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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGovernment Waste: DHS Documents Reveal Widespread Surveillance of Occupy Movement
http://www.alternet.org/occupy-wall-street/government-waste-dhs-documents-reveal-widespread-surveillance-occupy-movementGovernment Waste: DHS Documents Reveal Widespread Surveillance of Occupy Movement
The department tasked with preventing terrorism spent a lot of time and money monitoring peaceful activist demonstrations.
April 3, 2013 |
Federal documents reveal the Department of Homeland Security conducted daily monitoring of peaceful Occupy protests and encampments in 2011.
The memos, obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) through FOIA, show that the DHS routinely observed Occupy-type protests, including those deemed peaceful by federal agents. In 252 pages of department exchanges, agents overwhelmingly report uneventful, peaceful and orderly demonstrations.
The Federal Protective Service, a division of DHS tasked with protecting federal buildings, handled a good portion of the Occupy beat. DHS ordered FPS agents to write Daily Intelligence Briefings noting several types of events, including Peaceful Activist Demonstrations. One FPS memo on a protest sponsored by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, proposed To recognize the African slaves used to build Wall Street, raised no indications that it would be violent or that protestors will attempt to damage federal property.
An email exchange shows DHS quickly jumped to see whether its agents were involved in clashes between police and protesters at Occupy Oakland. Youtube has a lot of videos of the incident last night. Some of those videos show the exterior of the federal buildings but none which I found showed any of our personal, reads one report.
PCJF says at least one document reveals that DHS conducted off the books intelligence gathering on the movement. This meeting should be finishing up soon and I'll have access to a non-DHS computer that will allow me to do more looking, writes a DHS agent regarding the Occupy movement in New England.
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notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)winter is coming
(11,785 posts)than hate groups armed with weapons needs to reassess its priorities.
Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)If they did, there wouldn't be a need for Occupy.
Hotler
(11,354 posts)Wall St. and the 1% are the ones to watch. They're rat fucking bastards.
Rex
(65,616 posts)since the state is owned by the plutocracy.
It's not a waste of resources when the real enemy gets monitored, their crimes recorded, and all their associates identified.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)On edit, rather than waste your time and DU bandwidth, here's some more:
Know your BFEE: WikiLeaks Stratfor Dump Exposes Continued Secret Government Warmongering
Rex
(65,616 posts)I disagree with some here that this is the end run of capitalism. Your government is only as good as the people that bought it in this case. We've had people buy it and demand fracking is safe, heavy industrialization is fine and compensation of death or injury be minimzed in sums of money.
I do not believe capitalism has to be that way. This is the greed of men. All types of governments fall victim to avarice.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)This IS capitalism. Anything else you might THINK you know about capitalism came about, ultimately, from the fear of a socialist revolution in the 30s. Including FDR and his reforms. He saved capitalism from itself then, but now there's nobody around in the ownership class that even thinks they need saving.
Rex
(65,616 posts)nt.
This insightful observation will not be televised...
OffWithTheirHeads
(10,337 posts)Thing is, we are still here, just not as visible.
Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)Apophis
(1,407 posts)The Occupy movement must have scared the shit out of tbe corporate masters.
Earth_First
(14,910 posts)Those arrested and affiliated with the Occupy protests in both cities were under regular surveillence by both government groups detailed in FOIA requests obtained by OccupyBuffalo.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)I once brought up that the police were closely monitoring anti-war protesters back during the Iraq days. I got laughed at and called a tin foil hatter. It has since come out that not only were they closely monitoring anti-war groups, but their surveillance of them actually included things like digging through the garbage of well known activists looking for anything that could be used against them.
Yeah, tin foil hatter indeed.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)...that the government suppression of a peaceful protest was Nationally Co-ordinated by an increasingly militarized Police Force.
This is much more than a simple waste of money.
It is A Criminal Conspiracy to deprive Peaceful Americans of their Civil Liberties (Constitutional Rights),
and should be pursued and investigated by our Attorney General AS a Criminal Conspiracy.
It really sucks for us that the current Attorney General was an active member of that conspiracy.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)agents spying on peaceful protesters. The robo cops and Fed Agents getting out of vans were there to protect citizens exercising their rights. Talk about tin foil!!
Even after some of the protesters got photos of a few of them. Lol, even DU has its conspiracy theorists, still in denial, still believing that THEIR government would never, ever do anything as anti-Constitutional as spying on citizens exercising their Constitutional rights.
