December 16, 2010 | 6:17 PM | By

Monitoring protests: normal policing or something deeper?

FILED UNDER: Police, California Department of Justice, DEA, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Oakland, Oakland Police Department, Oscar Grant, United States Secret Service

Ali Winston

Two unidentified officers monitor and record demonstrators in Downtown Oakland on July 8th, 2010

So we now know that personnel from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Secret Service and the California Department of Justice helped gather intelligence during various Oscar Grant protests in 2009 and 2010. The authorities say the assistance of a few dozen federal and state agents amongst the approximately 800 law enforcement officers who turned out for Operation Verdict was not a significant departure from routine police work.

The Bureau has also been actively involved in monitoring demonstrators in other states: In Illinois and Minnesota, a number of antiwar and pro-Palestinian activists have had their houses raided or received subpoenas for records relating to their political views and actions. The FBI’s search warrants indicate they are searching for ties between the activists and groups in Colombia and the Middle East such as the FARC and Hamas.

Yesterday, a reader pointed us to a report –the 2009 strategic plan of the California Highway Patrol’s State Security Division, which lists the following instances of intelligence-sharing between CHP’s Counterterrorism and Threat Assessment (CTTA) Section and the FBI in early 2009:

“CT[T]TA managers and supervisors regularly attend executive-level and supervisory briefings related to terrorism cases and activity. CTTA staff regularly attends operational meetings, briefings and coordination sessions to provide field Division’s information that may impact their Divisions. Examples of information disseminated to Divisions include:

  • intelligence passed from FBI to Capitol Protection Section regarding threats of Domestic Terrorism [sic] at the State Capitol stemming from the BART Police Department accidental shooting and subsequent death of Oscar Grant.
  • Intelligence passed from the FBI to CHP regarding labor protests to take place in Los Angeles.
  • Officer safety information stemming from the Oakland Police Department officer involved shootings was disseminated from the FBI to Bay Area CFIP offices.
  • Intelligence regarding animal rights protests scheduled to take place at UCLA and UC Irvine was passed from the FBI to CHP.

Does that mean there are members of the agency who are investigating the Oscar Grant protests for potential acts of domestic terrorism? Counter-terrorism officers in the region have denied that information, but this report seems to indicate otherwise.