This information was shared “inadvertently”: so says the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, after local police published photos and details of more than 9,300 of their officers, including undercover, in response to a request of public records. But nothing is less certain.
Agent photos, names, ranks, ethnicities, hire dates, divisions and offices, and badge numbers are now available online in a database called “Watch the Watchers.” Los Angeles Times Last March.
The site was started by an activist organization, the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, which opposes intelligence gathering by city police and advocates for its reform. The Los Angeles police are regularly accused of excessive use of force. In early January, in a matter of days, three mentally ill African Americans were died during his arrest.
Photos “delivered by hand”
The union that represents the ordinary police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) had sued Chief Michel Moore for the disclosure of this information. Since then, more than 300 of the officers involved have said they are ready to take legal action against the city of Los Angeles.
In return, the city is now suing Ben Camacho, a “citizen journalist” (a notion that exists in the United States to describe citizens who do journalistic work, often for a militant purpose) who obtained this information and the Coalition Stop LAPD Spying, who you gave them to. The municipal lawyers assure that this measure is intended to protect the police officers “whose lives and those of their relatives are in serious danger due to this public display.”
In fact, this information would have been communicated voluntarily by the city, and not “inadvertently” or by “mistake,” says Susan Seager, lawyer for Ben Camacho. She claims that the Los Angeles attorney’s office “hand-delivered” the photos last September, along with a letter that stated: “images of officers working undercover at the time these photographs were uploaded (late July 2022) are not included”.
The experts interviewed by the Los Angeles Times They also conclude that the removal of the images seems unjustifiable before US justice, which according to them privileges the right of the press to disclose information, even classified as secret-defense or that could compromise the security of the country.
Source: BFM TV
