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The U.S. Marshals Service flew unmanned drones over Washington, D.C., in response to last summers Black Lives Matter protests, documents obtained by The Intercept via the Freedom of Information Act show.

The documents two brief, heavily redacted emails indicate the Marshals flew the drones over Washington on June 5 and 7, when nationwide protests against police brutality in the wake of George Floyds murder were at their height.The surveillance flights occurred just days after the Trump administration ordered the mobilization of the near entirety of federal law enforcement against Washingtons protesters. The aggressive physical crackdown against Black Lives Matter rallies, particularly in Washington, D.C., spurred its own wave of outrage as police beat, chased, and chemically dispersed largely peaceful demonstrators. Less visible law enforcement responses to the rallies also drew intense criticism, including the use of social media surveillance and, in particular, the use of aerial surveillance over multiple cities by the Air National Guard and Department of Homeland Security. Government aircraft monitored 15 cities during the protests, according to the New York Times, filming demonstrators in New York, Philadelphia, and Dayton, Ohio; aPredator dronewas deployed over Minneapolis.

One email provided by the Marshals Service is dated June 5 and carries the subject line UAS Status for Protests, apparently referring to Unmanned Aircraft Systems, common military jargon for drones. It contains only a few fragments of unredacted text but appears to have contained notes from a UAS briefing in response to the protests and states that a redacted entity responded to Washington DC and conducted one flight, the same day Mayor Muriel Browser asked Donald Trump to withdraw all extraordinary law enforcement and military presence from Washington, DC. The June 7 email is similarly fragmentary and censored but notes that the redacted entity once again responded to Washington DC and conducted several flights.

Marshals Service spokesperson James Stossel declined to answer any questions about the purpose of the June 5th and 7th flights or what data was collected, stating, The USMS does not release details of operational missions, and denied that the Marshals flew drones over the city on any other dates. Asked how the robotic aerial surveillance of protests conforms with the agencys narrowly defined mission, Stossel said, The Marshals Service conducts a broad array of missions as authorized by Federal Law which may include ensuring the rule of law is maintained during protests. Press reports from this period describe the protests in question as peaceful.

The previously unreported flights raise the question of why the U.S. Marshals Service would be flying drones over mass gatherings of First Amendment-protected activity in the nations capital. The marshals are the oldest law enforcement branch in the United States, dating to the 18th century, and their present day grab bag of responsibilities is more or less constrained to protecting courthouses, asset forfeitures, operating the Witness Protection Program, transporting prisoners, and hunting fugitives. The vestigial agency has historically been cagey about the existence or purpose of its drone program: In 2013, the Los Angeles Times reported,In 2004 and 2005, the U.S. Marshals Service tested two small drones in remote areas to help them track fugitives, but the test was abandoned after both drones crashed.

Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union that same year via the Freedom of Information Act were also heavily redacted, providing only murky outlines of how the agency was conducting aerial surveillance. These ACLU documents stated that the Marshals possessed a rapidly deployable overhead collection device that will provide a multi-role surveillance platform to assist in [redacted] detection of targets. Another document provided to the ACLU noted that the marshals deployed surveillance drones through their Technical Operations Group, or TOG, which provides the U.S. Marshal Service, other federal agencies, and any requesting state or local law enforcement agency, with the most timely and technologically advanced electronic surveillance and investigative intelligence available in the world, according to the Marshals Service website. The Marshals spokesperson, however, told The Intercept, No USMS UAS flights were conducted at the request of any other agency.

While the Marshals Service quietly acknowledged the existence of its drone surveillance pilot program in its 2020 annual report, the flights were largely described as tied to the agencys core responsibility of apprehending fugitives. But the document does briefly note that UAS operators also deployed in support of the USMS mission during the nationwide civil unrest in Summer 2020. The report doesnt mention what exactly this drone-based support entailed, but the Marshals on-the-ground violence against protesters in Portland prompted widespread criticism last summer.

Once again, high-tech tools sold for use against the worst criminals are deployed against peaceful protesters.

Experts say its still unclear why the U.S. Marshals are even in a position to conduct these flights in the first place. How did it become part of the mission of U.S. Marshals Service to engage in aerial surveillance during a protest movement? said Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the ACLU. Its hard to know with all the secrecy, but it looks like once again, powerful high-tech tools sold to the public for use against the worst criminals are now being deployed against peaceful protesters and activists.

