<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div class="container font-size5 content-width3">
<div class="header reader-header" style="display: block;"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/07/memphis-police-spying-on-activists-is-worse-than-we-thought/566264/">https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/07/memphis-police-spying-on-activists-is-worse-than-we-thought/566264/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Memphis Police Spying on Black Lives
Matter Runs Deep</h1>
<span><a class="c-byline__link c-byline__link--article__hed"
href="https://www.citylab.com/authors/brentin-mock/"
data-omni-click="inherit">Brentin Mock -</a></span><span><time
class="c-byline__time c-byline__time--article__hed"> Jul 27,
2018</time></span> </div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div class="moz-reader-content line-height4" style="display:
block;">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<article itemscope="itemscope"
itemtype="https://schema.org/NewsArticle">
<figure itemprop="image" itemscope=""
itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"> <source
media="(min-width: 1024px)"> <source
media="(min-width: 576px)"> <source
media="(max-width: 575px)"><img alt="Demonstrators
gather in Memphis, Tennessee, earlier this year to
mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of
Martin Luther King, Jr. " itemprop="contentUrl"><figcaption>
<span itemprop="caption">Demonstrators gather in
Memphis, Tennessee, earlier this year to mark the
50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin
Luther King, Jr. </span> <span itemprop="creator">Shawn
Escoffery</span> </figcaption></figure>
<p itemprop="description">As ACLU lawyers prepare for an
upcoming trial with the Memphis Police Department, the
things they’ve learned about the law enforcement
agency’s spying habits have “surprised” them.</p>
<section id="article-section-1">
<p dir="ltr">When the ACLU of Tennessee <a
href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/04/the-evolution-of-domestic-spying-since-mlk-in-memphis/557468/">filed
a lawsuit against the Memphis Police Department</a>
in March 2017, its lawyers accused the police
department of spying on local protesters in violation
of a consent decree. The lawsuit was based on the
existence of a “City Hall Escort List” created by
Memphis police, at Mayor Jim Strickland’s request, and
mostly filled with names of Black Lives Matter
activists to be flagged by police if ever on City Hall
grounds. However, after deposing key police officials
and collecting hundreds of pages of documented
evidence, ACLU lawyers learned that this was just a
fraction of what was going on. Based on <a
href="http://www.aclu-tn.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/107-02-Statement-of-Undisputed-Facts_Redacted.pdf">court
documents</a> the ACLU filed this week in the case,
they also found out about these actions:</p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">The “City Hall Escort List” not only
flagged the names of certain Black Lives
Matter-affiliated activists, but it also included
“associates in fact”—people connected to those
activists via social media, prior arrests, or
“often seen at unlawful assemblies with” them.</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Police prepared “joint intelligence
briefs,” or JIBs, that initially were about
protests against police violence in Memphis, but
quickly became a dossier of any kind of
anti-police violence activity happening across the
nation, namely “any of the organizations that
arose out of Ferguson” or that were part of the
Black Lives Matter network, even it had nothing to
do with Memphis.</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">These intel briefings weren’t just
shared within the police department; they were
also shared with Shelby County sheriff and
government officials, the county school district,
the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security, the
U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Military, the
<a href="http://www.mlgw.com/about/">Memphis
Light, Gas, & Water</a> municipal utility
company, the <a
href="https://www.tva.gov/About-TVA">Tennessee
Valley Authority</a> (a regional electricity
utility company), and, curiously, the private
companies FedEx and Autozone.<b> </b></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">The police used “social media collator”
software, such as <a
href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2016/10/12/geofeedia-is-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-the-era-of-social-surveillence/">Geofeedia</a>
and <a
href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fort-myers-police-department-chooses-nc4-street-smart-to-help-fight-crime-300621350.html">NC4</a>,
to easily search and monitor open-source data and
other social media “chatter” concerning protest
activities.</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Police also set up a dummy social media
account under the name “Bob Smith” to access
information and correspond with people whose
social media profiles were private and not
accessible to the public.<b> </b></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Undercover and plain-clothed officers
used this intel to monitor African American-hosted
events and activities even if they weren’t
protests—like flash mob dance rallies. Among the
events the police monitored in stealth mode:
several black church meetings; a memorial service
for <a
href="https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2017/07/17/darrius-stewart-memorial/481493001/">Darrius
Stewart</a>, a teenager who was shot and killed
by a Memphis police officer in 2015; a <a
href="https://allevents.in/memphis/soulful-food-truck-sunday-mbrw/1379333275461297">black-owned
food truck festival</a>; and a gathering at a
local park where an organization gave out free
book bags and school supplies to students. <b> </b></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The ACLU of Tennessee <a
href="http://www.aclu-tn.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/107-Mtn-for-Summary-Judgment_Redacted.pdf">filed
a motion this week</a> asking the judge to render a
decision based on all the information gathered,
instead of going to trial, which is currently
scheduled for August. These operations are
questionable enough on their own, but police
surveillance of protesters has been <a
href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/04/the-evolution-of-domestic-spying-since-mlk-in-memphis/557468/">forbidden
in Memphis since a 1978 consent decree</a>, after
the police department was accused of carrying out
similar spying functions on civil rights activists
dating back to 1968, when Martin Luther King was in
the city advocating on behalf of sanitation workers.</p>
<aside>Police also set up a dummy social media account
under the name “Bob Smith” to access information and
correspond with people.</aside>
<p dir="ltr">The information unearthed about the police
department’s recent activities shows that such
surveillance operatives have evolved, though. Back in
King’s day, Memphis police were planting undercover
agents in activist circles to gather intel—today, they
continue to do that, but are also going undercover in
people’s private social media accounts and using the
city’s <a
href="https://wreg.com/2012/11/29/police-sky-cams-aim-to-reduce-crime/">SkyCop
cameras</a> to discreetly profile and monitor
activists throughout the city.</p>
<p>“The information we got about just how the police
were monitoring protesters both through social media
and surveillance, and through undercover means, was
not something we anticipated when we filed the
lawsuit,” said ACLU-TN Legal Director Thomas H.
