Occupy. The 1st Amendment.
"... Or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Note: It doesn't also say: "only when they let us."
Spying on Occupy?
Why is the FBI spying on Occupy protesters? The ACLU-NC is determined to find out.
by Linda Lye, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Northern California; for aclu.org -- 07/19/2012
(Originally posted by the ACLU of Northern California)
The ACLU of Northern California and San Francisco Bay Guardian today filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI to find out whether and to what extent the feds have been spying on members of the Occupy movement. Although the right to protest goes to the heart of our democracy, and the FBI exists to keep us safe, the FBI has a perverse history of interpreting its mission to mean that it can spy on political activists, including Martin Luther King, Jr.
Last fall, the grassroots protest movement Occupy Wall Street -- or simply "Occupy" -- swept the nation. Originating in New York, prominent Occupy movements sprung up all over Northern California. But the law enforcement response was swift and brutal, as police showered protesters with exploding projectiles, batons, and pepper spray.
[...]
But we also have reason to believe that the FBI has been involved. Just days before the inaugural Occupy Wall Street protest on September 17, 2011, the FBI issued this Intelligence Bulletin, labeling the now-iconic OWS image as a "Propaganda poster." Why is the federal government spying on protesters? And just what arms of the federal government are involved? These are just some of the questions our [FOIA] lawsuit hopes to answer.
[emphasis added]
SO, in the spirit of clarity and concision, let me explain my thesis, for why we have yet another important reason that
the secret spying on Citizens should matter in an open and democratic society.
That reason is:
That such domestically surveilled information, when collected and used in secret without real oversight, can easily lead to the oppression of Citizens, who are simply trying to exercise their Constitutionally-guaranteed Rights, as Citizens.
Well, this time the FOIA actually achieved its goal: Sunlight.
FBI Documents Reveal Secret Nationwide Occupy Monitoring
See the released documents here
Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, www.justiceonline.org -- Dec 22, 2012
FBI documents just obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) pursuant to the PCJF’s Freedom of Information Act demands reveal that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat even though the agency acknowledges in documents that organizers explicitly called for peaceful protest and did “not condone the use of violence” at occupy protests.
The PCJF has obtained heavily redacted documents showing that FBI offices and agents around the country were in high gear conducting surveillance against the movement even as early as August 2011, a month prior to the establishment of the OWS encampment in Zuccotti Park and other Occupy actions around the country.
“This production, which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI’s surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement,” stated Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF). “These documents show that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are treating protests against the corporate and banking structure of America as potential criminal and terrorist activity. These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America.”
[...]
* Documents released show coordination between the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and corporate America. They include a report by the Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC), described by the federal government as “a strategic partnership between the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the private sector,” discussing the OWS protests at the West Coast ports to “raise awareness concerning this type of criminal activity.” The DSAC report shows the nature of secret collaboration between American intelligence agencies and their corporate clients -- the document contains a “handling notice” that the information is “meant for use primarily within the corporate security community. Such messages shall not be released in either written or oral form to the media, the general public or other personnel…” (The DSAC document was also obtained by the Northern California ACLU which has sought local FBI surveillance files.)
[...]
[emphasis added]
We ignore such infringements 'abridgements and prohibitions' of our 1st Amendment Rights at our own 99% Minimum Wage peril:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Kind of puts a whole new spin on that
warning that:
"the NSA can 'quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type.'" --
Doesn't it?
Well they don't call it "domestic surveillance" for nothing. (It's for something, allright. Something they'd rather keep secret.)