Matthew Guariglia, a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told The Intercept that the fact theres a Marshals Service drone program at all is indicative of how thoroughly crime-fighting agencies in the United States now resemble war-fighting forces: The Marshals service has drones for much the same reason that many local police departments have tanks, Guariglia said. The slow militarization of local and federal law enforcement as a result on the war on crime, war on drugs, and war on terror have created dozens of desperate law enforcement agencies with advanced technology and bloated budgets. The mere knowledge that a drone is or even could be watching demonstrators threatens to chill out right to protest, Guariglia added.

Stanley also objected to the near-full redaction of the flight emails, which the Marshals Service argued was warranted on the basis that they would reveal secret investigative techniques and could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual. But as Stanley pointed out, its not as if flying a camera-packing drone over a throng of people is a new or secret technique in the year 2021. How high are the chances they used their drones in some clever, innovative way they need to keep secret because nobody else has thought of it? he explained. No matter how theyre using it, the Marshals Service needs to be open and transparent given the relative novelty of drones as a law enforcement surveillance tool and their significant implications for our privacy. This kind of reflexively secretive behavior is one reason activists and communities tend not to give agencies the benefit of the doubt when they seek new surveillance technologies.

Update: April 23, 2021This article was updated to clarify the comments of USMS spokersperson James Stossel

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U.S. Marshals Used Drones to Spy on Black Lives Matter Protests in Washington, D.C. - The Intercept

I was 19 when I consciously decided to limit my intake of films and TV shows that made me feel distressed. Supporting Black talent was always at the forefront of my mind, but not at the expense of my mental health. However, Steve McQueens 12 Years A Slave (2013) piqued my interest and I went for a late-night viewing with three friends.

The gritty and impactful period drama illuminates important truths about the slave trade, colonization and the unfathomable trauma inflicted on millions of enslaved African Americans. Its box-office figures were a testament to its success, raking in $180 million worldwide. But, while my friends delved into an in-depth analysis of the film, I couldnt stop thinking about one scene in particular where Patsey, an African American slave played by Lupita Nyongo, was struck repeatedly with a whip. Her screams plagued my mind. Seeing a darker-skinned woman, one with the same complexion as me, subjected to such torture bordered on unwatchable.

Lupita Nyongo in 12 Years a Slave (2013)

After McQueens wildly successful film, there seemed to be an acceleration of projects being green-lit by the upper echelons (often non-Black) of Hollywood, frequently diminishing Black identity to a monolithic experience. Watching flicks that blur the lines between reality and fictionpolice brutality seems to be a focal point of latecan be exhausting for the Black community when it becomes repetitive. We too deserve to see stories that provide a reprieve from the real world.

Unsurprisingly, storylines led by non-Black screenwriters tend to be imbued in sorrow or lean on hollow characterization largely due to a huge disparity in screenwriting rooms (in 2019, the number of minority screenwriters in the U.S. increased by a mere 2%). We have to consider that these narrativesof Black suffering and noble white saviorsare soothing to the soul of a world globally still trying to grapple with the horrific moral stain of slavery, colonialism and racism, says U.K. film and TV critic Ellen E Jones to Vogue. Simultaneously, [these creators] want to guard the economic and social privilege that this dark history has afforded them.

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Has the Black Lives Matter Movement Changed Hollywood's Approach to Inclusivity? - Vogue

ALBANY - They gathered Saturday at Townsend Park, just as they had three days before.

Are we ready? Legacy Casanova asked the crowd of protesters, most wearing black, many carrying signs that professed the grief and anger that has enveloped so many across the city and nation.

They walked down Lark Street, where business employees peered outside and saw raised fists, raised signs and heard raised voices that screamed, Matter! each time the words Black lives were spoken.

When is this going to stop? Nahshon McLaughlin asked as he walked past the giant yellow Black Lives Matter mural painted last summer, a marker that reminded him of the last time he was here protesting, chanting different names of Black Americans killed by police: Breonna Taylor, George Floyd.

And now here he was again, over half a year later, chanting new names Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo walking atop a mural that was fading away.

Its sadness. This is just anger and sadness, he said.

The scores of activists and supporters eventually converged at the South Station on Arch Street, the scene of a confrontation Wednesday evening.

Casanova told the protesters not to climb or even touch the rail at the South Station an action that police said escalated tensions at the last protest.

As evening settled the scene was calm outside the station, with protesters singing and marching. No police were seen stepping outside, though at least two could be seen on the roof. The rails leading to the entrance were empty of people.

Three days ago the similar demonstration culminated in the brief clash between police officers and demonstrators, where officers deployed pepper spray and a window was broken by some protesters. City officials held a news conference about Wednesday's protest on Friday, describing the gathering as a "riot."

