Oregon digitally surveilled Black Lives Matter supporters; state AG is 'shocked and appalled'
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Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum says she was “shocked and appalled” to learn that a state Department of Justice investigator conducted digital surveillance of Black Lives Matter supporters as part of threat-assessment work.
One of the targets was the Oregon Department of Justice’s director of civil rights, Erious Johnson, report the New York Times and Oregon Live. The digital surveillance was made public in a letter to Rosenblum signed by Johnson’s wife, Nkenge Harmon Johnson, who is president of the Urban League of Portland. Others who signed the letter included labor officials and the executive director of the ACLU of Oregon.
Rosenblum ordered a stop to the online searches, put one employee on leave pending an investigation, and hired a special investigator to examine the data collection, identified by Oregon Live as Carolyn Walker of Stoel Rives.
Rosenblum told Oregon Live she learned of the surveillance from a top deputy about two weeks ago, and told Johnson he had been targeted two days later. The surveillance was intended to find those who had expressed anti-police sentiments.
Oregon Live posted Harmon Johnson’s letter (PDF) and Rosenblum’s reply (PDF).
