Letters to the Editor
THE SUN
Dear friend:
In “Rounding up the usual suspects,” [THE SUN, Oct. 2, 2008], Jean Marbella takes an off-kilter look at the latest report on the Maryland State Police spying on activists. I have a complaint with this sentence: “I suppose they do pose a major threat - to anyone who wants to walk down the street without seeing earnest people stamping Birkenstock-clad feet, waving signs and handing out fliers, printed single-spaced and sometimes on both sides.” I do not know how an editor would allow such a tired cliché—“Birkenstock-clad.” I wear cheap non-leather sneakers and do not know any activists who have expensive footwear. In fact, as part of my pacifism, I live simply and have limited assets. The
And I must correct this assertion about my perspective: “He wants to be arrested.” Actually, though, I do not want to be arrested. I want an end to the war and the death penalty. I want an end to oppression. I want to abolish poverty. However, in the course of exercising my First Amendment rights, I have been arrested, convicted and jailed. I do not want to go to jail. Of course, when one takes the risks of peace, s/he faces the possibility of incarceration.
As a nonviolence trainer, I explore the consequences of nonviolent direct action. Jean Marbella would be most welcome to attend the next nonviolence training to gain a better understanding of pacifism and the use of nonviolence in speaking truth to power.
In peace,
Max Obuszewski
www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.marbella02oct02,0,4270275.column
baltimoresun.com
Rounding up the unusual suspects
Jean Marbella
October 2, 2008
Maybe while the four undercover state troopers - identified in a report released yesterday only as "T1" through "T4" - were wasting their time spying on a few peaceniks, other members of their unit were gathering intel on the kinds of people who actually have some power and influence over our lives.
Maybe T7 was sent to infiltrate the Center Club. Who knows, maybe Ts12 through 20 were spread out to the corporate boxes at Ravens Stadium or
But no, according to a review of the
They must number in, oh, the low two figures. They operate so secretively and with such hidden agendas that they advertise their meetings and issue reams of position papers. I suppose they do pose a major threat - to anyone who wants to walk down the street without seeing earnest people stamping Birkenstock-clad feet, waving signs and handing out fliers, printed single-spaced and sometimes on both sides.
Perhaps if the unit had been investigating the people who screwed up the financial markets, I'd be more inclined to look favorably on this spy game. But in my experience, these activists are dying for attention; call them, and they'll talk your ear off, invite you to any number of meetings and ceaselessly e-mail you. You need to "infiltrate" them as much as you need to sneak into a time-share presentation.
The review, conducted by former Attorney General Stephen H. Sachs at the request of Gov. Martin O'Malley and released yesterday, says that the state police investigative unit started spying on protest groups as possible threats to public safety.
It's comical on the face of it - really, these protesters are about as threatening as tofu - except for the utter disregard of these activists' civil liberties. That's never funny, particularly today, when the words "terrorist" and "national security" are thrown around to excuse any kind of activity that a government official wants to undertake without going through the usual legal channels.
We're not talking waterboarding here, or even wiretapping - so far as we know, that is. Sachs was careful to point out that he did not conduct a formal investigation and thus did not have the power to issue subpoenas or take testimony under oath. Still, he uncovered some disturbing practices. The state police, for example, created investigative files on the peace- and anti-death penalty activists in a computerized database, listing them as "terrorism" suspects and classifying their groups as possible "security threats."
For a suspected terrorist, Max Obuszewski certainly hides himself and his activities in plain sight. You can often find the
Sachs' report notes that, as one city police official told him, "everybody knows Max," and everyone also knows his protests are "known not to pose threats to public safety." And yet, the state police felt it needed to infiltrate Obuszewski's gatherings, as well as those of various other similarly non-violent groups.
The activists are quoted in the report as expressing outrage, but in characteristically nonthreatening ways: Asked what they would have done had they known an undercover officer was attending one of their meetings, they said they would have asked the trooper to leave, or "there would have been a discussion and a vote about whether to continue the meeting at all."
No cries of "kill the pig," in other words, or "burn down the house."
What's troubling is the mind set of the unit that is revealed - is it a coincidence that anti-death penalty activists were spied upon, but not anti-abortion groups? Both, after all, are protesting measures that currently are the law of the land, so aren't both equally threatening to the state?
The report closes with a document written by one of the undercover agents about a 2005 ceremony held at a sculpture garden on the
"Rally participants," the agent wrote, "were not observed breaking any laws."
Exactly.
Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
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"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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