Talk about delusional!
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)and orchestrated crackdown.
The documents acquired via FOIA tend to show the opposite--that DHS officials stressed that this was 1st amendment expression, peaceful, keep our hands out of it, etc. Even the monitoring via news media got frowned upon since it was considered a potential infringement on first amendment protected activity.
Now, to the extent they talked about occupying infrastructure like streets, bridges, ports, buildings and preventing their normal use, that would be something I would expect DHS to make itself aware of, regardless of who was doing it.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)the mayors, etc etc etc. Like I said, DU has its own delusional, CTs.
This was a federally coordinated attack on innocent, peaceful protesters and someone should be held accountable for it. We didn't need this additional evidence, (with more to come btw) to see the facts. The near murder of protesters has yet to be investigated by this democratic government. Not one elected official went to visit the two War Veterans who were nearly killed by those robo cops. The brutality was so extreme that even the UN Rappatear did what is usually only necessary in countries ruled by dictatorship, asked the US Government to protect its citizens. A request that was ignored.
Keep on denying the evidence, that is your right. Bvar is 100% correct.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)akin to 911 Trutherism.
Not a single fact available to prove it--it's a matter of faith to those predisposed to believe that woo.
Claiming it is a fact is not the same as actually providing a fact to back up the accusation.
You did not provide a fact, just an assertion that it is a fact.
Just like people who argue that it's a fact that some deity created the earth in 7 days.
So, no, not a fact. A myth.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Wasn't that Bush' 'terror' department?
I don't have to provide facts, the facts are documented. As I said, tin foil CTs. They are always immune to facts, just can't convince them their delusions are just that, delusions.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)designed to draw attention to itself 'spying?'
If there were wiretaps, eavesdropping, intercepted emails--that would be spying?
And, of course, spying itself is not evidence of an orchestrated crackdown.
Yes, you have your 'facts' in the sense that the global warming deniers have their 'facts' as well.
Mnpaul
(3,655 posts)Just ask the antiwar protesters in Minnesota and Chicago
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Something for which there has yet to be any real evidence supplied.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)coordination across the country. And it was Global, which was also obvious. I remember watching late at night, the crackdowns in European countries and it was hard to tell the difference between there and here.
Wall St is Global, they crashed the world's economies and the fierce and brutal attacks on OWS themselves, were a necessary revelation for people all over the world. Now we know that there was no tin foil involved.
Freddie Stubbs
(29,853 posts)Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)Nothing more to that story.
Mnpaul
(3,655 posts)says nothing to see here
Freddie Stubbs
(29,853 posts)formercia
(18,479 posts)That crew couldn't blow up a balloon without help from the FBI.
Without the provocation, nothing would have happened.
Freddie Stubbs
(29,853 posts)Phillip McCleod
(1,837 posts)..you can't afford to fight back so you take the plea rather than face the 2-tiered criminal justice system. one for the rich and one for the poor.
the only evidence the prosecutors needed was the inventory of their wallets. if you call this justice then i'm just sickeningly
Freddie Stubbs
(29,853 posts)Phillip McCleod
(1,837 posts)..vs 'talk to mylawyer
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)The overwhelming number of criminal cases in this country get plea bargained, somewhere above 90%.
The system is stacked to work that way. One criminal incident amazingly gets charged as multiple different felonies, so you're looking at decades in prison if you go to court (with your public defender) and lose. So instead, regardless of guilt or innocence, you take the plea bargain and accept mere years in prison.
This system effectively punishes people who exercise their right to a trial, and everybody knows it, so they don't seek trial, they seek a plea deal.
Like damned near everything else in this country, it's a racket.
Mnpaul
(3,655 posts)Wright and his groups conspiracy werent part of anything larger, including the Occupy Wall Street movement, Vicki Anderson, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Cleveland, said in a telephone interview.
No Movement Plot
This was not an Occupy movement plot, Anderson said. They were individuals that formed their own group to conspire.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-01/five-men-arrested-in-fbi-sting-over-plot-to-bomb-bridge-in-ohio
frylock
(34,825 posts)good luck with your guilt by association.
Freddie Stubbs
(29,853 posts)Response to Freddie Stubbs (Reply #21)
Post removed
randome
(34,845 posts)That does not impugn the entire OWS movement. But it's willful blindness to pretend that problems did not occur.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)a woman who states that no assault ever happened. I guess women, as stated by the extremist attorney there, 'don't know when they are assaulted, the government will make that decision'. No wonder Sweden has become a laughing stock. How insulting to treat a woman like a child, as if we can't tell when we have been assaulted.
