Re: Spy plane was sent to monitor protest in affluent suburb, home to head of California National Guard

[Kamala Harris standards of conduct]

In article <t19s20$2t4l4$7...@news.freedyn.de>
<governo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Only believe CNN!

In early June, four National Guard spy planes took to the skies
over several cities to monitor street protests following the
killing of George Floyd, triggering concerns that the military
was improperly gathering intelligence on U.S. citizens.

Three of the reconnaissance planes kept watch on demonstrations
in Minneapolis, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., that drew hundreds
or thousands of protesters and were marred by violence.

But the target of the fourth plane was far more surprising: the
affluent Sacramento suburb of El Dorado Hills, the scene of much
smaller and entirely peaceful protests.

Local and state authorities have not explained in detail how and
why the normally sleepy neighborhood was chosen for the mission
when other cities that had recently experienced property
destruction and street clashes amid large protests — such as Los
Angeles, Oakland and Long Beach — were not.

El Dorado Hills happened to be the home of the head of the
California National Guard, Maj. Gen. David S. Baldwin, The Times
has learned. In addition to deploying the RC-26B reconnaissance
plane, the Guard sent a Lakota helicopter to hover over El
Dorado Hills, according to Guard officials and records. The
aircraft were requested by the El Dorado County Sheriff’s
Office, state records show.

In response to questions from The Times, a spokesman for Gov.
Gavin Newsom, who oversees the California National Guard, issued
a statement late Saturday criticizing the operation.

“The use of the RC-26 to meet the sheriff’s request for aerial
support to provide situational awareness for law enforcement is
concerning and should not have happened,” Nathan Click said. “It
was an operational decision made without the approval — let
alone awareness — of the governor. After the incident,
operational policies and protocols were reaffirmed and
strengthened to ensure RC-26 aircraft are not used for these
incidents again.”

Click did not elaborate or say whether the governor’s office is
examining Baldwin’s role in the matter.

In a telephone interview, Baldwin told The Times he didn’t
recall whether he had approved the mission. He said the fact
that he lived in El Dorado Hills had “nothing to do with” the
deployment of the RC-26B or the Lakota helicopter.

After questions from Congress members and others about the
flights, an Air Force inspector general’s report issued in
August concluded that the reconnaissance planes weren’t capable
of capturing “distinguishing personal features of individuals”
and did not violate rules barring the military from collecting
intelligence on U.S. citizens. The inspector general’s report
did not include a detailed examination of whether the mission to
El Dorado Hills was warranted given the uneventful nature of the
protests.

The report states that the mission grew out of a “high priority”
request by the state Office of Emergency Services, made on
behalf of the El Dorado sheriff’s office. According to the
report, the sheriff’s office said it needed the aircraft to
provide support for deputies on the ground who were tracking
demonstrations.

Baldwin, when asked why he couldn’t remember whether he
recommended or approved the unusual use of a reconnaissance
plane over his hometown, said “there was a lot going on” with
protests up and down the state at that time.

“We had 10,000 soldiers deployed,” he said. “We were doing
hundreds of mission taskings.”

Under California’s open records law, The Times obtained the
orders for the plane and helicopter, and they list Baldwin as
the officer authorizing the deployments to El Dorado County.
However, a Guard spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Shiroma, said
Baldwin’s name routinely appears on such orders, but his
subordinates have the authority to assign the plane and
helicopters to missions.

Baldwin said he never discussed the mission with Newsom and did
not remember if he spoke about it with El Dorado County Sheriff
John D’Agostini or whether he recommended that the sheriff’s
office request the plane. Baldwin described his relationship
with D’Agostini as “collegial” and similar to those he has with
many sheriffs.

D’Agostini declined to be interviewed for this story. His
spokesman did not answer the question of whether Baldwin advised
the sheriff’s office to request the aircraft.

Five current and former Guard officers with knowledge of the
flights said in interviews that they knew of no justifiable
reason for the El Dorado Hills mission.

“El Dorado Hills was the most monitored place in California,”
said Dan Woodside, a recently retired Guard pilot who has flown
the RC-26B. “Why was that? What was the threat? They are
absolutely covering this up.”

A current Guard officer, who asked not to be named because he is
not authorized to speak about the mission, said, “We hear ‘El
Dorado,’ and it’s, ‘What? What the hell is happening in El
Dorado?’” He noted that officials did not request the plane for
other areas that witnessed much larger protests, including some
hit by vandalism and theft.

“Why aren’t we helping L.A., San Francisco, Oakland?” the
officer asked. “It’s just buffoonery.”

