Friends,
I just got off the phone with a reporter, who informed me about the review of the State Police spying scandal. Former Gov. Robert Ehrlich and former State Police Superintendent Tim Hutchins refused to speak with Steven Sachs who was conducting the “investigation.” This confirmed our worst fear that unless Sachs had subpoena power, his investigation would be inhibited. So after 60 days, we still have no answer as to the Who, What, When, Where and Why of this scandal.
Who initiated this scandal, and who shared in its fruits? What were the methods? When did it start? Where did the spying occur? Just in
Progressives are gathering on Saturday, October 4 at noon at AFSC,
Kagiso,
Max
www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.spying01oct01,0,6351362.story
baltimoresun.com
Spying may have started earlier than police said
By Gadi Dechter
October 1, 2008
A
Red Emma's, a cooperatively run bookstore and coffee shop, is one of 32 organizations that filed records requests yesterday with state and local law enforcement agencies, wanting to know if they have been under surveillance. The requests were coordinated by the ACLU of
Police officials have acknowledged surveillance of death penalty activists in 2005 and 2006, saying the efforts were legal. They said they have cooperated with a separate review panel commissioned by Gov. Martin O'Malley after revelations of the spying this summer sparked concern in
But David Rocah, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Maryland, says new records indicating police may have spied on Red Emma's in January 2005 belie statements made by Col. Terrence B. Sheridan, state police superintendent, that his agency's surveillance activity began in March of that year and ended 14 months later.
Police spokesman Gregory Shipley said he was unaware of any police interest in Red Emma's, a bohemian redoubt offering radical literature and vegan food. Shipley said that the agency would comply with the ACLU's public records requests to the extent required by the law.
Rocah said the suspected Red Emma's infiltration was discovered because state officials failed to redact, in documents made public this year, the alias used by a police agent while she spied in 2005 on the Committee to Save Vernon Evans, a death row inmate.
"They were just incompetent," Rocah said. "They meant to redact it, and they goofed."
In the police document, an agent using the name "Lucy Shoup" is described as having covertly attended a meeting at the American Friends Service Hall in
What Red Emma's found: On Jan. 4, 2005, "Ann Shoup" sent a message to the cooperative expressing interest in an upcoming lecture by Bernardine Dohrn, a juvenile justice activist, ex-fugitive and former member of the Weather Underground, the violent, late 1960s radical group.
"Hi! I would love to come to the event on Feb 6th," wrote "Ann."
Seven months later, "Ann" wrote back to Red Emma's, asking that her e-mail be switched from ann_378@hotmail.com to shoupy_shoup@yahoo.com.
In a July 2008 article in The Progressive magazine,
McGuire said after discovering the connection, Red Emma's contacted the ACLU of
The artfully disheveled store, in an English basement on
Rocah said the ACLU was coordinating the mass public records request in order to understand the extent of the police's spying activity. "It will be interesting to see whether ... these groups were spied on as well, or whether they weren't spied on, in which case the [Maryland State Police] has some explaining to do about how they choose which groups to spy on."
Sheridan, the police superintendent, has said that he was "troubled" by the previously acknowledged surveillance but that police monitored death penalty activists out of concern that protests around two planned executions in 2005 might get violent.
According to records obtained by the ACLU, police agents secretly joined the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, a peace group; the Baltimore Coalition Against the Death Penalty; and the Committee to Save Vernon Evans.
Rocah said it was necessary to file individual records-requests for each of the additional 32 groups because when "you're seeking a document that is about you ... you have a greater right of access than general public does." Under
Though ACLU officials said they had no information that police spying continued after 2006, several activists who are now ACLU clients said revelations of police surveillance on political activists could have a chilling effect on free speech in
"If people are spied on, they'll become intimidated," said Jack Ames of Defend Life, a Baltimore-based anti-abortion group.
"We have a constitutional right to oppose government policy," said
Also yesterday, ACLU of
The ACLU bills, drafts of which are currently being circulated among members of the General Assembly, would prohibit law enforcement officials from investigating "lawful First Amendment activities" or keeping records of people's political and social beliefs, Boersma said.
She said the ACLU was waiting to see Sachs' report before approaching Gov. Martin O'Malley for his support. O'Malley administration officials had considered postponing today's release of the report because of the recent Medevac crash that killed two state troopers, but
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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