New reports have revealed that both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security were using spy planes and other airborne surveillance technology to monitor the protests for black lives that have been taking place across the country.
Despite saying it does not monitor activity protected by the First Amendment, the FBI used a Cessna jet specially equipped with cameras for long-range video surveillance to capture footage above protests in Washington D.C. earlier this month, reports Buzzfeed News.
First Black-Owned Supermarket to Sell Products From Mostly Black Farmers Raises $430K
Normally, this elite spy plane is deployed for some of the FBI’s most important surveillance missions, providing eyes in the sky when federal agents arrest drug traffickers or violent gang members.
But this isn’t the first time it has flown over Black Lives Matter protests: A BuzzFeed News review of flight tracking records has established that the same aircraft circled above Baltimore in April and May of 2015, during the unrest that followed the death of Freddie Gray from severe injuries sustained in police custody.
A Freedom of Information request filed by the ACLU in 2015 revealed that the FBI had recorded video surveillance footage via planes flown over protests in Baltimore against the killing of Freddie Grey.
