The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have failed to release surveillance documents of Black Lives Matter activists. This led to attorneys at the Center for Constitutional Rights at the Milton A. Kramer Law Clinic Center at Case Western Reserve University to file a lawsuit against the FBI and Department of Homeland Security for failing to release surveillance records of Black Lives Matter activists.
“Government is supposed to protect our rights, not suppress our freedom — and yet for decades we’ve seen our government engage in a number of illegal surveillance practices that do just that.” – Brandi Collins, Color Of Change.
Surveillance of Black Lives Matter protests is nothing new. In August, the FBI released hours of surveillance footage of Baltimore protests following the death of Freddie Gray.
While activists have been very critical of the FBI’s surveillance programs, the FBI is deeming the monitoring as “necessary.”
Attorneys, however, have compared the surveillance to COINTELPRO, which essentially destroyed the Black Panther Party.