Castelli. “We knew they were using social media
collators, but we didn’t know how they were using
them. The use of covert social media accounts to
friend people [on Facebook], or to break through open
source barriers to find out more information from
individuals was somewhat surprising to us.”</p>
</section>
<section id="article-section-2">
<p dir="ltr">The joint intelligence briefings the
Memphis police created not only included photographs
of people involved in protests (or even “those who
posted about the possibility of protest action,”
according to <a
href="http://www.aclu-tn.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/107-01-Memo-in-Support_Redacted.pdf">court
documents</a>) but also sensitive information such
as drivers’ license details, juvenile arrest records,
and mental health histories. Agents used a tool called
the <a
href="https://securityintelligence.com/news/ibm-i2-qradar-offense-investigator-the-new-i2-cyber-threat-hunting-app/">i2
Analyst’s Notebook</a> to construct a matrix or “map
of associations” between the various activists they
were watching—basically, a Facebook of protesters used
by police to track their movements.</p>
</section>
<section id="article-section-3">
<p dir="ltr">Some of the intelligence the police agents
collected from social media turned out to be wrong, or
literally fake news. In one of the briefings,
exhibited in court documents, police distributed
warnings to its law enforcement network about a “Day
of Rage”—a <em><a
href="https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/the-first-purge-review-1202863400/">Purge</a></em>-like
revolt that was supposed to occur on July 15, 2016, in
several cities where violence could be expected. The
police said they scooped this intel up from Black
Lives Matter social accounts. But nothing happened on
July 15 and Black Lives Matter had publicly disavowed
having anything to do with the fake event and the
rumors promoting it. It turned out to be a hoax, as <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/documents-show-monitoring-black-lives-matter-171128110538134.html"><em>Al-Jazeera</em>
reported</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This is the kind of misfortune that black
activists can’t afford in a climate where Russian
hackers have posed as <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/if-russia-can-create-fake-black-lives-matter-accounts-who-will-next/2017/10/15/ffb2e01e-af79-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html?noredirect=on">online
provocateurs to stir up racial polarization and
discord</a> to sway elections. Meanwhile, as George
Joseph has reported for <em><a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/03/19/black-lives-matter-fbi-surveillance/">The
Intercept</a> </em>and <em><a
href="https://theappeal.org/memphis-police-collected-black-lives-matter-activists-private-facebook-posts/">The
Appeal</a></em>, Black Lives Matter groups have
been tracked and monitored by the FBI, with some
possibly identified by state and federal authorities
as “<a
href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/02/new-jersey-homegrown-terrorism/515163/">black
identity extremists</a>.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">While the ACLU’s lawsuit mostly focuses on
enforcing the consent decree, Castelli says they would
challenge the police departments tactics even if there
was no decree in place.</p>
<p>“If the decree didn’t exist, there may be a different
approach to calling out this kind of surveillance,”
said Castelli. “It’s problematic and can have chilling
effects on people exercising their constitutional
rights. Police in general have a tremendous amount of
power and they can have a coercive effect, so we would
be condemning these practices as bad for free speech
and public policy.”</p>
</section>
<section
data-include="css:https://cdn.citylab.com/static/b/frontend/dist/citylab/css/components/author-article.e6996e6bb587.css">
<h4>About the Author</h4>
<section itemprop="author" itemscope=""
itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"> <img
data-srcset="https://cdn.citylab.com/media/None/original/headshot.jpg?mod=1522336390"
alt="Brentin Mock" itemprop="image">
<div>
<h5 itemprop="name"><a
href="https://www.citylab.com/authors/brentin-mock/"
data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'',@href">Brentin
Mock</a></h5>
<p itemprop="description"><a
href="https://www.citylab.com/authors/brentin-mock/"
data-omni-click="inherit">Brentin Mock</a><span>
is a staff writer at CityLab. He was previously
the </span><span>justice editor at <em>Grist</em>.
</span></p>
</div>
</section>
</section>
</article>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>