WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – On July 24, the news website The Intercept reported that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been monitoring the Black Lives Matter movement since summer 2014, when anti-police protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri.
“Government surveillance creates a chilling effect. When people are fearful, they fail to exercise their First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and that harms our democratic system,” EFF Staff Attorney Sophia Cope said on Thursday.
The news outlet’s claims were based on documents received through a Freedom of Information Act request.
DHS frequently obtained information about the group’s location, activities and events in the cities of Ferguson, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and New York from social media accounts.
Cope explained that such surveillance without just cause is similar to what occurred in the 1960s, when US law enforcement monitored leaders of the civil rights movement.
Black Lives Matter is a movement that emerged after the death of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman in 2012.
The movement gained momentum in 2014, when white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shot dead young African-American Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
The group organizes events opposing police brutality against African-Americans in the United States.
