Spotlighting Protester Surveillance: FOIA Lawsuit Edition

Patrick G. EddingtonThis coming May 25 will mark three years since the murder of George Floyd by then ‐​Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. That event sparked some of the largest political street protests since the Vietnam War era. In both cases, the federal government’s reaction was to increase domestic surveillance targeting the protesters. This time, however, two federal entities that did not exist during the 1960s protests were key players in responding to the national outcry over Floyd’s murder: the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).The public learned about the DEA ’s role in the surveillance operation in June 2020 via the now‐​defunctBuzzfeed News:The Drug Enforcement Administration has been granted sweeping new authority to “conduct covert surveillance” and collect intelligence on people participating in protests over the police killing of George Floyd, according to a two ‐​page memorandum obtained by BuzzFeed News.The authority in question,21 U.S.C. § 878(a)(5), allows DEA agents to “perform such other law enforcement duties as the Attorney General may designate.” In this case “other law enforcement duties” clearly included surveillance and possibly other operations designed to monitor or even infiltrate groups protesting Floyd’s murder. That authority was supposed to have expired later in June 2020, but neither the AG’s office or the DEA have ever revealed whether the addition...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs