Rebellion. A day of mourning has been declared in greece after at least fifteen people were killed in flash floods on the western outskirts of athens a heavy overnight storm turned roads into rivers sweeping away cars and buildings what do you see here on aljazeera faultlines next. Were living through a technological revolution but all the machines taking over if a piece of machinery goes wrong is there a train all of this to go to which we can bring a legal system to bear Oxford University professor of Machine LearningStephen Rover talks to all juiciest this time. My artwork has always been about my family about the magic that is. A black American Family surviving in america. And to have. This f. B. I. File that was basically attacking all of those things i knew it would work its way into my artwork. Despite the fact that my dad had turned in vietnam despite the fact that he is taking care of his family and just a regular citizen in this information is being collected because hes considered an enemy by his own government. In the us theres a long history of government surveillance of black civil rights groups. That was supposed to engage in the one nine hundred seventy s. But today there is a similar threat to dance black lives matter a movement fighting to end systemic violence against people. In this poll finds reveal new details about surveillance a plot by small time. Family show how far the government can go when its power is remain on track. By. The organizes in the bad times my to me is meant the french the surveillance is a reminder of what happened to them and stimulation. And its just recently that people have been able to see the extended family trying. To come to Oakland California to better understand this is strange. And we start with the story of an artist and her father. When i was twelve years old i saw a picture and one of the black newspapers i think was called the pit courier and it was a picture of a black man being lynched and bert and white people celebrating and cotton body parts and at that point i asked god as to what to do or what kind of people you know would do that so the sense of really i knew that something was wrong. And the exhibition the two photographs that are next to each other one of my dad in his military uniform. Shes just been drafted hes going to be sent to vietnam. Grew up in a segregated united states. He was drafted to go to vietnam at the age of twenty one i returned a year later who did in the line of g. T. The photograph next to it is after hes come back from the war he looks older a little wiser hes seen some terrible things hes lost friends. Worth watching on the news the police were conducting the same kind of operations that we did what. I was outraged there were trees. Killing black people. Black people so you have this whole generation of people that are coming back from the war and wondering you know what. Why did i just almost die for a country that doesnt have a place for me. His answer about what he can do is to join the Panther Party. And this is right after the Civil Rights MovementMartin Luther king was killed no. Extension to what the Civil Rights Movement trying to achieve. While the black Panther Party has often been projected as only an Armed Movement but he says the focus for most of them was on community building. The panthers demanded an end to Police Brutality and equal rights to housing and employment. In l. A. Were organizing around churches and other organizations and trying to get. Breakfast programs for children going to school but not me and the entire world would learn some years later was just how much that Community Organizing threaten the government. Over famously said that the most dangerous element of the black Panther Party was the Free Breakfast Program because he knew that that could really unify a community and draw attention to the needs that arent being met. J. Edgar hoover oversaw the u. S. Federal bureau of investigation or the f. B. I. And the one hundred seventy two who has notoriously unconstitutional Program Named cointelpro was exposed. This was a Counter Intelligence program that labeled almost leftist groups a terrorist threat. And targeted Martin Luther king jr antiwar activists and the black panthers among others. The goal of the program was destroy and discredit the groups that targeted. Thousands of pages which show evidence of infiltration under such nations by the f. B. I. To achieve just that. Rodney will be swept up in this massive ailments. Two years ago so his own f. B. I. File for the first time you get these files describe what it was like to read about yourself it was amazing they tried to build cases against me to try to say that i harbor. That i was going to receive their own weapons anything that they could use to justify doing something further to me. Theres one. Where and informant is out about panther meeting and observes that my father is wearing his post office uniform tells the f. B. I. That my dad works at the post office the f. B. I. Would use this information to go off to his job even when what these managers reported that he was a good work. So they terminated me for a cohabiting with a woman and i wasnt married to and they called it conduct unbecoming of a Government Employee so i was fired. Sadies was meant to pay homage to this generation. And to show up close how the governments program. Meant i destroy life. One thing i hope that people will take away from this work is really connecting Family History with. History and you know that really is what was at stake like thats what the black panthers were fighting for was for their children to be able to grow up safely. To not be underfed underserved. To not be murdered by the police its always been a percentage of black people that constantly fought against White Supremacy and White Supremacy reality and fighting against all these years and still. I dont even think that ive had to work very hard. For people to connect it to today. Politics and optics and today have done that for themselves. This theory has shown us that this is what they do. And theres no reason to think that theyre not doing the same thing now as they were before. In the last few years videos of Police Brutality of the issue shot back into focus. On. Current american. Black life matter has been a direct response to the Police Killings of on our black men and women around the us. Activists around the country began to feel various forms of intimidation and aggression by doing foresman. Us journalists revealed stories of f. B. I. Knocking on at to the stores collecting social Media Information and arresting protesters for low level offenses. The reaction by authorities to peoples demands for equal treatment