Los Angeles police spied on anti-Trump protesters

[icymist]

The Los Angeles police department has revealed in court that it infiltrated an activist group planning anti-Trump protests, in the latest case of US law enforcement spying on leftwing organizers.

A confidential informant working with the LAPD secretly recorded multiple meetings of a group called Refuse Fascism in 2017, according to newly disclosed police documents. The LAPD transcripts, first reported by the Los Angeles Times and reviewed by the Guardian, were submitted in a criminal case against activists who blocked a California freeway during an anti-Trump demonstration.

Police equipped an informant with a hidden recording device and had the individual attend Refuse Fascism gatherings at a local church “in an attempt to elicit information regarding the closure” of the freeway and to express interest in being involved “in any such future activities”, police wrote.

Miguel Antonio, one of the activists who was monitored and recorded by the informant, and then subsequently charged with misdemeanors for shutting down the freeway, told the Guardian on Friday that he would not let the surveillance stop him from organizing.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/19/los-angeles-police-informant-anti-trump-activist-protest?fbclid=IwAR139r8cC8iiOtL5WfxLS5wRYezl75sYBAxDeAcJ1uq444PHDwooTfL0WPQ

[bobbieinok]

1. Shades of the 60s!! LA and SF police infiltrated, spied on anti-war groups!

When Gus Hall, head of the US communist party in the 60s, spoke at Stanford, men in dark suits were I the balcony, observing and recording everything.

It was widely believed that police photographed every protest participant and kept massive records.

IIRC some protestors requested their FBI files when Freedom of Information became 'a thing,'

[Eugene]

6. Did they ever really change since then?

LAPD officers were caught doing Red Squad activities after the unit was officially disbanded. Have there ever been any real institutional reforms?

[Downtown Hound]

7. They have never stopped doing this

They did it during the Iraq War too.

[spanone]

2. WTF?

[tanyev]

3. OK, did they also infiltrate right wing activist groups?

I mean, other than those who were already regular members.

[edhopper]

4. Exactly

it's like the Cops infiltrating the Cops.

[hedda_foil]

5. The article is quite clear that they did not!

[Mc Mike]

8. Hat squad strikes again.