{"id":17397,"date":"2015-11-12T13:55:38","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T21:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=17397"},"modified":"2015-11-12T13:55:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T21:55:38","slug":"in-oregon-black-lives-do-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/12\/in-oregon-black-lives-do-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"In Oregon, Black Lives DO Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

It recently came to my attention that someone in the Oregon Department of Justice was racially profiling Black Lives Matter activists, making them targets for investigation by several law enforcement agencies.  I was appalled and almost blasted Oregon DOJ.  But I decided to wait and see how the Kate Brown administration dealt with the news.  I\u2019m glad I did.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n

\"1112BLM\"An Oregon Department of Justice investigator used a search tool to racially profile Twitter users who used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, the state\u2019s attorney general said in a letter<\/a> to a civil rights organization Tuesday in which she said she was \u201cappalled\u201d by the practice and has suspended the investigator<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum, responding to complaints form the Portland chapter of the Urban League, wrote Tuesday that she has ordered her department to stop using the online search tool and launched an investigation, saying the practice \u201craises many troubling questions\u201d about law enforcement profiling throughout the state<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

One Twitter account targeted by the probe belonged to Erious Johnson<\/a>, director of civil rights for the state justice department and husband to Nkenge Harmon Johnson, the Urban League\u2019s president. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn a personal note, I have now seen firsthand how devastating profiling can be \u2014 written on the face of a member of my team,\u201d Rosenblum wrote in the letter. \u201cIt must not continue.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rosenblum said she did not learn about the incident until she received a letter<\/a> from the local chapter of the Urban League. That letter alerted her that it is \u201cimproper, and potentially unlawful, for the Oregon Department of Justice to conduct surveillance and investigations on an Oregonian merely for expressing a viewpoint, or for being a part of a social movement.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned that such unwarranted investigations are racially motivated, and create a chilling effect on social justice advocates, political activists and others who wish to engage in discourse about the issues of our time<\/strong>,\u201d continued the letter<\/a>, which was also signed by the local affiliates of the NAACP, American Civil Liberties Union, and the AFL-CIO\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>> <\/p>\n

I\u2019m please to report that, here in Oregon, Black Lives DO matter.  I called AG Ellen Rosenblum\u2019s office and requested that the perpetrator, who was suspended, be terminated.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It recently came to my attention that someone in the Oregon Department of Justice was racially profiling Black Lives Matter activists, making them targets for investigation by several law enforcement agencies.  I was appalled and almost blasted Oregon DOJ.  But I decided to wait and see how the Kate Brown administration dealt with the news.  […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}