Protesters were peacefully chanting as night fell, with leaders reminding people to pick up their trash. Many criticized Mayor Kathy Sheehanfor her comments equating the clash Wednesday in Albany to the deadly Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

What she said made me sick, one protester said.

Lukee Forbes, a community leader, said officers not being outside dramatically helped with deescalating tensions.

Police not being here is whats going to keep this from escalating, he said. Thats what gets tensions high: when police are here.

Many protesters promised to return to the station and continue protesting until the officer who pushed at a womans megaphone on Wednesday is fired.

Kat Reyefico, 29, was at the station on Wednesday. She wasnt hit with pepper spray, she said, but her friends were, and as she tried to help them, she inhaled the residue from the chemicals. She was beginning to have an asthma attack, she said. She borrowed he friends inhaler, and promised herself she would return again on Saturday.

This is where Im supposed to be, she said, playing a drum she had borrowed from the heavy metal band shes in. She was giving rhythm to the chants, providing a beat for the people who yelled again and again: No justice, no peace.

Troy protest

The Albany march came a few hours after another gathering in Troy.

Under different circumstances, the gathering under the Collar City Bridge Saturday afternoon could have been mistaken for a family reunion. Music played, kids drew with chalk on the asphalt, and people passed out snacks and water. A large table loaded with flowers below a large banner reading "Black Lives Matter" taped to bridge supports and signs in the crowd with messages like, "Abolish Racism in Troy PD or Abolish the Troy PD" revealed the event as both a memorial and a call to action. There were no uniformed police present.

Saturday was the fifth anniversary of the day Edson Thevenin, 37, was killed by a Troy police officer during a traffic stop on the road above the crowd of roughly 150. The police officer who shot Thevenin, Sgt. Randall French, was cleared of wrongdoing.

The case roiled Troy, and people who spoke at the Spring into Action: Rally 4 Black Life gathering Saturday said the pain they feel over what they see is a lack of justice in the Thevenin case has only been worsened by the subsequent deaths of people of color at the hands of police, both locally and nationally.

Luz Marquez, a founder of Troy4BlackLives and a cosponsor of the event, spoke passionately, urging the crowd to keep raising their voices for Black lives and keep up pressure on the city's elected leaders.

"If you want to stop gun violence, stop white supremacy," Marquez said, adding her voice to others Saturday to defund the police.

Angela Beallor, a founder of Reimagine Troy, said as a white person, she has had interactions with police, but lived to tell the tale. Black and brown people often do not. Jessica Ashley read a statement from Gertha Depas, Thevenin's mother.

"Five years have not eased the pain, they have intensified the struggle," Ashley read. "The power is always in the hands of the people and change comes when we speak up."

Other speakers included Messiah Cooper, whose nephew, Dahmeek McDonald, was shot by police in 2017. Cooper said what he sees as his failure to act in the past is what motivates him to do so now. It's important, he said, not only to stand up for people because they are a friend or a relative, but simply because it's the right thing to do.

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Albany Black Lives Matter protest takes to the streets - Times Union

The US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to advance a bill that would create a commission to study the idea of reparations for slavery,an idea that has also been gaining ground in Europe since Black Lives Matter protests went global last summer.

Legislation to create acommission to study slavery reparations for Black Americans cleared aHouse committee in a historic vote this week,sending it on its way to a full House vote for the first time more than three decades after it was introduced.If the legislation, HR 40,is passed by the Democrat-controlled House, it would go to the evenly divided Senate, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.

Reparations are ultimately about respect and reconciliation and the hope that,one day, all Americans can walk together toward a more just future,saidDemocratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Leeof Texas, a sponsor of the bill.

Some Republicans voiced opposition to the bill, arguing that the suffering wrought by slavery happened too long ago.

No one should be forced to pay compensation for what they have not done,said Republican Congressman Steve Chabot of Ohio. Paying reparations would amount to taking money from people who never owned slaves to compensate those who were never enslaved.

Historical precedents

The idea of compensating the descendants of the estimated 4 million Africans forcibly brought to theUnited Statesbetween 1619 and 1865 was revived by the wave ofprotests that followedthe death of George Floyd in May 2020. But the first version of the legislative text advanced onWednesday was draftedmore than three decades ago.

Compensation to freed slaves was promised towards the end of the American Civil War in 1865, when Union GeneralWilliam TecumsehShermanfamously promised them forty acres and a mule. But this vow was never kept. It took until the 1970s and the creation of the Reparations Coordinating Committee by Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree for the issue to re-emerge.

