Secret memo: SF cops may be working as FBI spies — with no local oversight

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Bay Guardian

San Francisco cops assigned to the FBI's terrorism task force can ignore local police orders and California privacy laws to spy on people without any evidence of a crime.

That's what a recently released memo appears to say — and it has sent shockwaves through the civil liberties community.

It also has members of the S.F. Police Commission asking why a carefully crafted set of rules on intelligence gathering, approved in the wake of police spy scandals in the 1990s, were bypassed without the knowledge or consent of the commission.

"It's a bombshell," said John Crew, a long-time police practices expert with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.

Read more: http://www.sfbg.com/2011/04/26/spies-blue

[AsahinaKimi]

1. Of all places SF, why?

Maybe our little liberal city is seen as a threat to someone?

[EFerrari]

4. Because it's easy. There's a nice big FBI office in town. n/t

[Luminous Animal]

2. San Francisco needs to tell the FBI to shove it. I've already sent emails to everyone

that I can think of that would have some authority in this matter.

[lostnfound]

3. If one is only now outraged, one hasn't been paying attention.

The "GWOT" bred a very big octopus of a police state, with police being militarized and turned into spies. If newspapers can end up employing CIA since the 1970s, nothing should surprise us, unfortunately.