ACLU of Maryland Filing Public Information Requests on Behalf of Wide Range of Advocacy Groups from Across Maryland
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu-md.org
BALTIMORE -
Pursuing the full story about covert spying on peaceful political groups by the
Maryland State Police (MSP), the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland
today is filing additional Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) requests on
behalf of 32 advocacy groups and more than 250 individuals associated with those
groups from across the state and political spectrum. The MPIA requests are being
filed with the MSP, the Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking
Area Office, and every local police department in places where demonstrations
were held by the groups.
"History shows us that our democracy
works best when the voices of people are heard, and the chilling of free speech
puts our nation at risk," said Rev. Andrew Foster Connors with Christian Peace
Witness for Iraq. "The Christian Peace Witness for Iraq organizes and amplifies
Christian voices for peace in cooperation with people of all faiths. I can't for
the life of me understand how a police organization would conclude that groups
like ours would pose a threat to public order or safety. The real threat to the
public comes from unbridled State power, which must be checked by the Maryland
Legislature to ensure that this kind of spying never happens
again."
The advocacy groups being represented by the ACLU of
Maryland include the Humane League of Baltimore, Maryland Coalition Against
State Executions (MD CASE), Red Emma's, Children 1st, Christian Peace Witness
for Iraq, PeaceAction Montgomery, the Algebra Project, and Defend Life, to name
a few.
Although their causes are vastly different, each group shares with the ACLU
the belief that the strength of our democracy depends on the freedom of
individuals to organize and promote their political goals, free from wrongful
surveillance by law enforcement agencies.
"The sheer number and
variety of groups and individuals filing the requests today provides clear
evidence of the chilling effect of improper police surveillance and information
collection about political organizers," said David Rocah, Staff Attorney with
the ACLU of Maryland. "People have a right to be worried, given the State
Police's explanation of why they began the surveillance program. Their
explanation, if true, could apply to virtually any group that organizes public
demonstrations on a politically controversial issue."
On July 17,
2008, the ACLU of Maryland made public shocking documents obtained days before
through a Maryland Public Information Act lawsuit, revealing that the Maryland
State Police engaged in covert surveillance of local peace and anti-death
penalty groups for over a year from 2005-2006. So far, the ACLU-MD has received
43 pages of surveillance log summaries and database printouts, none of which
refer to criminal or even potentially criminal acts, other than a few isolated
references to plans for completely nonviolent civil
disobedience.
According to the State Police, the surveillance was
undertaken because the MSP was worried about potentially disruptive or violent
anti-death penalty protests in connection with upcoming executions. However, the
ACLU of Maryland has pointed out that there was not the slightest factual basis
for such a worry, since there had been protests at each of the previous
executions in Maryland since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978, and none
of them were the least bit violent or disruptive.
Under the MSP's
stated rationale for their wrongful spying, most of the groups on whose behalf
the Maryland ACLU is today requesting records could also have been spied upon.
The MSP's abstract and factually unfounded "concern" about disruption could
exist for their demonstrations as well, leading activists to fear that they were
also targeted. If these advocacy groups were not targeted, then the State
Police will need to explain how they decided which groups would be targeted,
which they have not done to date.
The remainder of the
groups filing requests today were mentioned in the spying documents that have
been disclosed to date. They want to know the full extent of the records the MSP
retained about them. The Maryland ACLU also filed a request on behalf of Red
Emma's, a collectively owned political bookstore café in Baltimore, that has
evidence indicating an undercover state police trooper intended to attend a
lecture the group sponsored.
Go online for more information about
the new MPIA requests: www.aclu-md.org/Index%20content/NoSpying/NoSpying.html