Please don't share information on your or your group's political activities with the police

[behave]

I started thinking about this again after a thread
was started by another DUer that told of the OP's and his group's being approached by a friendly young officer
asking them to tell them about their candidate, Barak
Obama. The thread didn't really go beyond speculation
that the cop was simply a citizen wanting to be informed
about a national candidate. No big deal. Right?

Well, probably wrong. There is a very real history
in America that tells how one left oriented activist
or activist group after another have been infiltrated,
surveilled, out-witted, and framed by local cops
who started by merely acting concerned and asking
what at first seemed innocuous questions. And most of
the times it started with a cop asking questions.

Though subsequent lawsuits have exposed some of the extent of the police misconduct, the cases that couldn't get a hearing remain in the majority. It doesn't take much for the cops to build a conspiracy case against a lawful progressive political assembly. They simply lie and go from there. The less they have, though, the better the chance that their case can
be defeated in a court of law. Meeting times, locations, names of members, etc should be guarded info and should never be given freely to a
law enforcement official. If you say that all cops
have to do is monitor a left-wing blog to get
information then you'd be missing an important point.
Info gathered that way isn't evidence, one-to-one
or group discussions with the police, however, is.

Paranoia won't destroy ya if you're smart.

[Texasgal]

1. *cough* ummm

Are you serious?

[TheDebbieDee]

6. That's the easiest way to find out what any group is up to.......

walk right up and ask some trusting, unsuspecting motor-mouth like you simple and direct questions about the group's activities. You'll talk until the cows come home because it would never occur to you that the person asking the questions is collecting info to be used AGAINST you or your group.

I bet you think it would be nearly impossible to believe that law enforcement personnel or people with access to law enforcement databases would attend a DU gathering and write down the license plate numbers of the cars in the parking lot outside the meeting place, huh?

[lonestarnot]

12. When your plate says phuqbsh, they don't even have to write it down.

Snort.

[Bill McBlueState]

18. this is funny

You respond to a five-word post with a 100+ word post in which you call the poster a "motor-mouth." You're trying to be ironic, right? :rofl:

[TheDebbieDee]

22. Just wanted to let TexasGal know that what WE commonly know

is not inconsequential.

[dems_rightnow]

7. He seems to be

Yikes!

[Leopolds Ghost]

10. You do know that the MD State Police just infiltrated a bunch of activist groups, right? Wash. Post

Thanks to a FOIA request, you can review when and where and whom was monitored.

I'm not on the list, but I've run into people who were actually monitored by these undercover agents here in my town.

It affects me indirectly since I run a progressive nonprofit.

The Baltimore Sun and Washington Post have a full breakdown.

This is because all the monitoring is done thru FISA now, legally, thanks to Dems.

So they felt safe disclosing this old program from 2005 which supposedly ceased in 2006.

[Terry in Austin]

11. Far-fetched? Nope. Very near-fetched, in fact.

Had a "friendly" plain-clothes cop hanging around us left-wing types back in the day. Vice squad. Good guy, laid back, no big deal, right?

Well, thirty-five years later, got some FOI files released from the feds, the city police and the university police. Our friendly lieutenant, it turns out, had been a very busy boy. Let's just leave it at that. Those things don't change much.

[Truth4Justice]

16. No and they have only become worse, IMO.

[mike_c]

2. yup, sounds paranoid, but you know...

...it also sounds completely reasonable. Witness the recent revelations about the Maryland State Police infiltrating and spying on peace activist groups.

[Joanne98]

3. GREAT advice! K&R!!!!!!!!

[behave]

5. Thank-you for recommending. kick

[amandabeech]

4. I generally concur.

I wouldn't talk except to offer literature and ask the officer to check out Obama's website for info on the candidate.

Then thank him for his interest and tell him that you hope he goes out and votes no matter which candidate he chooses because it is important for our country that everyone to participate in elections, or something like that. Republicans generally are shocked when you say things like that to them. I would assume that a police officer looking for info would react similarly. It's disarming.

[SmileyRose]

8. Every police officer I know is a politically active Democrat.

and I know a lot of them.

[behave]

9. yet many police departments prohibit cops from political activism? Can you give more info?

