A Rockland County arm of Black Lives Matter has leveled a federal civil rights lawsuit claiming that the Clarkstown Police Department illegally surveilled its members, using a special intelligence unit and lumping in the group with terrorists and gangs.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday, alleges that the police department and several of its officials and intelligence unit members began racially profiling Black Lives Matter’s Rockland County members by January 2015. The surveillance violated the members’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, the lawsuit alleges. It is unclear whether the plaintiffs believe that the surveillance continues today.