even the familia. We heard stories of people being followed around Grocery Stores and being called by their social media as opposed to their actual brandy coleens change has been tracking allegations a surveillance for a few years cleveland on and on stories that sounded too similar to us for it to be accidental but what we saw is part of a continued larger court unaided effort similar to what we saw in the sixtys and seventys. Filed a freedom of information act or for every quest to obtain federal surveillance records from august twenty fourth to june twenty sixteen but they automatically had to sue and have been in court for almost a year. So the Counterintelligence Program that allegedly has been dismantled by the government felt pretty clear that some form of that was continuing to occur right now while they. Checked out by government agents the movement for black lives really has a merchant black lives matters has emerged as this powerful movement beyond a hash tag and i think that was you know a threat to the powers that be in a threat to police department. Whats not to spontaneously in late twenty fourteen a protest around the shooting of Michael Brown. Leading to cities across the u. S. Where other black madam women were been killed by police were out there a little girl really oh my god oh. My god how pretty frank about where the women being killed by police every day. A simple hash tag became a rallying cry. That lives. On the movement for black ice became a coalition of groups nineteen fifty two treatment. And. Its a movement the stars from one point to simple requests to stop telling. The simple idea that black folks should be entitled to a certain amount of dignity and rights and should be able to walk outside their house and not fear being gunned down by Police Officers for any number of reasons and this movement is about reclaiming what it means to exist in dignity and how to have a real conversation around what police have met in our community is from the beginning a place that was. The cause for justice ruth around. The us. In new york city thousands of people protested when the officers who killed Michael Brown and eric gonna face no indictments. Follow through the. Organizers began to feel under watch. Several file freedom of information request with the new York Police Department to obtain surveillance wreckless related to black life matter. But the n. Y. P. D. Refused to turn over information organize a suit anything that the courts can force a nervy always something that we think can only benefit the movement and us who has sane and vienna rai plaintiffs in a lawsuit represented by the American Civil Liberties union and the alleged electronic surveillance on the m y p d l u a being watched by frank we dont expect the n. Y. P. D. To be transparent with us and tell us their tactics against us they suspect certain technology has been used to disrupt and intimidate them and powering off and then a kind of chaotic claims that bones might be a target and a large like the flow for shutting up ill try this is probably the eighth time its been shut down tonight. And fifty four percent battery theres no problem with the phone to. The n. Y. P. D. Has used technology called sting right in the past its used to sweep up peoples cell phone information but have attention to disrupt the phone as well you start to realize also like how important the phone is right in terms of being able to film the police if they were to do something our be able to call friend if they were to do something theres been some reports from across the country as well without feeling that theres only the new york city so we requested that information begin stephen another local organizer is part of a lawsuit to force the n. Y. P. D. To release Text Communications from on the come. The police found out that there were numerous undercover officers organizes police with these undercover hearns in which right at the going to collect information. These are private sex lives that were not public text lives and this undercover had access to them so it would and they kept that they were one of a very core member of organizers i pointed out to the court that what the n. Y. P. D. Is doing when they surveil black last matter is part of a long history of Law Enforcement organizations usually in political conduct to try to subvert and for what they perceive as political enemies they thompson is representing some of the organizes against the n. Y. P. D. The greater goal behind all this is to cover up the extent of their political use of their Police Powers to oppose black lives matter. Because when they undertake surveillance of black lives matter this is not Law Enforcement activity likewise matters not breaking laws. In the case of vienna and the bill the department invoked defense called close. Often use for National Security threats where they were neither nor deny they have any information. This strong response raises the suspicions of piano in the bill and then knowing. The n. Y. P. D. We fused an interview request before nine. How do you see the two situations two different sets of law suits looking at surveillance how do you see that thing connecting the causes factions within the movement right so theres many different ways that surveillance can manifest so paranoia internal conflicts about when it does become the mobile i think i mean i think either technological surveillance or human surveillance theyre just different methods right like that the point of the same either way which is to prevent organizing from happening. For being effective. When we think of the police as kind of an mean traill enforcer of the law we understand that police should only undertake investigations where theres evidence of criminal wong doing alex my time as a professor who can call each has Research Political policing. But the history of political policing is a history of the surveillance of individuals and organizations based on their political beliefs not on their criminal behavior. In late october we learned the color of change had a batch of documents they would share with us related to f. B. I. Surveillance of black lives matter. Its no small thing to conflate protest to hold the Police Accountable for gunning down an arm to black people with a threat that has to be policed in a proactive and preemptive way almost far out i think the center of the constitutional rights. Is the lead attorney on this for you and. This is the first time the documents have been made public and hes saying anything anish me that. Setting off alarm bells for you its certainly confirms that otherwise protected first and im an activity that should really be celebrated is being looked at with a degree