An undercover police surveillance camera has been found outside the family home of an outspoken
union leader in Memphis, Tennessee. The discovery comes two years after the city lost a lawsuit
over it's illegal surveillance of non-criminals for political reasons. Brigida Santos joins
me now to talk about this story. Brigida, really, you know, there's no surprises here.
I think you and I did a story maybe last year sometime where you were talking about the
idea that they're actually infiltrating unions with plants so people could understand, you
know, they could get inside, they could make friends and then they can do everything they
can to destroy that union. This is no surprise here. Where exactly was the camera found,
Brigida? Activists found the camera hiding inside a
suspicious box on a utility pole that was facing the family home of union organizer,
Antonio Cathey, on the street where he and other activists regularly meet. Cathey is
often mentioned in local news stories for his activism in the Fight for 15 campaign
to raise the minimum wage and for attending black lives matter demonstrations. Memphis
PD has yet to respond to questions about this camera, but a spokesperson from Memphis light
gas and water tells reporters, quote, the camera in question was an MPD covert camera.
They installed it temporarily and did not go through the normal attachment process.
MLGW also confirms that MPD has since removed the camera. Now, since the police department
hasn't answered any questions from reporters about this, it's still unclear whether the
camera was deployed as part of a criminal investigation or whether it was installed
to conduct illegal surveillance for political reasons. Memphis PD has a long history of
illegally spying on political activists, journalists, union leaders and more. So suspicion from
these activists is absolutely warranted. Okay. So here's, here's where the rubber meets
the road is what kind of activist, activist we're talking about union leaders. They're
simply trying to get people together to organize so they can make a better living, so they
can put more food on the table and maybe pay for a nice house and improve their quality
of life. That's, that's what unions are about. So that's different than saying, hey gee whiz,
we're going to, we need these cameras because we think there's some kind of subversive activity
taking place where they're plotting against the government, they're plotting against people's
lives and it's very clear what the distinction is. The Church hearings, before you were even
born, there's hearings called the Frank Church hearings, where they determined that the police,
the, back then it was the spook industry that was spying on Americans. They had cameras
everywhere. They were following people around. They even tried to have Seymour Hersh assassinated,
that's, who was a very important reporter. So, so this is just, it's kind of a reemergence.
How long has the Memphis police department been spying on citizens for political purposes?
Memphis PD has been spying on citizens since at least the 1960s, but the issue has been
in the headlines in recent years, due to a lawsuit won by the American civil liberties
union. Back in 2018, a federal judge ruled that the city's government violated a 1978
consent decree, prohibiting law enforcement from spying on citizens for exercising constitutionally
protected rights to free speech and political dissent. The trial revealed that police officers
in the city illegally posed as fictitious characters on social media to conduct political
surveillance on nonviolent protestors and journalists who report about important issues
in marginalized communities. This is an ongoing problem for the city that it must now fix.
Well, you know, with a, with a consent decree like that, people can actually be thrown in
jail for violations of the consent decree. They can be fined. It's probably important
to take it back to the court. I'm wondering has the 2018 ruling resulted in any changes
in the local policing, Brigida, as far as what's being reported out there?
Yes it has, but it's taking some time to implement those changes. Now in 2018, the judge ordered
Memphis PD to revise their policy on political intelligence, train officers and establish
written guidelines for using social media for police purposes. The police department
has objected, but this month a federal judge ordered Memphis PD to give the court a list
of all search words used to collect information on social media for official police business,
even if that information is sensitive and was collected via a personal social media
account. Search terms must be filed with the court every quarter, they'll be filed under
seal, which will prevent the general public from accessing any sensitive information in
ongoing police investigations, while also providing some police accountability.
Brigida Santos, thank you for joining me. I'd like to see how this turns out. I see
another big court hearing taking place about this one. Thank you for joining me.