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Police infiltration of political dissidents—one indicator of society’s failure to adhere to basic democratic principles—is on the rise in the twenty-first century and shows no signs of letting up.
Infiltration of political movements like Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street illustrates the extent to which law enforcement will go in their efforts not just to seek information, but also to aggressively disrupt political organizing.
Last week, a Cleveland.com article asked if Tampa’s approach to policing the RNC 2012 protests would “provide a blueprint for Cleveland as it prepares to host the next Republican National Convention a year from now?”
However, that may be the wrong question to ask.
Activists who take their message to the streets should be pleased with an historic settlement agreement reached last week between the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) and the federal government with national implications. After nearly 13 years of litigation, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of the Interior agreed to “significantly change the handling of mass protests in the United States,” according to PCJF.
Over the last year, people across the country have taken to the streets in numbers unseen for decades to demand an end to police killings of unarmed people of color.
Meanwhile, the corporate media has forced the public to turn to the spectacle of presidential elections and all of its inanity. Inevitably, the movements seeking justice for those murdered by police and the media circus of presidential politics will meet in the streets of Philadelphia and Cleveland, the host cities of the 2016 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, making it a good time to reflect on the history and lessons learned from past political mobilizations.
