“Unjust and outrageous” — While Coddling & Collaborating With Right Wing Terror Groups, Police Agencies Put Pressure On Anti-Trump Organizers

Police State

By Sam Levin
The Guardian (7/19/19)

The Los Angeles police department has revealed in court that it infiltrated an activist group planning anti-Trump protests, in the latest case of US law enforcement spying on leftwing organizers.

A confidential informant working with the LAPD secretly recorded multiple meetings of a group called Refuse Fascism in 2017, according to newly disclosed police documents. The LAPD transcripts, first reported by the Los Angeles Times and reviewed by the Guardian, were submitted in a criminal case against activists who blocked a California freeway during an anti-Trump demonstration.

“This case seems to fall into a pattern of police agencies viewing anti-fascist organizing as terrorism, while overlooking the far more deadly and frequent violence perpetrated by white supremacists and other far-right militants.”

Police equipped an informant with a hidden recording device and had the individual attend Refuse Fascism gatherings at a local church “in an attempt to elicit information regarding the closure” of the freeway and to express interest in being involved “in any such future activities”, police wrote.

Miguel Antonio, one of the activists who was monitored and recorded by the informant, and then subsequently charged with misdemeanors for shutting down the freeway, told the Guardian on Friday that he would not let the surveillance stop him from organizing. …

Read the Rest

  • Police Worked With Violent Pro-Trump Activist To Prosecute Leftwing Group — A pro-Trump demonstrator who admitted hitting protesters at a far-right rally received help and support from California police, who worked with him to prosecute leftwing activists, records show. … Read the Rest

*****

Lesson 17.

Watch out for the paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-Leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the game is over.

Link to List of All 20 Lessons

(Commoner Call illustration by Mark L. Taylor, 2017. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )