Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) has classified all its data related to the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline as secret "security information."
This includes all info the MN Fusion Center has collected surveilling people who oppose Line 3.
BCA is mostly known for investigating crime scenes & police shootings, but also administers the Minnesota Fusion Center, formerly known as the Minnesota Joint Analysis Center (MnJAC).
They regularly exchange data w/ “Critical Infrastructure and Key Resource” (CIKR) corporations.
A January 16, 2019 memo signed by MN Department of Safety (DPS) Commissioner John Harrington classifies virtually all BCA fusion center data as "security information" to be hidden from the public and the media. (DPS is BCA's parent agency).
A Dec 2020 memo by Harrington further classifies secret all BCA data re: Line 3 "security operations."
Public view of BCA Line 3 info allegedly creates risk of "criminal or terrorist activity" but data is shared w "partners" like pipeline corp. Enbridge.
These DPS/BCA security declaration memos were provided to Unicorn Riot as part of a denial of requests filed under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act for BCA documents related to #Line3.
Terrorism is often invoked to shield fusion center activities from the scrutiny of the public & media.
However, a Senate investigation found that over a decade, fusion centers had no impact on terrorism and are generally unreliable for intelligence: foreignpolicy.com/2012/10/03/sen…
DPS Commissioner Harrington's security designation of BCA's Line 3 info also classifies as secret any “data regarding deployment or utilization of BCA personnel or resources in support of Line 3 Replacement Project-related security operations” as secret “security information.”
“Deployment or utilization of BCA personnel" includes BCA presence at water protectors' blockades of Line 3 pipeline work sites, in at least one instance we know of.
Seen at the June 7 blockade of Enbridge's Two Inlets Pump Station, this BCA agent declined to identify himself.
BCA Line 3 data is secret “until the completion of...Line 3... or the cessation of related security operations, whichever is sooner"
We asked BCA if Line 3 records would stay classified indefinitely if pipeline "security" ops continue after construction ends. They didn't reply.
BCA also didn't reply to our Q about whether or not BCA has received any Enbridge money from the Line 3 escrow account.
A march of several dozen Palestine protesters is moving near the Morton Salt Shed (@saltshedchicago) which is a heavily secured location where Democratic delegates are partying on night 2 of the #DNC - an entry point to the convention is also nearby
The venue is hosting a large party hosted by the Pritzkers with John Legend reportedly performing tonight per corporate media reports - protesters chant “if we don’t get no justice, you don’t get no peace” as CPD on bikes form up to separate them from #DNC partygoers
A noise demo outside a DNC event at the Salt Shed where John Legend is performing as part of convention programming tonight - 10 Illinois State Police just turned up
On the evening of June 28, Mway and his friend were stopped by three police officers from the Utica Police Department and two Oneida County Deputy Sheriffs on their walk home from a Bible study class and a graduation party.
Body camera footage was released by UPD, but only from three of the officers who were on the scene. The footage shows a pedestrian stop, otherwise known as a stop-and-frisk — a controversial tactic of interrogating and searching someone based solely on “reasonable suspicion.”
The two French police officers who killed Nahel Merzouk on June 27, 2023 initially stated that they were in danger of being run over and fired in self-defense. However, video footage from witnesses shows a different version of the story. Both officers were standing to the side of the car as it started moving again and one of them fired the shots. The car continued to move for about 50 meters and then crashed into a pole. The driver was killed instantly, one of the two other passengers escaped and the third was arrested.
The arrested passenger in the car says one officer urged the other to shoot Nahel at point-blank range. The youth alleged that “the first officer asked Nahel to roll down the window. He told him ‘turn off the engine or I will shoot you’. And he hit him with the gun. Then the second officer arrived and stood in front of the windshield at Nahel’s height. From there, the first officer standing at the level of the window put a gun to his temple and said “don’t move or I’ll put a bullet in your head.”
He went on to report that the second officer told him “shoot him,” and when a frightened Nahel let his foot off the pedal, which was an automatic and not in a parked position, it started moving and the officer in front of the vehicle fired point blank.
The man who killed Nahel Merzouk is 38-year-old police officer Florian Menesplier. Menesplier previously served in Afghanistan under France’s 35th infantry regiment and was a motorcyclist with the Direction de l’ordre public et de la circulation (DOPC, Directorate of Public Order and Traffic). Before that he belonged to the compagnie de sécurisation et d’intervention 93 (CSI 93, Security and Intervention Unit 93), which was ordered to disband in 2020.
The unit was the subject of 17 judicial investigations for “violence, racist remarks, unlawful arrests, extortion of dealers” and more. He was also a member of the BRAV-M (Motorized Brigades for the Repression of Violent Action), a unit decried for its violence during the Yellow Vests movement, which he joined shortly after its creation on October 1, 2020.
🔎 New investigation 🔎
Cobwebs Spy Software Locks Onto Protesters:
Israeli Social Media Mining Contract with Homeland Security Revealed
Israeli Firm “Cobwebs” Linked to 2020 Protests, Provides Monitoring Services to Homeland Security for Tracking Dissenters
An Israeli spy software tech firm licenses web surveillance tools to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The software contract shows new details about this sensitive technology DHS has used to spy on activists during the last several years. Story: unicornriot.ninja/2024/cobwebs-s…
Last year, Unicorn Riot reported how Cobwebs, a privately owned Israeli spyware firm, helped the Department of Homeland Security monitor the online presences of Americans—including protesters and journalists.
[Aug 2023]unicornriot.ninja/2023/aimed-at-…
For 5+ hours last night in Los Angeles, pro-Israel Zionist agitators violently beat, pepper sprayed & threw fireworks at hundreds of college students & protesters as they held UCLA’s Palestine solidarity encampment while security & police stood by idly. 🧵 unicornriot.ninja/2024/masked-is…
Despite the prolonged, violent attack on UCLA students by masked pro-Israel vigilantes, the Palestine solidarity encampment stayed intact with students repelling the continuous onslaught as they defiantly chanted “we’re not leaving” & “Free Palestine.” 🧵
New story: Tech Workers Rise Up: Organizing Google’s Worldwide Worker Walkout
- 1hr video - 2018 talk w. Tech Workers Coalition @techworkersco unicornriot.ninja/2024/tech-work…
@techworkersco At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Dec. 11, 2018 an open forum titled, “#MeToo and Workers’ Power: Building Solidarity at Google and Beyond,” covered inner workings of the global Google walkout of 20,000 employees & contractors in 2018. unicornriot.ninja/2024/tech-work…
@techworkersco Hosted by the Tech Workers Coalition & MIT’s Radius, the speakers and attendees examined the truth about how Google divides its labor force between contractors and workers. 2018 saw unprecedented mobilizations against management at the biggest companies in the tech industry.