Shortly before the June 14th No Kings protests, exact date unknown, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) urged local police departments to consider legal activity, such as riding a bike or livestreaming the police, as violent tactics.
Bulletins legally obtained by national security nonprofit Property of the People warned that law enforcement could be attacked with fireworks and other projectiles. In reality, the No Kings protests were overwhelmingly peaceful.
At the same time, the guidance urges officers to consider a range of nonviolent behavior and common protest gear—like masks, flashlights, and cameras—as potential precursors to violence, telling officers to prepare “from the point of view of an adversary.”
Protesters on bicycles, skateboards, or even “on foot” are framed as potential “scouts” conducting reconnaissance or searching for “items to be used as weapons.” Livestreaming is listed alongside “doxxing” as a “tactic” for “threatening” police. Online posters are cast as ideological recruiters—or as participants in “surveillance sharing.”
Wired
The Joint Regional Intelligence Center (JRIC) in Los Angeles, a recent site of aggressive and militarized policing, also warned of protesters attempting to avoid identification while using face recognition against police officers. While often used by law enforcement, intelligence produced by the JRIC may be flawed, as it relies on unverified information. The bulletins produced by it have also conflated legal activity with violence.
Relying on ideological assessments, protesters may be labeled as “transgressive” and “monitored, detained without charges, or met with force.” The DHS is leveraging counterterrorist infrastructure to assess protest movements:
Fusion centers, funded through DHS grants, have increasingly issued bulletins flagging protest slogans, references to police brutality, and solidarity events as signs of possible violence—disseminating these assessments to law enforcement absent clear evidence of criminal intent.
Wired
Rather than attempting to de-escalate and facilitate demonstrations on contentious subjects, as was done in the late twentieth century, the DHS is assuming criminality, which gives a greater incentive for law enforcement to handle protests aggressively and engage in surveillance against Americans acting in accordance with the law.
