This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
However, suspicious activities reporting (SARs) threaten civil liberties by encouraging harmful indiscriminate spying.
A June 2010 ACLU report titled, "Policing Free Speech: Police Surveillance and Obstruction of First Amendment-Protected Activity" highlighted today's danger. It also cited law enforcement's long history of illegally spying on US citizens and obstructing lawful political activity.
As a result, federal, state and local authorities "across America continue to monitor and harass groups and individuals for....peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights." Community outreach investigations represent one of many illegal activities threatening law abiding Americans. Muslims are especially affected.
They and others have been monitored and harassed for engaging in marches, protests, organizing, having "unusual viewpoints, and engag(ing) in normal, innocuous behaviors such as writing notes or taking photographs in public."
A February 2011 Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) report titled, "Patterns of Misconduct: FBI Intelligence Violations from 2001 - 2008" reviewed nearly 2,500 FOIA-obtained document pages.
They revealed "alarming (lawless) trends," and suggest far more frequent civil liberty violations than previously known, including:
(1) grossly understated numbers;
(2) long delays between violations and reporting them;
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
