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<a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/police-twitter-riots-social-media-activists" eudora="autourl">
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/police-twitter-riots-social-media-activists<br>
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<img src="http://motherjones.com/sites/all/assets/logo_small.gif" width=143 height=29 alt="Mother
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</font><h1><font size=4><b>How Your Twitter Account Could Land You in
Jail</b></font></h1><font size=3>Anything you tweet could be used against
you.<br><br>
By <a href="http://motherjones.com/authors/matthew-power">Matthew
Power</a> | <a href="http://motherjones.com/toc/2010/03">March/April 2010
Issue</a><br>
<hr>
<b>On the afternoon</b> of September 24, 2009, Pennsylvania State
Troopers, their guns drawn, broke down the door of room 238 of the
CareFree Inn on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. The troopers were acting on
a search warrant related to protests planned for the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_G-20_Pittsburgh_summit">G20
summit</a> [1]a meeting of the heads of state of the world's major
economies. Thousands of protesters had descended on the city, presenting
demands ranging from curbs on carbon emissions to the outright abolition
of capitalism.<br><br>
Anticipating hordes of black-masked, Starbucks-smashing anarchists, the
Pittsburgh police and the Secret Service coordinated nearly 4,000 law
enforcement officers, outfitting them with the latest in riot-dispersal
technology. Crowds marching on the summit were met with pepper spray,
stun grenades, andfor the first time on US
soil<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSMyY3_dmrM">acoustic
cannons</a> [2] that blast painful sounds as far as 1,000 feet. But the
protesters had their own crowd-control methods, and that's what had
brought the state troopers to the CareFree Inn.<br><br>
What they found when they broke down the door were a couple of
middle-aged housemates from Queens, New York. Elliott Madison sat at a
desk with a laptop and a cell phone. A police scanner lay nearby. Michael
Wallschlaeger was at the minifridge grabbing some hummus when the police
rushed in. According to the criminal complaint filed against them, the
two men had been "communicating with various protestors, and protest
groups...[via] internet based communications, more commonly known as
'Twitter'. The observed 'Twitter' communications were noted to be
relevant to the direction of the movement of the Protestors...in order to
avoid apprehension..."<br><br>
Madison and Wallschlaeger were part of
<a href="http://tincancomms.wordpress.com/">Tin Can Comms Collective</a>
[3], a "collection of communication rebels" made up of several
individuals in various locations across Pittsburgh. Madison's job was to
verify information being sent in and then relay that to legal observers,
street medics, and other organizers who could in turn tweet the
information to the masses in the streets.<br><br>
The raid occurred just as the protests were starting, but even as Madison
and Wallschlaeger were arrested, the information flowed from the other
tweeters without a blip. "A comms facility was raided, but we are
still fully operational please continue to submit reports" stated
<a href="http://twitter.com/G20pgh">one subsequent tweet</a>
[4].<br><br>
The real-time updates were available to anyone who followed the feed,
allowing protesters to see the theater of operations and add information
to the picture. It was as if the demonstrators had gotten their own
helicopter. Tin Can Comms sent out
<a href="http://twitter.com/G20pgh">messages</a> [4] such as "SWAT
teams rolling down 5th Ave towards Schenley" and "40 cops, w/
bus, headed towards friendship park." The police knew they were
being outflanked, but could do little against a decentralized foe:
"SCANNER JUST SAID: BE ADVISED WE'RE BEING MONITORED BY ANARCHISTS
THROUGH SCANNER," noted one Tin Can tweet.<br><br>
Madison and Wallschlaeger were charged with "criminal use of a
communication facility," "possessing instruments of
crime," and "hindering apprehension"two felony counts and
one misdemeanor.<br><br>
With his long ponytail and goatee, Madison looks younger than his 42
years. A full-time social worker and self-proclaimed anarchist, he has
long played support roles in protest movements, most often as a legal
observer or a communications coordinator. He has no criminal record, but
nevertheless had to post $30,000 in bail. Wallschlaeger, a 46-year-old
host of a radio show called
"<a href="http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/35839">This
Week in Radical History</a> [5]," had to post $5,000.<br><br>
Madison calls the arrest an attempt to "stifle dissent" and
says his actions were "perfectly legal." His lawyer, Martin
Stolar, calls them "absolutely protected speech." Madison also
points out the irony that last June the State Department asked Twitter to
delay scheduled maintenance so as not to interrupt Iranian protesters
tweeting from the barricades.<br><br>
Tehran and Pittsburgh were not the first time social networking and mass
texts were used to support a large-scale protest: At the 2004 Republican
National Convention in New York City, thousands of protesters were
organized by a mass-messaging
<a href="http://web.media.mit.edu/%7Etad/pub/txtmob_chi05.pdf">program
called TXTmob</a> [6] (pdf). This proved the new tools' usefulness to
both activists and police, and they adjusted their strategies
accordingly. TXTmob is even credited as one of the programs that inspired
Twitter's inventors.<br><br>
In Pittsburgh, the protesters' Twitter stream continued through the end
of the G20 summit, with noticeable results. By the time the tear gas
cleared, only around 190 arrests had been made, far fewer than at
previous protests in Seattle and New York. The media soon forgot about
the storybut for the two arrestees, an ordeal that Madison describes as
"Kafkaesque" was only beginning.<br><br>
At around six in the morning a week after Madison and Wallschlaeger
posted bail, a dozen NYPD officers and FBI agents from the Joint
Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) broke down the front and back doors of
Madison's home in Queens. Guns drawn, they smashed in bedroom doors, and
Madison, Wallschlaeger, their housemates, and a guest were left
handcuffed on a couch. With helicopters circling overhead, agents
searched the house for 16 hours. "I asked to see the search
warrant," says Madison, "and they basically said, 'Fuck you,
