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Comment by moltar | Hacker News Reader

Can someone from the US please explain why would police surveil a union organizer? How is s/he a threat to the public?

The Memphis Police Department has been under a federal consent decree for over 40 years. Spying on labor and civil rights groups is just part of their act.

https://www.aclu-tn.org/blacklisted-memphis-police-surveilla...

To be clear, the 1978 federal consent decree is essentially the federal government telling Memphis PD to quit their spying bullshit “or else”, and yet they’ve continued this surveillance anyway, over the years?

In the earlier days of the US one of the police department's responsibilities was breaking strikes, often by injuring or murdering union members: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_union_busting_in_th...

At least as far back as 2009 Pinkertons still existed. They were in the business of being contracted by major US companies to perform background checks on staff who needed high security clearance.

The Pinkerton Agency still exists now. Unlike Blackwater/Xe/Academi/whatever, they haven't even dropped the name. One gets the sense that they don't mind the associations the name's gathered.

They're now a subsidiary of Securitas AB, a Swedish company.

Securitas is known for having their people wearing uniforms that are designed to be confused with local law enforcement and for heavy lobbying for privatisation of the prison industry in the Nordics.

A great fit for Pinkerton.

At least as recently as 2009, ahem.

Afaik those days ended only about a hundred years ago, perhaps after the Great Depression. Some say that things changed because the USSR showed what happens when workers seriously organize, plus Europe and Central/South America were too curious about socialism.

Why do you think it is just the USA? Are you genuinely surprised or this just a baity-get-things-rolling type of question?

Just off the top of my head this is one of the most famous (exposed) examples in the UK https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47457330

Police were created explicitly to help with suppressing the threat that comes from anyone that earns their living by a wage from others.

Not just the US, but the US and those that is trying hard to be just as bad (like the UK) are not like the rest of the western world. For example a union in the US versus one in Scandinavia is like comparing apples to ...something not even a fruit. The US unions are not real unions and haven't normalised since the war against the police and their mob ties.

A better link to the UK story: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43507728

but note in the UK this was a major scandal, £250m of compensation paid, etc, rather than business as normal

I mean… the fact that it’s in the news and notable enough that it was voted to the front page of HN suggests that it isn’t exactly “business as usual” in the US, either.

Your link suggests it took six years for the Metropolitan Police to admit wrongdoing. This camera was found last week. Let’s give it time to actually blow up to “scandal” proportions.

I don’t know man, I hope this blows up to scandal levels in this case, but I have been hearing about these power pole cameras for a long time.

Sorry for sounding baity. It was a genuine question as I don’t see the connection. I’ve never been in a union, but my understanding was that it was just a contract between a private corporation and it’s workforce. I just don’t see how the police has any interest in this.

The Twitter with the pics of this claims this is related to Operation Legend, so presumably they're investigating something related to that -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Legend

So an operation against people who unite and protest legally and who are then beaten, killed or hunted like cattle? What better place than a union leader to catch "bad guys".

Because the police's primary revenue stream is taxpayer money and therefore they are very interested in anyone who may affect political change for any reason.

I imagine somebody is ‘friends’ with the police and asks for help identifying who the organizer is associating with, so they can fire that person.

It is a PTZ camera, so I am guessing they are trying to grab license plates.

There is definitely a gray area between private detective work and police assisting with a favor.

Do you want the conspiracy or official version?

It is probable it has nothing to do with politics and the individuals (or people in the area) in question are suspects in a standard criminal activity.

It is also possible it is political.

The lack of transparency in government / police operations leads to this kind of speculation. The massive lose of trust in police (rightfully so) over the past few years also has eroded any "benefit of the doubt" people may have given them in the past

Unless an arrest is made or a lawsuit files we will probably never know the real truth.

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