Tip of the Iceberg

According to the Washington Post the Maryland chapter of the ACLU demanded information under the FOIA on whether the Maryland state police has been spying on political groups there. The ACLU acted on behalf of 32 organizations in Maryland that have reason to believe the state police spied on their organizations without reason. The 32 grass roots advocacy groups and political activist organizations have held high profile demonstrations and large protests in the past. This lawsuit in part originated because it came to light that "state police officers posing as activists conducted surveillance in 2005 and 2006 on war protesters and death penalty opponents."

From the article:

Information is being sought on behalf of groups ranging from Silver Spring-based Progressive Maryland, which promotes liberal causes, to Defend Life, a Washington area anti-abortion coalition. The organizations include immigrant advocacy group CASA of Maryland, PeaceAction Montgomery, Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, the gay rights group Equality Maryland and a coalition formed to fight high electricity rates in the Washington-Baltimore area.

As a result of July's disclosures, Stephen H. Sachs, a former U.S. attorney and former state attorney general, was appointed to head an independent review of state police intelligence-gathering. Sachs and Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) are scheduled to release the findings today.

Sachs is expected to explain why officers assigned to the Division of Homeland Security and Intelligence infiltrated organizational meetings, rallies and e-mail group lists when Robert L. Ehrlich (R) was governor and to comment on whether they broke any laws.

More than 100 groups contacted the ACLU with concerns that their groups had been spied on. Out of that original 100 there are still 32 groups with concerns. Two of those groups discovered that they were indeed under police surveillance. One of those two groups was an anti-death penalty organization that has never conducted anything but peaceful protests.

The police defended their actions as related to the anti-death penalty group by saying that undercover work is integral to their collecting of information. The police claimed they were concerned that large protests planned in advance of a series of scheduled executions might have become violent. The issue of why some groups were under surveillance but not others struck some familiar with the case as troublesome. David Rocah, an ACLU staff attorney, said, "The police said they were spying because they were worried about disruptive or violent anti-death penalty protests. If that worry was the true motive, it could exist with respect to any and all of the groups we are filing for. . . . All of these are pretty hot-button issues." Rocah went on to state that explanations were required as to why some groups were targeted and not others.

The actions by the Maryland state police could hardly be seen as unique. All levels of law enforcement have become increasingly interested in political activism in recent years. Earlier this year it was revealed that peaceful anti-war activists had been placed on the United States terrorist watch list. The erosion of the civil liberties of United States citizens continues to be a major concern for political activists. For their concerns they are often rewarded with police surveillance, an ironic reaffirmation that their concerns were well founded in the first place.