you'll see it when we give it to you.'"<br><br>
Court records show the FBI seized hundreds of items, including computers,
hard drives, cameras, a World War I-era gas mask, "anarchy
books," even an antique needlepoint of Lenin made by Madison's
wife's grandmother. Several issues of
<a href="http://www.steampunkmagazine.com/"><i>Steampunk Magazine</a></i>
[7], where Madison writes under the pen name Professor Calamity, were
also seized, as was a guide on poisons (which he says he uses in the
writing of mystery novels), a Mao Tse-tung refrigerator magnet, and
several <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i> DVDs. A poster in the living room
of anarchist philosopher
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bakunin">Mikhail
Bakunin</a> [8] was left alone; "I guess they didn't know who he
was," says Madison. At one point a hazmat team in full protective
gear was brought in to investigate a jar of kombucha tea fermenting in
the basement. Madison claims a JTTF agent shook his head and said,
"You guys are just a bunch of hippies!"<br><br>
The raid seemed to have an aimless quality. Madison was handed a ticket
for a packet of fireworks, and an agent who put his hand into a suspected
bag of marijuana discovered, painfully, that it was dried stinging
nettles, used in homeopathy. "It was almost as if they thought, 'If
we take enough stuff, we'll find something to charge them with,'"
Madison says. When he was finally shown the cover sheet to the search
warrant, it provided for the seizure of any items "designed or
intended as a means of violating the federal rioting laws."<br><br>
The federal anti-riot
statute<a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002101----000-.html">
18 USC §2101</a> [9]makes it a felony to engage in interstate travel to
"organize, promote, encourage, participate in, or carry on a
riot." The statute is almost never invoked, but was used to indict
the Chicago 7 for their
<a href="http://motherjones.com/media/2008/02/film-review-chicago-10">
organizing activities</a> [10] during the 1968 Democratic National
Convention. That case was ultimately appealed and thrown out on other
grounds, so the constitutionality of the anti-riot statute has never been
challenged in the Supreme Court. Critics have long contended that it is
vague, overbroad, and designed to suppress protest activity and free
expression. Applied in the current context, "it starts to
criminalize dissent, to conflate terrorism with demonstrations, and
that's a very, very dangerous notion," says lawyer Stolar.
"Essentially it's prosecution for a thought crime."<br><br>
The fallout from the G20 protests has gotten curiouser and curiouser. In
an unexpected move, the Pittsburgh charges against Madison and
Wallschlaeger were summarily dismissed. A spokesman for the Allegheny
County district attorney said that the defendants' actions "may have
been related to more expansive activities" and "that until
further investigative activities by law enforcement agencies can be
completed, it would be more prudent to have the current charges
withdrawn." Whatever the JTTF was up to, in other words, would
remain secret, along with the sealed warrant that the Pennsylvania state
troopers had used.<br><br>
At around the same time, during an October hearing on the Queens raid, a
prosecutor revealed that a federal grand jury had been convened to
investigate protest activities. The affidavits containing the allegations
that convinced a judge to approve the search of Madison's house also
remain sealed.<br><br>
Federal and grand juries are conducted in utter secrecy and have enormous
power. The old joke is that they can "indict a ham sandwich,"
but if they turn up nothing, they can disappear with no public
disclosure. Stolar doesn't know of anyone who has been summoned, but
given the course of events, "I would say they're looking to go after
what they consider to be hardcore demonstrators," he says. "I
have very little faith in government anyway," says Madison,
"but this is something I would have expected more under the Bush
regime." A spokesman for the US attorney for the Eastern District of
New York declined to comment on the investigation.<br><br>
Madison and his housemates are trying to get on with their lives, not
knowing when, or if, the other shoe will drop. "Nothing could ever
happen and we'll never know why," says Madison, sitting in the
living room of his Queens home, the broken lock on the front door still
unrepaired. "We're anarchists," he adds, "but that's not
illegal, and it's actually a good thing. We're not ashamed of it. Part of
the thing with the government is to make you feel not only afraid but
also ashamed. That's just not going to work with me."<br>
<hr>
<b>Source URL:</b>
<a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/police-twitter-riots-social-media-activists">
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/police-twitter-riots-social-media-activists</a>
<br><br>
<b>Links:<br>
</b>[1]
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_G-20_Pittsburgh_summit" eudora="autourl">
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_G-20_Pittsburgh_summit<br>
</a>[2]
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSMyY3_dmrM" eudora="autourl">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSMyY3_dmrM<br>
</a>[3]
<a href="http://tincancomms.wordpress.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://tincancomms.wordpress.com/<br>
</a>[4]
<a href="http://twitter.com/G20pgh" eudora="autourl">
http://twitter.com/G20pgh<br>
</a>[5]
<a href="http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/35839" eudora="autourl">
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/35839<br>
</a>[6]
<a href="http://web.media.mit.edu/~tad/pub/txtmob_chi05.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://web.media.mit.edu/~tad/pub/txtmob_chi05.pdf<br>
</a>[7]
<a href="http://www.steampunkmagazine.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.steampunkmagazine.com/<br>
</a>[8]
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bakunin" eudora="autourl">
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bakunin<br>
</a>[9]
<a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002101----000-.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002101----000-.html<br>
</a>[10]
<a href="http://motherjones.com/media/2008/02/film-review-chicago-10" eudora="autourl">
http://motherjones.com/media/2008/02/film-review-chicago-10<br><br>
<br><br>
</a></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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