A new investigationThe revelations show that federal and state law enforcement agencies have been watching journalists and activists participating in protests that followed George Floyd’s death for over a decade under a secretive program called Operation Safety Net, despite claims to have closed the operation down last April.
Officials announced OSN in February 2021, one month before the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer and assassin. Law enforcement officials claimed that the goal of the program was to ensure that the public was able to exercise its right to free speech while making sure that things like business buildings weren’t harmed in the process.
The program has accumulated a wealth of information on journalists and activists, including photos and documentation of their positions during protests. — moves that are antithetical to the program’s supposed goal of protecting free speech. In April 2021, when Chauvin’s verdict was handed down, OSN stopped posting on social media officials told the public that the program was stopping after it had received criticism from civil rights advocacy groups and lawmakers like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota).
However, reporters discovered that, at the very least, as of February, officials were still collecting data and monitoring journalists and activists. —This includes people who aren’t suspected of committing any crime — Under an operation deemed OSN2.0.
The program involved nine Minnesota agencies, 120 officers from outside the state, and at least 3,000 National Guard soldiers. Tate Ryan-Mosley, Sam Richards, and Sam Richards detail the details in the MIT Technology Review. At least six FBI agents participated in the program. The Department of Homeland Security also offered its support.
Customs and Border Protection also provided surveillance for protesters and the media by lending helicopters to Minneapolis police officers to monitor the protests at the height of their intensity, flying high in order to avoid detection.
Police were holding journalists at the time and uploading information such as their location, photos of their bodies, faces, and press passes to an Intrepid Reponse surveillance tool. The program allows law enforcement to locate targets and colleagues and can be used as a kind of database to help officials control protesters.
This information was presumably entered into an electronic watch list of journalists and protesters. MIT Technology Review obtained. The list, compiled by the Criminal Intelligence Division of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, included photos and identifying information of people arrested by the Minnesota State Patrol.
Ryan-Mosley, Richards and dozens of interviews were conducted. They reviewed thousands of documents. “Taken together, they reveal how advanced surveillance techniques and technologies employed by the state, sometimes in an extra-legal fashion, have changed the nature of protest in the United States, effectively bringing an end to Americans’ ability to exercise their First Amendment rights anonymously in public spaces,” they wrote.
Officials claim that the operation isn’t ongoing and that OSN 2.0 doesn’t exist. Reporters found emails, presentations and intelligence that clearly identified the operation as OSN 2.0.
OSN originally had four phases. The first phase was for planning, the second for protests during jury selection for Chauvin’s trial, and the third for during the closing arguments and verdict. But law enforcement ended up starting phase three a week before closing arguments, and began using the planned “full deployment of law enforcement and the national guard” during this time. Officers used tear gas and rubber bullets, pepper spray and many other tactics.
Additionally, officials stated that OSN was in its fourth phase in April 2021. The program was supposed to be ending. However, the investigation found that the program appeared to still be ongoing. The investigation revealed that OSN was still monitoring protests as a reaction to police killings. Amir Locke, 22 years oldAfter having executed a no-knock warrant last week.
“The events in Minnesota have ushered in a new era of protest policing,” Ryan-Mosley and Richards wrote. “Protests that were intended to call attention to the injustices committed by police effectively served as an opportunity for those police forces to consolidate power, bolster their inventories, solidify relationships with federal forces, and update their technology and training to achieve a far more powerful, interconnected surveillance apparatus.”
The findings of this investigation, while chilling, are consistent with data-driven evidence and anecdotal evidence proving that police and government are opposed to left-wing protestors exercising their First Amendment rights. Research shows that, for example, Has shownThe likelihood of police using force against left-leaning protesters is 3.5 times greater than against right-leaning ones. Meanwhile, lawmakers all across the country are preparing to use force against left-wing protesters. have introduced and passed bills limiting protesters’ rights in reaction to 2020’s uprisings.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic-New Yorker, responded to the investigation criticized lawmakersLaw enforcement advocates who are calling for more funding. “Shout out to everyone working to explode funding for surveillance programs like these across the country under the guise of ‘fund the police’ when in fact police budgets are already at some of their highest levels in US history across the country,” she said on Thursday. “No facts, just vibes.”
