Police Target Protesters with Military Surveillance Technology

A May 15, 2018 article by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) stated "In recent years, protesters have come face to face with police forces that are increasingly well-equipped with battlefield surveillance technologies. That’s because U.S. police are getting more and more equipment from the U.S. military - including sophisticated surveillance equipment. The trend has led to disturbing scenes like those from 2014 protests against police shootings, in which peaceful protesters were confronted by law enforcement equipped with sophisticated military equipment.

 

According to recent data from the Department of Defense, California police agencies are already in possession of more than $136 million worth of military equipment, including thermal imaging equipment, drones, and “long-range acoustic devices,” which are a type of sonic weapon.

 

Spying tools used against foreign military adversaries shouldn’t be casually handed over to U.S. police. Once these tools are adopted locally, it’s hard to stop their use."



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According to the ACLU (June 19, 2009) "The Department of Defense (DOD) considers protests an example of "low-level terrorism," at least according to an exam DOD employees were required to take this year. You would have thought that the Pentagon learned its lesson after its nationwide surveillance program targeting peace activists, called TALON, was exposed in 2005 and roundly condemned. The program and the secretive Pentagon unit that ran it, the Counterintelligence Field Activity Agency (CIFA), were both shuttered in 2007. Apparently it is easier to kill a program than change an attitude." 

In January 2011, the Olympian Newspaper (Olympia, WA) reported that "a former Joint Base Lewis-McChord employee who spied on war protests in Olympia helped compile detailed information on protesters, including their names, photos, addresses and, in some cases, Social Security numbers..." 

An April 2017 article in the Huffington Post stated "With the militarization of police on the rise, the necessarily stark line between the military and domestic law enforcement is becoming increasingly blurred. And it’s not entirely surprising—given ongoing revelations around mass surveillance—that the military would abuse its authority and spy on activists in order to undermine their political objectives."