Guardian
Reports suggest police used undercover detectives to infiltrate the Occupy LA camp to find out protesters' intentions
Reports suggest police used undercover detectives to infiltrate the Occupy LA camp to find out protesters' intentions
Los Angeles police used nearly a dozen undercover detectives to infiltrate the Occupy LA encampment before this week's raid to gather information on the anti-Wall Street protesters' intentions, according to media reports.
None of the officers slept at the camp, but they tried to blend in during the weeks leading up to the raid to learn about plans to resist or use weapons against police, a police source told the Los Angeles Times. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.
The undercover work yielded information that some protesters were preparing bamboo spears and other potentially dangerous weapons in advance of an expected eviction, none of which were used, according to the City News Service, which first reported the story.
Police played down the significance of the undercover work since Occupy meetings were public and easily tracked.
Police officer Cleon Joseph declined an Associated Press request for comment on the reports.
Occupy LA protester Mario Brito told City News Service he was not surprised by the revelation, but said it was "tantamount to 1950s McCarthyism".
Meanwhile, the city attorney's office filed criminal misdemeanour charges on Friday against 27 more of the people who were arrested following the police sweep of the camp.
In all, 46 of the 291 people arrested during the raid have been charged with misdemeanour crimes of failure to disperse from an unlawful assembly. Some also were charged with resisting arrest.
The arrests came on Wednesday during a pre-dawn raid on City Hall Park, where nearly 500 tents had been erected.
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