Minneapolis NAACP sues city over allegations police used social media to surveil leaders

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – The Minneapolis NAACP has filed a lawsuit towards the Minneapolis Police Division and the Metropolis of Minneapolis over allegations that MPD officers used undercover social media accounts to surveil Black civil rights leaders.

The allegations surfaced final April when the Minnesota Division of Human Rights accomplished its investigation into MPD, which included the discovering that “MPD officers use covert social media to focus on Black leaders, Black organizations, and elected officers with no public security goal.” The investigation resulted within the consent decree between MDHR and town that was accredited by the Metropolis Council on the finish of March. 

Now, the NAACP, along with the Racial Justice Regulation Clinic on the College of Minnesota and the Regulation Workplace of Tim Philips, have filed go well with towards town primarily based on the discovering of the MDHR report, arguing within the criticism that town violated the rights of NAACP leaders and that each town and the person officers concerned ought to pay financial damages in consequence. 

NAACP: MPD ‘tried to carry us hurt’

“Whereas the Minneapolis Police Division’s surveillance of our membership isn’t a surprise, it’s disappointing. We assumed that our work with MPD on public security and neighborhood issues was being completed in good religion. As a substitute, MPD concurrently tried to carry us hurt. To know MPD surveilled our members is deeply unnerving and upsetting,” Cynthia Wilson, President of the Minneapolis NAACP, stated in a press launch saying the lawsuit. 

Liliana Zaragoza, Affiliate Professor of Medical Regulation on the College of Minnesota and Director of the Racial Justice Regulation Clinic stated MPD had signaled out NAACP members due to their race and their advocacy on behalf of the Black Neighborhood. 

“This conduct will not be solely unconstitutional but in addition eerily paying homage to previous efforts throughout the nation to surveil Black activists and organizations, from the Black Panthers to Black Lives Matter,” she stated.

The town didn’t reply to a request for remark by publish time. 

Contentious subject 

The MDHR report findings in regard to the usage of undercover social media accounts to observe Black activists had been a supply of competition within the settlement negotiations between town and MDHR, which resulted within the consent decree accredited by the Metropolis Council on the finish of March. 

Based on the Star Tribune, in June of 2022, Assistant Metropolis Lawyer Sara J. Lathrop wrote MDHR a letter asking the company to offer proof of the findings so negotiations may proceed. “Statements of wanted change and elevated accountability can’t create the lasting change our residents deserve and demand. We want specifics,” she wrote.  

On the time, MDHR Commissioner Rebecca Lucero declined to offer town with extra specifics, with company workers citing the confidentially of the company’s sources throughout their investigation. 

The consent decree agreed between town and MDHR contained a piece on the usage of undercover social media accounts. The town agreed that MPD would require, “authorization for the usage of undercover social media accounts,” and that their use could be reviewed periodically by supervisors and the MPD’s Evaluation Panel.