Advocates for bike lanes, animals, and electric rates monitored and labeled terrorist in Md.

[bigtree]

More Groups Than Thought Monitored in Police Spying
New Documents Reveal Md. Program's Reach

Washington Post
Sunday, January 4, 2009; A01

The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy groups was far more extensive than previously acknowledged, with records showing that troopers monitored -- and labeled as terrorists -- activists devoted to such wide-ranging causes as promoting human rights and establishing bike lanes.

Intelligence officers created a voluminous file on Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling the group a "security threat" because of concerns that members would disrupt the circus. Angry consumers fighting a 72 percent electricity rate increase in 2006 were targeted. The DC Anti-War Network, which opposes the Iraq war, was designated a white supremacist group, without explanation.

One of the possible "crimes" in the file police opened on Amnesty International, a world-renowned human rights group: "civil rights."

According to hundreds of pages of newly obtained police documents, the groups were swept into a broad surveillance operation that started in 2005 with routine preparations for the scheduled executions of two men on death row . . .


read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/03/AR2009010301993_pf.html

related:

Friday, July 18, 2008
Police Spied on Activists In Md.
Officers Infiltrated Groups During Ehrlich Years
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/17/AR2008071701287_pf.html

[NOW tense]

1. Bike lanes lead to communism

It is true

[bigtree]

4. lane striping kills?

[NOW tense]

8. Yes it is a huge problem

giving that valuable space to the most efficient way of transportation takes away from the car industry. It also shows signs of weakness by city leaders.

[gratuitous]

13. Absolutely true

When I'm bicycling, if there's a bike lane, I know that I'm feeling far more communal, which is the first tentative step to communism. I have more regard for fellow travelers, feel closer to other people in the community, and I'm not burning fossil fuels to transport my fat white ass around, like the Good Lord intended.

It's an abomination.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Um, it's PETA.

[bigtree]

7. give peas a chance

http://www.popcrunch.com/susie-feldman-corey-feldman-peta-ad-picture-give-peas-a-chance/

[Mist]

3. Let's hope this insanity will stop with Pres. Obama taking office. Trash like

our late unlamented administration are the real terrorists.

[Tesha]

9. What do you expect Obama to do about the mindset of the Maryland State Police? (NT)

[bigtree]

10. how about promoting legislation which protects the rights of these types of groups

. . . and holds officials engaging in this type of harrassment accountable?

[Tesha]

11. Make me laugh!!! The Democrats won't do *ANYTHING* like that! (NT)

[surrealAmerican]

16. We already have the legislation.

It's too bad they ignored it.

[Lorien]

5. I'm so sick of knee jerk right wing redneck cops giving us crap

I truly am. :grr:

[Mika]

6. You're palling around with terra-ists if you use bike lanes now?

:argh:

[taterguy]

14. Well yeah, bikes are made in Wisconsin and Kalifornia

Hotbeds of anti-American sentiment

[polmaven]

15. Nope...

You apparently ARE a terraist if you use one.

[bigtree]

12. Washington Post Refuses to Disclose Identity of Maryland Police Spy

Sunday, January 04, 2009

The Washington Post has conducted some strong reporting on the Maryland State Police’s campaign to spy on activists from 2005 to 2007. But in its latest report on how the scandal was more expansive than originally thought, the Post decided not to identify one of the police officers who worked undercover to spy on various individuals and activist groups in the state.

According to a front-page article in the Jan. 4 Post, the reporters covering the scandal, Lisa Rein and Josh White, indicated that they are aware of the actual identity of this particular state police offer but are declining to disclose her name because the newspaper claims it might compromise her efforts to conduct future undercover operations for the Maryland State Police. Of course, these future operations could include spying on activists, similar to the surveillance work she previously conducted.

This Maryland State Police spying campaign is an extremely unsavory and nefarious episode because it represents another huge step by a police agency in the United States, with vast financial resources at its disposal, to monitor, follow and track individual citizens. In this particular case, dozens of individuals were labeled as “terrorists” in the state police’s database for engaging in nonviolent activities, including opposing the death penalty, opposing the U.S. war on Iraq, campaigning to establish bicycle lanes along highways in the state, promoting human rights, advocating for animal rights, and protesting weapons manufacturers.

By not identifying the real name of the undercover police officer, the Post becomes an accessory to future transgressions and misdeeds committed by the Maryland State police officer who used the aliases Lucy Shoup and Lucy McDonald as she masqueraded as an activist opposed to the death penalty and the U.S. war on Iraq.


http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/policespy01042009/