Rally to Discuss New Targets of State Police Spying
Thursday, October 23, 200810:30am
Location: Silver Spring Metro
corner of East West Hwy and Colesville Rd.
Silver Spring, MD
Thursday 10:30 am at Silver Spring Metro
Come to the Rally and Take Action Below
WHAT: Maryland environmental organizations unite for a press conference and rally to release important new information about targets of Maryland State Police spying on peaceful political activists and to call for legislation to ensure such spying never happens again.
WHO: Mike Tidwell, Executive Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network; Josh Tulkin, former Deputy Director, CCAN; Cindy Schwartz, Executive Director, Maryland League of Conservation Voters; Dru Schmidt Perkins, Executive Director, 1,000 Friends of Maryland; State Senator Jamie Raskin; David Rocah, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Maryland.
WHERE: Silver Spring Metro Station, Silver Spring, MD. We'll be on the wide sidewalk at the corner of Colesville Road and East/West Highway, next to the Metro station and right across the street from Caribou Coffee. There's parking just behind Caribou Coffee in the strip shopping center. If you are map questing, use Caribou's address: 1316 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, Md 20910.
WHEN: Thursday, October 23, at 10:30 a.m.
REGISTER: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/423/t/1906/event/index.jsp?event_KEY=45895
BACKGROUND: On July 17, 2008, the ACLU of Maryland made public shocking documents obtained days before through a Maryland Public Information Act lawsuit, revealing that the Maryland State Police engaged in covert surveillance of local peace and anti-death penalty groups for over a year from 2005-2006. So far, the ACLU-MD has received 43 pages of surveillance log summaries and database printouts, none of which refer to criminal or even potentially criminal acts, other than a few isolated references to plans for completely nonviolent civil disobedience.
At a hearing by the State Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on October 7, the MSP revealed that 53 individuals were wrongly labeled as "terrorists" in their Case Explorer database, to which numerous federal security agencies had access. Since then, these individuals have been receiving letters and have been told by MSP that they cannot make copies of files kept on them or have their lawyers accompany them to review their files. The Maryland ACLU has been calling on Governor Martin O'Malley to urge MSP to change this wrongheaded and unlawful policy, which further violates the rights of individuals already frightened by what it might mean for their future that they have been listed as terrorists in a government database.
Go online for information about Maryland ACLU's challenge to MSP spying:
http://www.aclu-md.org/Index%20content/NoSpying/NoSpying.html
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Take Action
1. Email Gov O'Malley and ask him to take the reins on this issue and direct the MD State Police to respect the rights of his constituents. Send email>>
2. Spread the word. Tell your friends>>
Contact: Anne Havemann202-997-2466
