In July of 2016, following a series of high-profile police shootings, Black Lives Matter protests erupted in cities all over the country. Some local police departments, ostensibly fearing for the safety of both protestors and officers, reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for help in monitoring upcoming demonstrations. According to documents recently obtained by MuckRock, the FBI provided assistance in the form of social media surveillance and on the ground threat monitoring.

In this Week’s FOIA Roundup, documents show the Department of Homeland Security officials’ baseless concern that Black Lives Matter activists would join ISIS following Ferguson protests, Pentagon damage assessments on the 2012 WikiLeaks revelations spurred by Chelsea Manning are finally available after FOIA lawsuit and a public records request from Carbondale, Illinois undermines the mayor’s account of domestic disturbance.

The January decision in the case of Millions March NYC v. NYPD represented a decisive victory for transparency around cell site simulators and could be an example to agencies across the country, but transparency and privacy advocates remain concerned about StingRays.

We’ve written before about fusion centers, Homeland Security’s post-9/11 information sharing outfits notorious for being bad their jobs, and a particularly damning 2012 congressional report that outlined in agonizing detail exactly how bad they were. However, in light of recent events, its worth revisiting the reports conclusion, which argues that fusion center’s worst sin was drawing a connection between right-wing militia movements and right-wing terrorist activity.

Records show Denver Police sought a $480 thousand grant from Homeland Security to develop a counterterror program targeting communities it identifies as “at-risk” of violent extremism, which include Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ groups, and refugees.