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The Memphis police department (MPD) has been accused of secretly spying on local activists, including Black Lives Matter. A federal judge has now ruled that the Memphis Police Department’s 2-year undercover operation violated a 1978 agreement against spying on protesters.

In 1978 the City of Memphis declared a consent decree when it was discovered that law enforcement had secretly created an entire division dedicated surveilling anti-war protesters and other citizens who hadn’t committed any crimes.

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Yesterday Friday, Aug 10th, U.S. District Judge Joe McCalla issued a 35-page order that simply said the police, were in fact, guilty of spying on activists. The court document explains how the MPD spied Black activists using several different methods including creating a list of activist and fake social media accounts to find the friends and associates of Black Lives Matter protesters.

The ACLU of Tennessee has filed a complaint against the City of Memphis alleging law enforcement officers were in violation of the First Amendment rights of the activists. Friday’s order allows the suit to go forward and is scheduled to begin on August 20th according to the Commercial Appeal.

One of the claims against the MPD is the setting up of a fake Facebook page under the name of Bob Smith with the hopes of gathering information on people who liked posts for the page, ACLU reports.

One particular post suggested a book by 1960’s community organizer Saul Alinsky. The MPD collected the names of the 58 people who like the post. Then proceed to add them to a secret list that the judge says was a “political intelligence” gathering operation.

The order goes on to explain a December 2016 “die-in” on the lawn of Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s home. Sergeant Timothy Reynolds generated a list that included people who visited the Bob Smith page, their associates and anyone who had been photographed at protests. Strickland directed officers to arrest anyone named on the “Authorization of Agency” list at the die-in.

Judge McCalla’s order states the agency began conducting surveillance after officers caught wind of other protests in various states and when Black Lives Matter began staging demonstrations in Memphis. The department “would always have somebody there, be it a uniform presence or somebody that was in a plainclothes presence.”

The police department also had Joint intelligence Briefings, also known as “JIBs,” with PowerPoint presentations displaying the names and associates of they should keep a close watch on. This included their names, addresses and social media accounts.

However, the surveillance wasn’t limited to protests or social media MPD also surveilled events such as Black-Owned Food Truck Sunday and a Black Lives Matter meeting at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church.

Judge McCalla’s ruling finds the city violated at the bar minimum part of the 1978 consent decree, mainly the part that didn’t allow the gathering of political intelligence. The trial scheduled for August 20th will determine the number of provisions of the decree that were violated by the city.

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