The New York Police Department admitted to having infiltrated the Black Lives Matter movement and compiled metadata about the group during the protests that followed the police killing of Eric Garner.
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In a response to a group of New York lawyers who filed a legal request in accordance with the state Freedom of Information Law, the NYPD refused to disclose the documents but the response still reveals a small glimpse of the police's surveillance tactics.
Undercover officers were sent to protests led by BLM, “primarily” collecting “immediate impressions concerning ongoing events,” said the paper, describing the documents requested in August court proceedings to obtain the records, as well as “communications between and among NYPD undercover officers and their handlers” belonging to the protests.
The NYPD also collected multimedia records about the protests, including “pictures, videos, audio recordings, data, and metadata” during the Grand Central Station demonstrations.
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The paper also evokes “a communication from an NYPD officer working in an undercover capacity and his base.”
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The lawyers' request led in August to the discovery of documents showing how MTA and Metro-North transit police regularly spied on Black Lives Matter protesters in and around Grand Central, with the occasional support of NYPD officers.
The NYPD hadn't yet been thought to be leading its own surveillance operation targeting activists, reports the Guardian, but the recent revelations could amount to a violation of the constitution, according to the lawyers.
“As someone who was present at the protests, it’s disturbing to know the NYPD may have a file on me, ready to be used or to prevent me from getting a job simply because I’ve been active in some political capacity,” said M.J. Williams, one of the attorneys who requested the documents. “That’s potentially a fourth amendment violation for unlawful seizure, but on the other hand, we’ve seen law enforcement agencies have all sorts of justifications for data collection for public safety that the courts have allowed.”