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These Activists Are Hoping FCC Regulations Can Stop Unjust Police Spying

These Activists Are Hoping FCC Regulations Can Stop Unjust Police Spying

Published with permission from AlterNet

A coalition of civil rights organizations is pursuing a novel strategy for preventing the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) from using tools of war to monitor and surveil city residents.

Color Of Change, Center for Media Justice and New America’s Open Technology Institute filed a complaint this week with the Federal Communications Commission, charging that the BDP’s use of mass cell phone surveillance devices known as Stingrays violates regulations of radio waves and cellular networks.

Also known as Cell-Site Simulators, Stingrays are used by numerous federal agencies—including the police, Army, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement—to conduct warrantless and dragnet surveillance. They are described by the Electronic Frontier Foundation as “devices that masquerade as a legitimate cell phone tower, tricking phones nearby into connecting to the device in order to log the IMSI numbers of mobile phones in the area or capture the content of communications.”

While the exact number of government bodies that employ this technology is unknown, the ACLU says it has identified “66 agencies in 24 states and the District of Columbia that own stingrays.” However, the organization says that “because many agencies continue to shroud their purchase and use of stingrays in secrecy,” their estimates are likely a dramatic underrepresentation.

Given that Stingray technology was first developed for U.S. military and intelligence purposes, rights campaigners say its broad use is compounding the militarization of police departments nationwide.

“I think it’s a scary, slippery slope, the ways in which police departments are using military-grade equipment, or gear designed for military uses, on communities here,” Chinyere Tutashinda, national organizer for the Center for Media Justice, told AlterNet. “There’s this idea that police are there to protect and serve our communities, but they are increasingly surveilling, occupying and terrorizing communities, and they are using technology to do this across the country.”

According to an article written last year by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton, Baltimore police have used the technology at least 4,300 times since 2007.

Now, the civil rights organizations are arguing that the BPD’s dragnet use of this technology violates the FCC’s most basic regulations.

“BPD’s operation of CS simulators violates the Communications Act in at least two ways: first, BPD fails to obtain appropriate legal authorization to use CS simulators to transmit over radio frequency bands exclusively licensed to cellular carriers; second, BPD’s use of these devices interferes with the cellular network, including with emergency calling services,” the groups said in a press statement released this week.

“Worse, these harms fall disproportionately on Black neighborhoods where BPD disproportionately exercises its enforcement authority in a racially biased way,” the organizations continued.

On these grounds, the groups formally filed a complaint with the FCC on Tuesday. The move came just days after the Department of Justice released the findings of their searing investigation into the BDP’s systematic violations of the civil rights of residents, disproportionately targeting African Americans with unjustified stops, searches, arrests and violent force, and committing horrific acts of degradation. The Department of Justice concluded in their probe that “there is reasonable cause to believe that BPD engages in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the Constitution or federal law.”

“For far too long, the Baltimore City Police Department has made a frequent habit out of flouting federal spectrum law and disrupting availability of the cellular network to Black communities in Baltimore,” said Laura Moy, who is a visiting assistant professor at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Public Representation, which represents the groups’ complaint. “The FCC should not sit idly by while police departments in Baltimore and other cities systematically undermine Americans’ fundamental rights by intercepting cell phone traffic on licensed spectrum without a license.”

Photo: Baltimore police officers standby on Pennsylvania Avenue on Tuesday, April 28, 2015. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Baltimore Police Routinely Discriminate Against Black People: Justice Department

Baltimore Police Routinely Discriminate Against Black People: Justice Department

Baltimore police regularly engage in unconstitutional behavior and display a pattern of discrimination against African Americans, according to a new report released by the Justice Department.

The report, released today, examines the Baltimore Police Department’s relationship with the citizens of Baltimore County, and concludes that Baltimore PD routinely makes unconstitutional stops, searches and arrests and displays conduct, which the Justice Department claimed “raises serious concerns.”

The Justice Department began their investigation after Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died in police custody due to injuries to his spinal cord.

