Oregon Justice Dept. Official On Leave For Targeting Black Lives Matter Tweets

Protestors hold up signs while chanting "Black Lives Matter" during a demonstration against the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers in New York City and Ferguson, Mo., in Boston, Thu... Protestors hold up signs while chanting "Black Lives Matter" during a demonstration against the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers in New York City and Ferguson, Mo., in Boston, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) MORE LESS
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The Oregon Department of Justice has placed an investigator on paid leave after that individual searched for the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag while searching for potential threats, according to The Oregonian.

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum confirmed to The Oregonian Thursday that the investigator had targeted Black Lives Matter supporters with an online search tool, including a senior attorney at the state Department of Justice. Rosenblum pledged an independent probe into the investigator’s actions and the Criminal Justice Division’s data collection process. She also ordered the department to stop using the search tool.

The director of the Portland Urban League, Nkenge Harmon Johnson, along with representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union and and other civil rights groups and unions, wrote a letter to Rosenblum raising concerns about the state justice department targeting Black Lives Matter on Tuesday.

The Urban League learned of the searches from Johnson’s husband, Erious Johnson, the director of the Department of Justice’s civil rights division. His name surfaced in the investigator’s search for Black Lives Matter supporters.

“It is improper, 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,” the letter reads. “We 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.”

In a Wednesday statement, Nkenge Harmon Johnson provided additional details about how the the Department of Justice investigator proceeded when her husband’s name surfaced on Twitter as a Black Lives Matter supporter.

“The Criminal Justice Division of the Department of Justice has printed and reviewed all of his photos and posts on Twitter. While finding nothing ominous or inappropriate, because he has used the hashtag ‘Black Lives Matter’ the Department of Justice labeled Erious, created a file in the Criminal Justice Division, and reported his social media activity to Attorney General Rosenblum,” Johnson wrote.

“When there is probable cause to suspect that a crime has been committed, law enforcement can and should investigate. But what motivation could the Oregon Department of Justice Criminal Justice Division have had for conducting a threat assessment of my husband in the first place, let alone creating a file, and delivering it to the Attorney General, for further action?” she continued” “Yet, when nothing threating [sic] was found, the department continued its investigation and escalation. If they labeled him a threat, who else is being wrongly targeted in this way?”

Rosemblum said she was “appalled” to learn that Black Lives Matter was singled out in a letter responding to the Urban League’s concerns.

In an interview with The Oregonian, the attorney general defended the agency’s overall investigations and said their search for threats to the police was legitimate.

“They were looking for anti-police sentiments — potential threats to police,” she said.

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