Joel Burgess|The Citizen-Times
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ASHEVILLE - Two years ago, afterthe fatal police shooting of a local black man ignited a summer of racial tension, police launched an intelligence operation to monitor the effortsof two civil rights groups, a Citizen Times investigationhas found.
AshevillePolice DepartmentChief Tammy Hooper authorized the monitoringofBlack Lives Matter and Showing Up for Racial Justiceinresponse towhatshesaidwere threats toofficersafterthe shooting of Jai"Jerry"Williamsby a white police sergeant.
The groups' organizers said they are unaware of any threats made by their members to harm police. Theirgroups workto raise awareness about racism and get more equitable treatment for minorities, they said..
City Council members appear to have been briefed on the operation sometime after March 2018, according to statements from the elected officials andpolice. APD revealed the operation to the Citizen Times in May after questioning.
Mayor Esther Manheimer said CityCouncil isn't allowed by the city charter to get involved in day-to-day police operations and that it's APD's job to "devise legal strategies" to keep the community safe.
"It would be my expectation that the department utilize information gathering practices, typical of any police department, that keep them one step ahead of any potential danger to our community," Manheimer said Monday, when asked for her reaction to the operation.
Police officials, however, have declined to answermost of the Citizen Times' questions about theoperation, including whetherofficers monitored the organizationsopenly or in an undercover fashion. They also have refused to detail the threats they received.
APD has notconfirmed the monitoring has ended or said whether a full-blown criminal investigation was started as a result.
The Citizen Times gathered tips from an anonymous source with knowledge of the monitoring, public records and police statements over fivemonths to piecetogether a picture of the operation.
The monitoring drew strongcriticism from civil rights activists, like Black Lives Matter education coordinator Sharon Smith, who after learning about the operation from the Citizen Times said itmade her believeAPD'smotives had nothing to do withpublic safety.
“That’s just an intimidation tactic, basically,” Smithsaid. “They are looking for something to hold on us. It’s inappropriate.”
More on the APD monitoring operation:
•Timeline: Monitoring of Asheville civil rights groups has roots in fatal police shooting•Police monitoring of social activists has recent history in NC•What is police 'intelligence gathering' and how is it different from an investigation•Timeline:Jerry Williams shooting and aftermath
Butlegal experts sayitrunsthe risk oftramplingcivil rights andunderminingpublic trust,especially at a time whenAsheville, like thenation,is facing difficult questions overtreatmentofAfrican-Americansbylaw enforcement. High-profile violent incidents ranging from the2014shooting of Michael Brown inFerguson, Missouri, to the August beating ofunarmed black pedestrian in Asheville, have amplified tensions.
"This is fundamental to free speech protections;the context matters," said Jonathan Jones, a former prosecutor who now directs the North Carolina Open Government Coalition, a nonprofit promoting public access to government activities with members including the Associated Press and the conservative John Locke Foundation.
"If groups monitored are made up predominantly of folks who don’t have violent intent, who are just trying to changesociety, it raises questions," Jones said.
The monitoring, according to police,alsotargeted“related individuals,”and at leasttwo non-civil rights groups: the popular Facebook group Asheville Politics and an activist vegan organizationDxEor "Direct Action Everywhere."
Hooper and other city officials have declinedinterviewrequests about the operation, saying they would respond only to written questions.
“The purpose of written questions is to allow us to prepare complete answers without compromising confidential information that could put someone’s safety in jeopardy,” Hooper wrote to the Citizen Times.
Residents say they were targets
Black Lives MatterPresidentDelores Venable and her mother, formercouncil candidate and longtime activist Dee Williams, said they were told by an anonymous caller they wereunderpolice surveillance, along with the Rev. Amy Cantrell, a leading city social justice activist.
Venable and Williamsmade the statementsat aMarch 7 Citizens/Police Advisory Committee meeting. The highly chargedgatheringfollowed the reporting of the August 2017 police beatingofJohnnie Rush, who wasaccused ofjaywalking and trespassingby cuttingthrough the parking lot of a business closed for the night. The community outcry at the meeting included calls for Hooper's resignation.