This is not the first investigation launched by the Justice Department following the suspicious death of a black man in police custody: a similar report was released after a probe was launched into the police department of Ferguson, Missouri for the death of Michael Brown.

The Baltimore report, however, did not focus on Gray’s death, and instead examined the pervasive patterns and practices that make up the day-to-day operations of the police department. The Justice Department report was undertaken over more than a year, and carefully assembled interviews from police officers, attorneys, elected officials, and the public.

The report found that the unconstitutional actions of the Baltimore PD affect those in poor, black neighborhoods disproportionately. Not only that, the Justice Department also found that often, officers are not held accountable for their bad conduct.

Citing specific cases, the Justice Department report describes the relationship between police and the community as “broken.” Among the specifics reported is the story of one black man in his 50s who was stopped by police, as a pedestrian, 30 times in under four years. Many of the instances cited in the report were for “discretionary offenses,” meaning the Baltimore police arrested black individuals for things like “trespassing” or “failure to obey.”

One of the more egregious instances of bad conduct from the report is that a template for writing up trespass arrest reports contained the boilerplate language “A BLACK MALE” for a description of the arrestee, indicating an assumption that those arrested will be black.

The Justice Department also found that physical force is often used without provocation or necessity not only against blacks, but also against the mentally disabled. Baltimore PD also perform unconstitutional and public strip searches, and often use excessive force against civilians, including juveniles.

In the early 2000s, the Baltimore PD maintained a “zero tolerance” policy, allowing arrests for minor charges. Despite an official denunciation of the policy in 2010 (as a result of a settlement with the NAACP), The Justice Department report found that the Baltimore PD still acted unconstitutionally as a result of the “legacy of the zero tolerance era.”

The report concludes that Baltimore police are taught to use “aggressive tactics” and often retaliate against those where officers “did not like” what was said.

The report will form the basis of negotiations between the Justice Department and Baltimore police. Ultimately, the two organizations will enter into a consent decree under which the day-to-day practices of police would be subject to sweeping changes under the oversight of a federal judge.

 

Photo: Police watch on as a man participates in a protest in Union Square after Baltimore Police Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. was acquitted of all charges for his involvement in the death of Freddie Gray in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., June 23, 2016.  REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Baltimore Cop Not Guilty Of Most Serious Charge In Death Of Freddie Gray

Baltimore Cop Not Guilty Of Most Serious Charge In Death Of Freddie Gray

Baltimore police officer Caesar Goodson Jr was found not guilty on Thursday of second-degree depraved heart murder in the death of black detainee Freddie Gray, the most serious criminal charge he faced.

Judge Barry Williams handed down the verdict in Baltimore City Circuit Court. Goodson, 46, was the driver of a police transport van in which Gray broke his neck in April 2015. His death triggered rioting and protests in the majority black city.

The judge has not yet ruled on the less serious counts Goodson faced, including three counts of manslaughter, reckless endangerment, second-degree assault and misconduct in office.

Prosecutors contended Goodson gave Gray a “rough ride,” failed to ensure his safety and should have called for a medic.

Goodson’s defense team argued that Gray caused his own injuries by falling inside the transport van. Goodson also lacked the training to recognize that Gray was hurt, they said.

Goodson, who is also black, faced the most serious charges among the six officers charged in Gray’s death, making his the marquee case for prosecutors. They failed to secure a conviction in two earlier trials of officers.

Goodson waived a jury trial, leaving it to Williams to decide his fate.

(Writing by Ian Simpson and Scott Malone)

A man, who declined to offer his name, walks past a mural of Freddie Gray in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore, December 17, 2015.  REUTERS/Bryan Woolston  

Baltimore Police Injured During Protests After Freddie Gray Laid To Rest

Baltimore Police Injured During Protests After Freddie Gray Laid To Rest

By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

Police and angry teenagers faced off in Baltimore on Monday, hours after thousands of mourners called for justice and peace during the funeral of Freddie Gray, the latest flash point in the continuing unease between parts of the African-American community and police.

