Activists who were improperly branded terrorists in a law enforcement database accused state police Wednesday of trying to hide “politically embarrassing” information by heavily redacting their files before releasing them.
Maryland State Police recently allowed 53 individuals to view the agency’s files on them, but the documents were largely blacked out and riddled with errors, the activists said at a news conference Wednesday at the American Civil Liberties Union headquarters in Baltimore.
“The files that have been released are a joke and don’t come close to telling the full story,” said ACLU lawyer David Rocah, who added that state police haphazardly redacted files without a legitimate explanation and, in some cases, blacked out information they’d already released to the ACLU.
The documents did, however, provide new insight into the police’s surveillance of activist groups, including evidence that spying went on longer than previously disclosed and wasn’t limited to death penalty protesters, as officials had claimed.
The list of suspected “terrorists” included student groups, animal rights organizations, environmentalists, nuns, peace activists and individuals who’ve never even attended a protest in Maryland.
Nadine Bloch, 47, of Tacoma Park, said she’s never been an animal rights advocate and was visiting Hawaii in July 2005 when state police said she participated in a “Taking Action for Animals” conference in Washington, D.C.
“State police are engaging in a pervasive secrecy in what they did,” said Barry Kissin, a member of the Frederick Progressive Activist Coalition, which protests biodefense research at Fort Detrick.
He said an undercover trooper monitored the Frederick group, contradicting the state police’s claim that only Baltimore activist meetings were infiltrated.
And the files, some dating back to the former Ehrlich administration, were modified as recently as July 24 — one week after the ACLU publicly exposed the surveillance, Rocah said.
State police spokesman Greg Shipley said anytime someone viewed a file the date changed and doesn’t mean it was modified.
“There was information redacted, but that was police procedures and information that did relate to that individual,” Shipley said, adding that state police have conceded the surveillance went on too long without evidence of criminal activity.
