You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

New York: Undercover Officers Spied on Black Lives Matter Activists

HeadlineSep 30, 2016

In New York, newly released court papers reveal the city’s police department has secretly recorded Black Lives Matter protesters since the death of Eric Garner in 2014, sending undercover officers to demonstrations. The disclosure came as the NYPD refused to make public videos, photos and other records requested under the Freedom of Information Act. Lawyers seeking the records say the surveillance could violate the First and Fourth Amendments. They say the NYPD may have also violated so-called Handschu guidelines, which bar the NYPD from spying on protesters for solely political reasons. In August of 2015, The Intercept reported that New York transit police also spied on Black Lives Matter protesters.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top