Television images showed protesters throwing rocks and other debris at police. In a message on Twitter, Baltimore police said several officers were injured. At least one injured officer was shown being taken from the scene.

Several vehicles were attacked.

The unrest slowly built up steam in the early afternoon, beginning with a few individuals confronting a phalanx of officers then growing to hundreds of people swarming through the area, which serves as a transportation hub for nearby schools and for the Mondawmin Mall.

A flier circulating on social media called for forceful confrontations Monday afternoon to begin at the mall then moving downtown toward City Hall. There have been a number of similar calls, many citing “The Purge,” a movie based on the idea of the suspension of all law.

The latest violence comes about two weeks after Gray was arrested by police and fatally injured in an incident that has enflamed the city. Over the weekend, 35 people were arrested and six officers injured in demonstrations.

Hours earlier, officials from city government to the White House attended the funeral service for Gray, who died April 19 of a severed spine, a week after he was arrested by police. Gray, hands cuffed behind his back and later restrained by leg irons, was apparently injured during transport, slipped into a coma, and died.

In a footnote to the growing unease, Baltimore police announced they had received a “credible threat” that three violent gangs, the Black Guerrilla Family, the Bloods, and the Crips, were working together to “take out” law enforcement officers. It was unknown if the threat was connected to Gray’s death.

Mourners gathered in the morning for the televised funeral service, which lasted almost two hours. It drew such dignitaries as Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., as well as a host of civil rights leaders including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, former NAACP leader and Maryland Rep. Kweisi Mfume and current Maryland Rep. John Sarbanes.

Gray’s family sat in a front pew of the sanctuary that holds more than 2,000 people. Eight floral arrangements surrounded Gray’s white coffin in front of the pulpit. Screens on the walls showed the words: “Black Lives Matter & All Lives Matter,” which have become slogans at demonstrations around the country in the past year since a white police officer shot an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Mo. That case was followed by demonstrations over the deaths of blacks in Staten Island, Cleveland, Tulsa, Okla., and South Carolina.

“The eyes of this country are all on us, because they want to see whether we have the stuff to make this right,” William Murphy Jr., a lawyer who is representing the Gray family, told the mourners.

“We need justice not just for Freddie Gray, for the Freddie Grays to come,” he said.

“We will not rest until we address this and see that justice is done,” Cummings said of the Gray case. “And so, this is our watch. We will not fail you.”

The investigation is continuing into the incident that began April 12 when Gray was walking with a friend and made eye contact with police. Both fled and police gave chase, catching Gray.

Video of the arrest shows Gray with his hands cuffed behind him being put into the police van. The wagon stopped at least twice. At one stop, Gray was taken out by police, placed on the ground and his legs put in irons. He was returned to the van. At the second stop, another prisoner is put in the van, separated by a metal barrier.

Throughout, Gray said he needed medical attention and at one point asked for an inhaler, police said.

On Friday, Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said he was appalled that Gray did not receive proper medical care immediately. He also said officers should have given Gray timely medical care during the transport to the police station.

Batts also said there are no excuses for Gray not being buckled in a seat belt while in the van.

Exactly what happened to Gray remains a mystery that will be answered when the full autopsy is released.

Officials have said he died of a severed spine, confirming the family’s original claim. The family also has said Gray’s voice box was crushed and his neck snapped before he slipped into a coma and died a week after his arrest.

Baltimore officials are scheduled to submit their findings into the death by Friday. Five of the six officers have been interviewed by police as have several witnesses, including some who shot video of at least one of the stops made by the van.

Erica Garner, 24, the daughter of Eric Garner, who died in New York police custody, attended Gray’s funeral. She said she came after seeing the video of Gray’s arrest.

“It’s like there is no accountability, no justice,” she said. “It’s like we’re back in the ’50s, back in the Martin Luther King days. When is our day to be free going to come?”

Civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton said Monday he plans to visit Baltimore this week to discuss Gray’s death. In a statement, Sharpton said he also wants to plan a two-day march in May from Baltimore to Washington.

(c)2015 Los Angeles Times, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Screenshot via CNN