Anti-fascists Say Police Post Mugshots on Twitter to 'Intimidate and Silence'

According to The Guardian (August 16, 2018) Michelle Higgins was protesting a high-profile police killing in St Louis when the officers grabbed her.

The activist’s arrest for “failure to disperse” on 15 September 2017 wasn’t the only punishment she faced for marching. When she was released a day later, she learned that the police department had posted her name, age and address on Twitter, alongside 32 others arrested during the chaotic demonstrations sparked by the acquittal of an officer.

Most of the arrests did not result in charges, but the damage was done. It’s a law enforcement tactic that activists say has become increasingly common: police arrest protesters en masse, publicly shame them on social media, and then drop the cases.

The strategy can lead to intense online abuse for Black Lives Matter activists and other protesters. In the case of anti-fascist protesters, some critics argue that police are also boosting the agenda of neo-Nazis and white supremacists by exposing counter-protesters’ identities – and branding them violent offenders before they’ve gone to court.

Spokespeople for police in St Louis, Berkeley and Portland, noted that arrests and mugshots are public records, with some citing legal obligations to release the information.

A Berkeley police spokesman sent a lengthy statement saying its tweets were “a matter of safety and transparency”, adding, “This is done not in an effort to shame, or to chill freedom of speech, but to deny lawbreakers anonymity.” He said the department does not have a policy of removing tweets after cases are dropped.

One Berkeley protester who was outed in the recent wave of tweets and requested anonymity noted that activists have few recourses when they face harassment after mugshots are posted.

Twitter advises users to contact local law enforcement if they are subject to violent threats. But in Berkeley, it feels like that’s not an option, the activist said: “They are the ones that doxed us.”
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Doxing is a common tactic used by both Antifa and Alt-Right against police and government officials and against each other. Police say that doxing poses a clear threat to the individuals being doxed.

This is true when non-public information is released to the public with the intent of causing problems for the person being identified. It is important to note however that information posted about individuals is often already public (i.e. social media, web-pages, news reports).