Where are the charges btw? Three years and no charges? Even their own extremist attorney, who btw believes that all men are guilty when it comes to rape and should have to pay a 'rape tax', admitted this case could never be won.
randome
(34,845 posts)And that particular kerfuffle has become only more complicated since Assange skipped out on bail. Now Sweden wants him to save face more than anything else, IMO. They can't just say 'no problem' when someone goes on the lam.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)frylock
(34,825 posts)Freddie Stubbs
(29,853 posts)A Berkley, CA-based Occupy Wall Street protester has been charged with felony assault for allegedly stabbing a cop in the hand with a pair of scissors as a crowd tried to retake Zuccotti Park on New Years Eve.
Officers had originally moved in to arrest Zachary Miller, 28, after watching him push a police barrier into a marked NYPD van, according to the criminal complaint against him.
Officer Christopher Vega was cut in the right hand by scissors as he arrested the struggling protester, causing him "substantial pain," according to the complaint. Vega also bruised both knees and suffered a back injury, according to a police source.
Miller already has Zuccotti-related disorderly conduct arrests from October and November, plus a record of narcotics, parole violation and burglary arrests in California, the source said.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/scissors_wielding_ows_protester_c1cSNMjMkwMAFPK2WDyeYO
frylock
(34,825 posts)of a few individuals. do you feel the same about minorities or other groups?
Gee look here! A former Democratic candidate charged with murder. By the standards of guilt by association that you've set, all Democrats are murderers. You're not a registered murderer errrrr... Democrat, are you?
http://www.annarbor.com/news/crime/former-political-candidate-charged-in-2006-murder-in-scio-township/
Freddie Stubbs
(29,853 posts)frylock
(34,825 posts)you do know the difference between surveillance and investigating, don't you?
Kingofalldems
(38,361 posts)Mnpaul
(3,655 posts)According to the police's criminal complaint, as Officer Christoper Vega tackled the struggling protester he was cut in the right hand, causing him 'considerable pain'.
After his New Year's Eve arrest, Miller was also charged with weapons possession, obstruction of governmental administration and resisting arrest.
He was released on $500 bail.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2081612/Occupy-Wall-Street-protester-stabbed-police-officer-hand-scissors-New-Years-Eve-clash-Zuccotti-Park.html
$500 bail for felony assault on a police officer? Do you have a credible source for any of the garbage you are posting?
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)the right wing sites where this all came from initially, had to give it up.
OWS is here to stay, it will grow like every other Social Justice movement has over the years, as it is doing, and it will always be attacked by the right wing supporters of Wall St, that was not only expected, it was predicted. Thanks for confirming the predictions, those OWS organizers were brilliant, they so prepared for all of this.
Freddie Stubbs
(29,853 posts)their methods were ineffectual. Additionally, the movement had a tendency to attract a significant number of ne'er-do-wells who preyed on women or were willing to use violence to forward their agenda.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)the facts, since you seem to be sorely lacking in facts. OWS has been the most successful, not just national, but Global Social Justice movement in decades. It is still in its infancy, but in the short time since it began it out-performed anything the organizers themselves even dreamed of.
The original plan was to organize a protest, but to make it for at least two weeks in NYC. The goal was to draw attention to Wall St corruption. The name itself was the message and it immediately resonated with people across the country and since it had already begun in Europe, it quickly highlighted THEIR efforts.
Within the two weeks, after which the demonstration, ONE was the goal, was scheduled to end, the exact opposite happened. It spread across the country and the title, Occupy Wall Street, was adapted in every country in the world.
It strikes fear into the hearts of the corrupt, global banksters who so far, have not been held accountable for their crimes yet, to see the people so united in demanding that justice be done, not just in Europe, or here, but everywhere they have caused havoc with people's lives.
OWS remained on the streets ten times longer than they planned. They have now moved into the next phases of the movement. So far, because of the incredible brilliance of the original organizers and their legal advisers, they are occupying the courts and winning every case, exposing police lies and corruption, and once again working to expose the wrong-doing of those who have collapsed the world's economies.
They have over the past several months, done more than Congress has in several years, to keep people in their homes. They are moving into a new phase and are highly regarded by a majority of the people in every country in which they now exist.
I know there are some who WISH they had failed, but the spectacular success of what was intended to be a short, two week protest, will most likely be used as a model for future such movements.