Criminal charges werebroughtagainst then-officer Chris Hickman eight days after the Feb. 28 publication of body camfootage of the beating by the Citizen Times.
At the meeting, Venable confrontedHooper.
“Is it true or is it not that you and your officers had me, Amy Cantrell and Dee Williams under surveillance with your taxpayer money. Is that true or is it not?” she asked.
Hooper responded:“I have not had you under surveillance or your mom or any individual person.”
“Based on what we are hearing in the community, there seems to be confusion around information gathering (also called intelligence gathering) and direct criminal surveillance, i.e. following people, tracking movement etc.,” APD spokeswoman Christina Hallingsesaid in a May 9 email. “No individual was under surveillance as part of this effort.”
Black Lives Matter education coordinator Smithsaid she has regularly seen police near Venable’s home in Kenilworth, and that there "is constantly an APDcar parked at the bottom of her street."
Heated summer in 2016
Police said they began their operationafter theJuly 2, 2016,shooting of Jai "Jerry" WilliamsbySgt.Tyler Radford.
Suspected of having fired a gun outside an apartment complex, police said WilliamsledRadford on a high-speed chase. Upon being stopped, Radford said Williams refusedto put his hands up and instead picked up agun.Radfordshot him nine times.
Post-mortem tests showed Williams was intoxicated.A recent civil suit by Williams' family against APDdisputes the police version ofevents.
In December 2016, District Attorney Todd Williamsruled the shootingjustified.
Days after Williams'death,protestors gatheredat the Buncombe County Courthouse. At a news conference,Williams'family was joined by John Barnett, founder of the Charlotte-based civil rights group True Healing Under God.Hepointed to thehigh-profiledeaths ofBrown, Eric Garner and other African-American menin fatal police encounters.
Protests culminated witha July 21unpermitted march through downtown, wherepolice said participants pounded on cars and blocked streets. Demonstrators placed a Black Lives Matter banner on thepolice station, andheld anovernight sit-in inside the station. Eightpeople were arrested, including Cantrell.
Police: Officers were at risk after Williams shooting
Hallingse saidthe threats on police came in July and August 2016 andwere "observed on social media and in open meetings."
She refused provide further description of the threats, including what was said, who made them, who observed them or whom they targeted. She said revealing that, “could jeopardize the safety of community members and police officers."
Hallingse also cited statelaw, sayingcriminal investigations and criminal intelligence informationarenot public record. That nondisclosure, however, is optional, said N.C. Press Association attorney Amanda Martin.
Civil rights groups leaders said their missions didn't include violence.
“Nobody in Asheville Black Lives Matter is involved in criminal anything,” saidSmith. “Nobody has issued any threats to police.”
Roach, who's group Showing Up for Racial Justice was created as a way for whitepeopleto fight racism,said the march and sit-in may have "freaked out," APD officials.
“There are definitely activists in the community who don’t like the police, butSURJis not the type of group that would issue threats,” Roach said.
Officers attended meetings
Hooper authorized officers to monitor “publicly accessible information to assesswhether or notcriminal activity was being planned,”according to a statement fromHallingse. Thatapproval required a “reasonable suspicion” the groups may have beenplanningor engaging in criminal activity, based on APD's intelligence and analysis policies.
Intelligence gathering is different froma criminal investigation. Launching an investigation requiresa higher degree ofcertaintyby police that crime is occurring because an investigation'spurposeis topreventor solvea crime.
Hallingse didn't answer whether electronic recording devices wereused in the groups' monitoring. She described the meetingspoliceattendedstarting July 2016as open events.
She would notsay whether officerswore uniforms or identified themselves as law enforcement, orwhether officers worked undercover ortried toinfiltrate the groups.
Group leaders said they didn’t see uniformed officersand that noattendeesidentified themselves as police.
Roach saidShowing Up for Racial Justicemeetings happened at Firestorm Books & Coffee in West Ashevilleand began with attendees introducing themselves. Some people may have come in late and not spoken, she said.
