rest. n/t

[MFrohike]

53. Wow

That must be an example of 11th dimensional chess.

[fbc]

14. This should be illegal. People should be put on trial for this.

[wss2001]

27. Hissy fit

If the government was tracking a tea party group like this they would be having a hissy fit.

[d_legendary1]

39. Oddly enough the Tea Party joined with the ACLU

to protest government spying.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/aclu-teams-tea-party-group-take-nsa-spying

They don't like it as much as we do.

[freebrew]

28. They should be watching the cops...

Oh, wait...?

[Zorra]

31. Hillary Clinton Sides with NSA over Snowden Disclosures

Likely 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has taken a firm stance against the actions of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, denying his revelations have brought any positive impacts and slamming him for accepting asylum in Russia.

Speaking with NPR's Terry Gross on Thursday, Clinton claimed Snowden could have "expressed his concerns" in other ways "by reaching out to some of the senators or other members of Congress or journalists in order to convey his questions about the implementation of the laws surrounding the collection of information concerning Americans' calls and emails."

Her comments sparked criticism from progressives, journalists and civil liberties advocates.
snip----
The former U.S. Secretary of State defended U.S. mass surveillance, stating, "collecting information about what’s going around the world is essential to our security." She added, "The pieces about the metadata collection, the other impacts on Americans, is a small sliver of what was stolen. Most of what was stolen concerned the surveillance that the United States undertakes, totally legally, against other nations."

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/06/13/hillary-clinton-sides-nsa-over-snowden-disclosures

On the NSA, Hillary Clinton Is Either a Fool or a Liar

Who is the true patriot, Hillary Clinton or Edward Snowden? The question comes up because Clinton has gone all out in attacking Snowden as a means of burnishing her hawkish credentials, eliciting Glenn Greenwald’s comment that she is “like a neocon, practically.”

On Friday in England, Clinton boasted that two years ago she had favored a proposal by a top British General to train 100,000 “moderate” rebels to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria, but Obama had turned her down. The American Thatcher? In that same interview with the Guardian she also managed to get in yet another shot against Snowden for taking refuge in Russia “apparently under Putin’s protection,” unless, she taunted, “he wishes to return knowing he would be held accountable.”

Accountable for telling the truth that Clinton concealed during her tenure as secretary of state in the Obama administration? Did she approve of the systematic spying on the American people as well as of others around the world, including the leaders of Germany and Brazil, or did she first learn of all this from the Snowden revelations?

On Saturday, a carefully vetted four-month investigation by The Washington Post based on material made available by Snowden revealed that while Clinton was in the government, the NSA had collected a vast trove of often intimate Internet correspondence and photos of innocent Americans, including many users of Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other leading Internet companies. The Post reported many files “described as useless by the [NSA] analysts but nonetheless retained…have a voyeuristic quality. They tell stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and disappointed hopes.”

http://www.thenation.com/article/nsa-hillary-clinton-either-fool-or-liar/

[sadoldgirl]

36. This is no different than the slow

dismantling of OWS, which was carefully done by
TPTB in 2011, but I think and hope that the effort now
will fail, because dem politicians have accepted
BLM much more than OWS.

I am glad again to support the ACLU, which is
desperately needed in these times.

[MFrohike]

54. Fun thread

I confess to being completely baffled by the defenders of the administration. This spying, call it what it is, was completely predictable. The security organs ALWAYS spy on anybody who's not kissing the rings of the wealthy and/or powerful. This has been documented so many times in our history that it's tiring to list them all. So, given all that, why is anyone making the weak defense that the president didn't know? If he actually didn't know and didn't anticipate this entirely predictable development, then he's too dumb to be president. I don't know of anybody, outside of people too dumb to tie their shoes, that actually thinks Barack Obama is too dumb to be president.

He knew it would happen. American history is clear as day on that subject. He either approved it or didn't stand in the way of it, but don't actually try to argue that a smart man is completely unaware of the obsession of the security organs when it comes to spying on American citizens.