of suspicion that i think is reserved for black and brown communities and for other minority groups im up before you dig into it lets go brandi because he said to brandy recently and see what she says when she paid for any ice omar the first documents they pull up a set of internal agency. Starts off well explaining that theres a range of protected activity that falls within the First Amendment and therefore should not be monitored or surveilled but then says however based on known intelligence and or specific historical observations its possible the protected First Amendment activity might also invite. Violence that the f. B. I. Has to to respond to this language would give the f. B. I. A way to conduct surveillance of black. Based on a belief that violence could occur but says they will stop if it does not but at that point the damage has been done the surveillance is what chills people from interacting and mobilizing and raising what we think are just indispensable voices to hold the government accountable for these kinds of things randy and jury and i would love to know more what are those historical observation because civil rights protected historically do not isolate and violent so what are they actually trying from as hers to be in this narrative about violent reactions that theyre presuming will happen i want us to look at another document again another chain of emails this document shows f. B. I. Notes from july twenty sixth the. Gunman shot and killed five Dallas Police offices it happened during an anti Police Brutality rally but the sheet is believed to have acted alone and had no ties to black lives matzoh a term that strikes us as odd black supremacy extremist theres no definition in the document of what exactly that means but that is one thing thats really caught our eye and thats been part of the subject that the brennan ive been talking about as we go forward in the case have a law saying the document raises more questions than it has but the brandy this term blurs the line between isolated incidents and the movement its like trying to say that the older movement is on part way to White Nationalism way to extremist groups that are actively calling for violence to say that back on the same level its certainly the first time i saw black extremists that black and white in a document and i hear it popping up now i think its very alarming. And have recently f. B. I. Memo. By Foreign Policy the memo speaks of a socalled black identity extremist b i e movement in the us that is carrying out premeditated guidant attacks on middle enforcements. Excess sections of police abuse feat this movements ideology. Mike german a former f. B. I. Agent says the document cherry picks isolated file of incidents against police to fit under this umbrella ideology they create the notion that there is this broader criminal activity that these isolated incidents are part of and that way they can justify broad surveillance fraud investigations against anybody who is out there protesting who has a black identity or is protesting about issues that Impact Communities of color. The f. B. I. Declined to speak to us for this film but they told us they do not open investigations by solely on Race National origin religion or the exercise of First Amendment rights. Yet the black identity extremist memo a state he just days before a gathering of White Supremacy groups and Charlottesville Virginia in august twenty seventeen. German says over the last few years hes seen White Supremacists openly calling for violent at peace rallies. F. B. I. Records show they commit more tax than any other group the police have not used it but these are people who are criminals who are going there to commit violence committing violence and then somehow being allowed to go to the next protest and violence again its very shocking. I am. Living. For many in the movement for black lives. Being on the streets the Police Response to charlottesville has been a stark contrast to what they think its. Images from the protests from the world neighborhood streets that like more sense when you have a Movement Like black lives matter or the other broader concerns about aggressive policing and over policing militaristically saying theyre actually challenging the police theyre challenging on force only. Really so Law Enforcement sees that as a threat to what theyre doing so they tend to view that kind of protest through a very different lands than White Supremacists say who commits a lot of harm but who they attack is very different. So i think there is a kind of war on cops mentality that has come to dominate a lot of policing circles was oh well it was so they see criticism of the police as being tied to some of these extreme events where someone has gone and shot Police Officers even though they have no connection to these movements. But. Its been over three years since the black life Matter Movement began. Really on the steps of a. N. C. Is only now coming to light. But organizers know enough to fill a lot. When we are going to a period where police are being trained have been trained to see black labs matters and if a black lives as a terrorist threat watch i think that bats absolutely carrying out in terms of the level of surveillance thats happening at the information released so far suddenly raises concerns that no one foresman may have political motives behind its surveillance and is undermining peoples basic rights to. The government accountable how do you feel being put in that category of surveillance alongside groups where people say well these people are a danger to society to america theres no evidence of that and like i dont feel the need to refute it because theres never been any evidence presented that were a threat to the world but what we are a threat to is the power of the state. And when a new president in office has unleashed rhetoric that organizers say further demonizes the movement for black lives the stakes are quite high and. When we organize we have to organize out loud i dont mind but rather look imo our right. This isnt about creating more fear. Oh were freezing our desire to fight and win and live in our dignity. This is about understanding what the landscape looks like and what the world of surveillance like and how police are watching us. You should know all of those things you shouldnt stop fighting to get free they went and then whats the point. There is no way. Yes. Business updates brought to you by Qatar Airways going places together. Business updates brought to you by Qatar Airways going places together new yorkers are very receptive. Because it is such an International City theyre very interested in that global perspective that al jazeera provides. Will