[SmileyRose]

13. well maybe I stated that not quite right.

politically minded, not necessarily out there with protest signs and signing up voters. But are actively informed and mentally and financially in the Democratic corner.

[behave]

14. Your assertion still sounds suspect

[Truth4Justice]

15. Anyone who thinks "officer friendly" is there to help by asking question is naive, to say the least.

The cops are not your friends and they haven't been for many, many years now.

[LanternWaste]

27. What sounds suspect to me is...

My ex B-I-L is a cop and Democrat. So are most of his cop buddies. This is in TX.

It's not a big deal to be a cop and a democrat. Happens more often than most people would like to imagine, I guess...

[gaspee]

26. Hmmm

That's odd - I live in one of the most liberal states in the country and most of the cops I know (and a lot of them are relatives) are authoritarian, asshole, republican types, which are actually kind of hard to find in the general population around here.

Unless you live in San Francisco (where I lived for ten years) I don't think I can quite believe your assertion.

Even in San Francisco a good proportion of cops were assholes. And even republicans.

[SmileyRose]

28. could be my upbringing give me a different perspective

I have police officers in my extended family on both sides. Grew up around them and still count a goodly number as personal friends. I have no doubt they have their assholish moments when the job calls for it. And since I live right near 2 different military bases and I live in an economically affordable area, I know a lot of military types amongst my neighbors.

I'll grant you, police and military trained people do trend more toward type "A" personalities, it's why they are suited for their jobs. But a type A personality doesn't instantly read "Republican". They come in all political pursuasions.

[behave]

17. kick

[Bill McBlueState]

19. I understand the principle

The cops have a history of trying to suppress left-wing activism. But I don't think supporting one of the two major candidates for President, especially the one who appears to be leading, really rises to the level of covert left-wing activism.

[behave]

20. more likely police will infiltrate groups with anti-war leanings or the appearance of such

[behave]

21. Need another rec please recommend

[intheflow]

23. This is ridiculous.

Maybe (and it's a big maybe) I can see the paranoia if you're working for a peace organization, even well respected ones like the American Friends Service Committee. But if anyone comes up to me asking about a mainstream presidential candidate, it's best for us all if we talk about our candidate. That's is democracy in action. Your suggestion only plays into the fear mongering that the current junta administration has perpetrated on us. And I'm speaking as someone who was in the Denver spy files from a few years back. If you want to live your life in fear, be my guest, but I refuse to become so cynical that I see everyone who works in public service as the enemy of the people.

[formercia]

24. Read this book!!!!

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/formercia/58

This is not paranoia. This is documented out the yazoo by attorneys. Read it or weep.


The link at google has been assassinated.

Here's the link to the publisher:

http://www.southendpress.org/2004/items/Agents


Here's an updated link for the preview of the book and additional references:

http://books.google.com/books?q=agents+of+repression

"Those who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it."
Winston Churchill

[behave]

25. Thank-you all who recommended this for the Greatest Threads page. please keep his kicked.

[Snazzy]

29. ooooo bullshit

If you are an activist and can't handle cops, shut up and find someone who can.

If you are doing something important yet conspicuously liberal, expect to have some sort of back channel crap going on. Act accordingly. We on the left (and how far left we talking?) don't really have big secrets. That's kind of the point, i.e. they do have secrets, want government in secret, and also suffer from being scumbags.

Sure we got a little bit of strategy here and there, maybe some donors, volunteers and other kind people who don't need more hassles, try to keep it under the hat, sure. There's no secrets in running a protest vs. whatever, however. That's the whole point, people know about it, the more the better.

We're already all on some fucking list. Do your part, step up and get hassled!

Know what? Expect the worst. Who gives a shit. Anytime a group gets (big scary air quotes here) "infiltrated" we win.

That's the fascist kind of shit that we are against in the first place. And seems to me they almost always fuck it up anyway and we all read about it.

So, OP, promoting Obama is some, in the eyes of the law, seditious act? Sign me up. I got what 50-60 million friends at least. They got my back.

[behave]

30. Your assertions go beyond reckless you should read up on states' CLU suits against cops