David Zirin, lefty sportswriter, discusses the recent revelation that he and his band of anti-death penalty activists were stalked and infiltrated by the FBI and the Maryland State Police:

In classified reports compiled by the Maryland State Police and the Department of Homeland Security, I am “Dave Z.” This nickname was given by an undercover agent known to us as “Lucy.” She sat in our meetings of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, smiling and engaged, taking copious notes about actions deemed threatening by the then-governor of Maryland, Robert Ehrlich.

Our seditious crimes, as Lucy reported, involved such acts as planning to set up a table at the local farmer’s market and writing up a petition. Adding a dash of farce to this outrage, she was monitoring us in the liberal enclave of Takoma Park, Maryland, a place known more for vegans than violence, more for tie-dyeing than terrorism.

Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act and the ACLU, we now know that “Lucy” was only one part of a vast, insidious project. The Maryland State Police’s Department of Homeland Security devoted nearly 300 hours and thousands of taxpayer dollars from 2005 and 2006 to harassing people whose only crime was dissenting on the question of the war in Iraq and Maryland’s use of death row.

Sphere: Related Content

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 8:57 am and is filed under Daily Dose. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Related Posts

• Wanna help on election day? - September 6th, 08
• Activism and fun, this Sunday and next - September 6th, 08
• Novak asks for our sympathy - September 6th, 08
• Open house at Dunk tomorrow - September 5th, 08
• Just discovered: Paleo-Future - September 5th, 08