Oregon AG ‘outraged’ by DOJ search of Black Lives Matter hashtag
Rosenblum’s confirmation came the Urban League of Portland and other organizations sent her a letter accusing the Justice Department of targeting people involved in the racial justice movement for digital surveillance.
Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum wrote to local civil rights leaders including the president of the Urban League of Portland on Tuesday saying Oregon’s Criminal Justice Division, which she supervises, monitored the Twitter feeds of a number of residents.
Ironically, during the course of the DOJ social media investigation, Rosenblum said, a senior member of her own office was profiled by the action – Erious Johnson, director of civil rights for the state justice department.
One employee has already been put on paid administrative leave while the investigation continues, and Rosenblum said she is “prepared to take appropriate action in response to the investigation, including personnel actions”.
“It is improper, and potentially unlawful, for the Oregon Department of Justice to conduct surveillance and investigations on an Oregonian merely for expressing a viewpoint, or for being a part of a social movement”, the letter from Urban League of Portland reads.
Unless the Twitter users whose information was collected were suspects of a crime related in a few way to Black Lives Matter, the investigator may have broken the 1981 law banning law enforcement collection of information about “political, religious or social views, associations or activities”.
Discussion of surveillance of Black Lives Matter activists has been covered elsewhere before.
Rosenblum said she is working to get a Special Assistant Attorney General to conduct a human resources investigation and audit to find out exactly what happened.
The letter said Johnson was identified under the Oregon DOJ’s threat assessment process. The next day, Rosenblum said, she told criminal justice chief Darin Tweedt to stop using the online search tool. Johnson also called for a public apology to all Oregonians, as well as disclosure on the number of people affected, the entire scope of the surveillance, and what was learned.
The search was for threats against the police or anti-police sentiments, Rosenblum said. To my knowledge the materials generated by this inquiry were not distributed or used beyond the Oregon Department of Justice.
In addition to searching social media for people in the Salem area using the term #blacklivesmatter, Rosenblum said “F- the police” was another hashtag that was searched by the DOJ employee.
The acknowledgment comes as Rosenblum is leading a Law Enforcement Profiling Task Force created with the passage of House Bill 2002 last legislative session.