Thread by @equalityAlec

THREAD. A rare thing is happening today: we are about to get a window into the secret world of how cops shape the news. There's a hearing this afternoon into how San Francisco cops manipulate the media through “strategic communications.” The internal documents are shocking.

As background, major U.S. police departments spend millions to manipulate the news, but we know almost nothing about it. Los Angeles, for example, has at least 67 full-time employees doing media propaganda work:

https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1470790952558243848

Before today's hearing, newly released documents show some amazing stuff: SFPD has **9 full-time employee positions** dedicated to “strategic communications” and “media relations.” These cops are “supplemented” by an undisclosed number of non-full-time cops who do it on the side.

The Director of the propaganda unit at the San Francisco Police Department costs taxpayers $289,423.

In a bombshell revelation, docs show that SFPD employees a “full-time videographer” to make video glorifying SFPD. The videographer costs taxpayers $120,941.

Cops employing videographers to create propaganda is happening all over, increasingly after the murder of George Floyd. Take a look at what cops in LA made with taxpayer dollars yesterday:

https://twitter.com/LASDHQ/status/1521883777928089600

The SFPD has another secretive unit called “Community Engagement Division,” which internal docs show is ordered to work closely to “plan messaging priorities.”

The "Community Engagement Division" is SF’s version of the counterinsurgency efforts developed by military for occupations but now common in U.S. police forces.

https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1471156877019037705

Among other things, the unit does sophisticated focus-group style “surveys” to inform manipulation of public opinion, and it is tasked with early strategic intervention with families of people killed by cops. It’s vital for cops to try to control how these families react.

Buried in the documents is a chilling revelation: after police murder someone, a Sergeant has ordered: “all members of the Media Relations team should closely monitor social media for posts, video, etc. related to the [killing].”

Right after a murder, cop PR machine springs into action. It’s all planned. Think about how this impacts the first reports you see after police kill someone. Do you remember how Minneapolis police reported George Floyd's death?

I noticed another fascinating thing in the SFPD docs. While SFPD talks a lot about “theft" in their press releases, they never mention wage theft, white collar crime, state tax evasion, or white collar crimes. They relentlessly talk about *some* crimes committed by *some* people.

SFPD and Mayor also never draw attention to the fact that Black people in SF are 11-times more likely to be the victims of SFPD use of force. Instead, “strategic communications” repeatedly claims that “reform has worked.”

So, what is the effect of all this "Strategic Communications"? Just look at what the relentless expenditure of millions of dollars and full-time police staff has done to the San Francisco Chronicle’s reporting:

https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1510284471169339397

Here is a photo from the internal police documents of cops with local San Francisco TV news reporters, celebrating their collaboration.

All of this is chilling. It’s Orwellian to see public money spent on highly-paid cops to create propaganda that tricks the public into focusing on objectively less serious threats to their safety and on the wrong solutions—more money for surveillance and cops—to those problems.

I’ll be testifying today at the Board of Supervisors hearing as we try to learn more about how fully cops have infiltrated what the local media covers and how it covers those issues. You can watch here sfgovtv.org

I hope you’ll demand similar hearings into copaganda wherever you live.

The Committee for today's hearing is the Government Audit and Oversight Committee, and you can check the linked website this morning for the appropriate link to the video stream.

UPDATE: This story just gets weirder: A few months ago, @radleybalko at Washington Post debunked pro-cop coverage by a local reporter. Here are text messages from SFPD Director of "Strategic Communications" to the reporter from a public records request. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

In these texts, SFPD propaganda official tells reporter "Thank God for you." The reporter then asks for cops to "protect" her. SFPD official then tells her she has 'a lot of fans" in "our department." He ends "Keep up the great work."

This Director of the police propaganda division sending these texts celebrating misinformation is now being considered by the Mayor to be appointed as one of the Board of Supervisors.