Black Lives Mattermeetings were ata house converted into an office in the historically black Southside area, Smith said.While most attendees were African-American,there were“quite a few white people,” the education coordinator said.
“We knew who people were, so any officers would be instantly recognizable,” she said.
Attacks against police
Somesay the Asheville department's actions were routine and occurred as attacks were being made against law enforcement nationally.
One was the 2014ambush-style slaying of two New York police officersbyIsmaaiylBrinsley, who apparently posted threats on social media showing a desire to kill police after the deaths of Garner and Brown.
Two years later in Dallas, Micah Johnson gunned downfiveofficers, telling police during a standoff he did it as revenge for recent shootings. TheDallas eventhappenedJuly 7, 2016 — five days after Williams' shooting in Asheville.
“Every threat is taken seriously,” said Joseph Giacalone, a former commanding officer for NYPD homicide cold cases and now a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Joe Pollini, a former NYPD undercover officer who also teaches at John Jay, said police monitoringshould be careful in crossing certain lines, such asinfiltrating a group deeply or becoming “a sworn member.”
Police should also avoidkeeping files withinformation unrelatedtosuspected crimes, something that raisescivil liberties concerns.
"It can start to be a problem if you are keeping records on individuals," Pollinisaid.
But attending public rallies undercover,or even going to open meetings in a private space, wouldn’t violate common police standards, he said.
“If it’s a public meeting, it’s fine."
Civil rights and government spying
But legal experts say police should move cautiously when determining whether anintelligence operation is warranted.
The context of threats, the resourcesneededand the stickyhistory ofpolicemonitoring civil rights groupsshould all be considered, they say.
Jeff Welty, a public lawprofessor with the UNC School of Government, said observation of civil rights groups brings upquestionsoffree speech protections and can harken back to governmentspying in1960s and 1970son such organizations.
“That kind of raises the specter of a political motivation, which is antithetical to the idea that law enforcement is a politically neutral public servant," he said.
Also, withouta solid reason, such actionscoulddamage a police department's reputation and trust with the public it is paid to protect. That's "really serious," said Jones, the N.C. Open Government Coallition director.
Smith, with Black Lives Matter, said the monitoring was a"waste of time."
"It speaks to the racism inherent in policing. Because what we're talking about is undoing racism and undoing police violence."
Hallingsesaid the department doesn'tconduct intelligence operations“based solely on ethnic background or race."
Monitoring Facebook, vegans
While Asheville Politics doesn't hold physical meetings, the popular left-leaning Facebookgrouphas almost 7,500members who engage inspirited, wonky and often tongue-in-cheek political discussions.
APD declined to say whatitobserved in monitoring the group, where it's not unusual to see posts from City Council members or candidates during electionseason.
Administrators include former council candidate Rich Lee and the elected Buncombe County register of deeds, Drew Reisinger.
Thetargetedvegan groupDxEpromotesthe abolition of meatofand stages disruptive protests at restaurants and stores sellinganimal products.
Localorganizer JeremySagaribaysaid he knew little aboutWilliams' shootingand said members never issued any threats.
“We do not condone violence or threats of violence against anyone,” he said.
Like the other groups,Sagaribaysaid they never saw police at their meetings but said there were uniformed officers at their demonstrations.
What was the result of the operation?
Information gathered in an intelligence operation butnot related to criminal activity is to be destroyed, Hallingse said. Shewould not say if any information from this operation was storedincriminal intelligence files.
Shesaidintelligence operations are “very helpful” in catching and convicting criminals. They also can help police plan for demonstrations and rallies
Hallingsesaid police used information fromsocial media and “publicly accessible areas” to identify and cite participants in the 2016 unpermitted march.
The information’s classification as a nonpublic record prevents those who were potentially monitored from knowing the outcome of the police operation.
Roach said the operation would have found no evidence against Showing Up for Racial Justice.
“We made our statements publicly through the media and our right to assemble,” she said. “If we werein fact infiltrated, we know that police would not find a threat to them because we had never been one."