'Well-intentioned'? They were organized, they had on their team some of the country's best legal minds, best economic minds, prominent political figures advising them and it is now paying off in the courts.
It's odd though to have seen on left wing forums ANY opposition to a Social Justice movement. But that is one more thing OWS has done, it has exposed way, way more than it intended and that too has been very useful information for those of us trying to figure out who is on the side of the people and who is not, both public and private individuals. It has been like sunlight exposing dirt bunnies we didn't know or weren't sure were there. Sometimes the truth is hard to take, but necessary in order to make the changes needed.
So Thank You, Occupy! And keep up the good work!
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)That the CPUC actually came in their favor locally.
Any other fantasies you'd like to tell me? You are fixated on parks. They moved on.
Oh and I forgot, they are working in the barrios, and with other people...camping in parks not so much.
Oh and locally, my city council recognized their work in a resolution.
Did you read that in the paper? Trust me, not the UT.
Kingofalldems
(38,361 posts)Links and proof please.
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)Freddie Stubbs
(29,853 posts)Kingofalldems
(38,361 posts)Volaris
(10,260 posts)it's exactly what Wall Street PAID for.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)onethatcares
(16,133 posts)broke it into the 99% being screwed by the .01% DHS had to serve the corporate masters so none of this surprises me. It's like the anti war movement being infiltrated by goons in order to make the movement seem off track and out of the main stream which it really isn't.
UBEEDelusional
(54 posts)perhaps Occupy should become a white supremacist or well armed separatist group instead seeing that they are not considered a threat to the gov like Occupy is considered.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)Seriously, why would any law enforcement agency NOT keep an eye on large groups of people moving into public parks from other cities?
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)beatings of old women and war veterans. The false arrests, the attempts by law enforcement to stop the protests, the coordination of the mayors and the sending in of outside forces, dressed in military gear, using militarized weapons. Sure, that's what law enforcement does in a democracy, they beat nearly to death in several cases, peaceful protesters.
Is there some reason why you feel the need to distort the facts that the whole world saw?
randome
(34,845 posts)So far as I know, DHS had nothing to do with local law enforcement going over the edge. Which it is quite clear happened in some instances.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)They sure were concerned that some of their agents might have been caught on utube. Why would they even think that they might have been caught on tape? DHS DID coordinate with local law enforcement. Fusion centers were used for coordination. Why do we have a 1st Amendment if it is such a threat to this government that they need to bring out virtual armies of robo cops, DHS, the FBI to try to stop people from availing themselves of it? Why do they brutally attack people who try to have their say, peacefully?
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)about whether or not their agents were involved in the brutal attacks in Oakland. They were talking about watching the 'Social Media' and were very concerned about Utube.
It is now obvious that the protesters who saw people in various locations, in some cases getting out of vans, then mingling with the crowds, were Government agents.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Black SUV's parked across the street from our demonstrations with rolled down windows and cameras taking photographs of us. The car would move around the location...but, always across the street and the occupants never got out.
This happened at a large demonstration at our State Capitol and later at weekly demonstrations in another City nearby. It was very creepy at the time but we were never approached. These days they'd probably be out there "in our face" claiming they were doing Crowd Control or something. We had very few police at those demonstrations and mostly they stayed away from us just observing. I think that would be different these days, also.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)policy was for everyone to have a camera and to record every arrest, every police activity and anything that looked like undercover agents. As the documents show, the DHS was very concerned about the photos especially if any of their agents were caught brutalizing citizens, as the cops were.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)...so indeed it's all changed. Now the Prey can photograph the Predators.... and catch activities that would have been hard to do in an instant without cell phone cameras.
So that's a big positive.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)people and democracy.
They were just "doing their job".
I knew that they were watching us. The 1% has already taken everything over.
What passes for democracy now is just an illusion.
That's what Occupy is about ~ raising awareness, achieving critical mass, engaging in world revolution to remove the 1% from power, and establishing working democratic systems whose primary function is to provide service that fosters the greatest well being and highest quality of life for everyone on the planet, and the planet itself.
Hi, Agent Mike!
99Forever
(14,524 posts)... authoritarian bullshit instead of actually helping the millions of Americans living everyday lives of struggling and desperation. We don't need no stinkin' food, shelter, or health care, we gots us some real badass surveillance systems.
Thanks Obama Justice Dept and DHS, you're the best.
Yay for the Corporate Overseers!
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)or against us.