Proponents ofreparations, however, remaindivided about what form they should take. Some argue for more welfare programmes and an expansion of existing measures such asaffirmative action.Others argue for direct financial compensation citingfact that there is still severe economic inequality between Black and White Americans,andmaintainingthat the long-term effects of slavery and segregation areresponsible. In 2019, the median annual income for an African-American household was $43,771 (36,000) compared to $71,664 (60,000) for White families.

Advocates of compensation havealso citedhistorical precedents.In 1988,Republicanpresident Ronald Reagansigned a 1988 lawto pay $20,000 (17,000) each to all survivingJapanese-Americans detained during the World War Two.In 2012,Barack Obamas White House agreedto pay more than $1 billion to 41 Native American tribes over the federal governments mismanagement of money and natural resources held in trust.

Partly inspiredby theBlack Lives Mattermovement, demonstrators in Bristol in southern England toppled a statue of18th-centuryslave trader Edward Colston and tipped it into the nearbyharbour last June.

Thatsame month, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bacheletcalled on former colonialistcountries tomake amends for centuries of violence and discrimination, including through formal apologies, truth-telling processes and reparations in various forms.

In 2013, the Caribbean Community (or CARICOM), an intergovernmental organisation of 15 states in the region, believes that France, the Netherlands, the UK, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden and Denmark should pay compensation for their role in the transatlantic slave tradebetween the 16th and 19th centuries.

Senior politicians inthe Democratic Republic of Congo demandedreparations from the countrys former colonial ruler Belgium after the2020 publicationof a letter of regret from Belgian King Philippe for atrocities committed duringthat era. They also called for the removal of statuesof King Leopold II, known for his brutal rule of what was then Belgian Congo. DR Congos neighbour Burundihas been calling for yearsfor 36 billion in compensation for atrocities committed by German and Belgian settlers from 1896 to 1962.

In 1999,a Truth CommissionConference held in Ghana estimatedthe total amount of reparations owedto African countriesbyformer colonial powers at $777 trillion (650 trillion).

An association of descendants of slaves filed a requestwiththe French state for 200 billion in compensationin 2005 on the groundsthat Frances historical participation in slavery was recognised as a crime against humanity in a 2001 law(known as the Taubira law).But a court ruled that this request was inadmissible because it was impossible to discern the amount due for events that happened so long ago.Thejudgement was confirmed by Frances two highest courts of appeal.

The Afro-Caribbean groupsbehind the demandsrejected thecourt rulings on the grounds that Francehadcompensated slave owners when it abolished slavery in 1848. The following year,the French state disbursed the equivalentof7.1 percent of public spending to compensate the owners of slaves in Senegal, Madagascar, Reunion Island, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana.

In 1825, France imposed a considerable debt on Haiti which had won independence in 1804 as compensation for the French former owners of slaves there. The young Haitian republic was also forced to pay colossal interest on loans from bankers in Paris.

A French research initiative known asthe Repairs project is building a database to log the names of those who received compensation as former slave owners and the amount paid to them.

The British Empire also compensated slave owners when it abolished slavery in 1833.

Some historiansnote that a significant number of these former slave owners were free people of colour former slaves who themselves became owners of slaves.

We tend to see the history of slavery exclusively through the lens of White on Black racial oppression, but this is problematic because race is not the only criterion to be taken into account when thinking about the history of slavery, said Myriam Cottias, director of the Paris-based International Slavery and Post-Slavery Research Centre (Centre international de recherches sur les esclavages et post-esclavages).

In light of this, it seems to me that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to identify the right people to receive compensation, Cottias continued.

In 2015, then FrenchpresidentFranois Hollande ruled outpayingany compensationto thedescendants of slaves.It would be impossible to calculate because it was so long ago, he said.

Private initiatives

While nocountry involvedin the transatlantic slave trade hasestablished reparationsfor the descendants of slaves,other initiativeshave been set up.In the US, the local council of the prosperous town of Evanston in the Chicago suburbs voted in March to hand out $10 million (8m) in compensation to its Black residents over the following decade.

In 2019, Georgetown University in Washington,D.C.,approved the creation of a fund to compensate the descendants of slaves sold to balance the universitys books in the19th century.Thatsame year, Glasgow University in Scotland announced that it would pay 20 million(23m)to fund a joint venture with the University of the West Indies as a way ofrefunding the descendants of slaves for donationsit had received centuries ago from slave owners.

In the private sector,Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Bank and brewer Greene King have acknowledged responsibility for their involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. So far,no French companyhas acknowledged involvement in slaveryor offered compensation.

This article was translated from the original in French.

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How Black Lives Matter put slave reparations back on the agenda - FRANCE 24 English

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