A second former officer said enlisting the military to surveil
demonstrators is a perennial “hot potato” among Guard leaders,
and it was “idiotic” to send the RC-26B to El Dorado Hills.
“It’s just bad optics,” said the ex-officer, who requested
anonymity to protect current Guard members who informed him
about the mission.

The Guard sent ground troops to El Dorado Hills and other
California communities at the request of local authorities. The
RC-26B, however, was used only over El Dorado Hills.

Witnesses told the inspector general’s office that the plane had
not been used in the past to monitor civil disturbances,
according to the report. The aircraft’s primary purpose is
gathering intelligence on drug trafficking and helping to patrol
U.S. borders. The plane is also summoned to chart the paths of
wildfires and floods, and it is flown on search and rescue
missions.

In June, the Army opened an investigation into complaints that
National Guard helicopters, including the Lakota, flew
dangerously low over crowds of protesters in Washington, D.C.,
allegedly in an attempt to intimidate the demonstrators. The
Defense Department’s inspector general is now reviewing the
findings of the inquiry, which have not been released, an Army
spokesman said.

There were no reports of the Lakota flying low over the El
Dorado Hills protesters.

The inquiry by the Air Force inspector general’s office into the
deployment of the RC-26B aircraft to protests around the country
concluded that its use skirted some Defense Department
procedures but did not breach U.S. policy that generally bars
the military from spying on U.S. citizens. The office’s report
said the missions collected information on the size and
movements of crowds and the destruction of property. The
aircraft, however, were not equipped with surveillance
technology that could identify individuals on the ground, the
report says.

The document provides a narrative of the events, though key
details — including names of officials who authorized the
missions, as well as those who were involved — are redacted.

As the nationwide protests over Floyd’s death grew, Newsom
declared a state of emergency on May 30 in Los Angeles County,
on the basis that local law enforcement agencies could not deal
with the threat posed by civil unrest. The declaration said
nothing about El Dorado County, roughly 400 miles away.

Two days later, Asst. Chief Ron Quigley of the Office of
Emergency Services submitted the request to the Guard for aerial
monitoring in El Dorado County. The request cited “information
of groups forming in the west end of El Dorado County,” the
inspector general’s report said.

The inspector general’s office interviewed two people from the
Guard’s 144th Fighter Wing at Fresno. One of them, a pilot at
the base, received a phone call from the Guard’s Joint Force
Headquarters in Sacramento with verbal orders to support the
mission.

The RC-26B took off from the Air National Guard Base in Fresno
shortly after 8 p.m. on June 3 for what was a roughly three-hour
mission, with a stop at Sacramento County’s Mather Airport to
pick up two law enforcement officers, according to the report.

Before the mission, the officers had received word that there
were “rioters and looters planning to march to the suburbs of El
Dorado County for violent purposes,” the inspector general’s
report says.

It states that an El Dorado sheriff’s officer on the aircraft
said the Hells Angels “may incite some violence around El Dorado
Hills.” As the plane circled over the area, the crew spotted
several police vehicles and foot patrols but no disturbances,
according to the report.

The sheriff’s officers then determined that continuing the
mission was unnecessary as “there did not appear to be any crowd
activity of interest,” the report says. It was unclear if any
protesters were on the streets at that time.

A Guard officer with knowledge of the flight told The Times that
the crew “didn’t see anything. … It was a waste of time.”

Quigley, the OES administrator cited in the inspector general’s
report, did not respond to an interview request The Times made
through the agency’s spokesman, Brian Ferguson. In a statement,
Ferguson said, “At the request of local leaders, in June, Cal
OES facilitated the deployment of National Guard equipment and
personnel to locations across the state to safeguard public
safety and protect the well-being of the community and
protestors alike.

“Use of the National Guard for law enforcement support is used
only in extreme cases, or after the local government mutual aid
system is fully committed.” The statement did not address
whether the OES or the Guard considered the situation in El
Dorado Hills to be an extreme case.

El Dorado County Supervisor John Hidahl, whose district includes
most of El Dorado Hills, told The Times he heard several
complaints that the sheriff’s and military response to a
perceived threat of unrest was overkill. Hidahl said he did not
have enough firsthand information to evaluate whether the show
of force was warranted.

“The question is always: How significant is the threat?” Hidahl
said. “I couldn’t say it was a high threat, but the sheriff
definitely felt it was.”

He said he did not know Baldwin and wasn’t aware he lived in the
area.

Caroline Cochrane, an activist from neighboring Folsom who
attended multiple protests in surrounding areas to support the
Black Lives Matter movement, called the National Guard’s
presence in El Dorado Hills an “exploitation of resources” and a
“response to fear-mongering.”

“It creates a very hostile environment, especially for African
American residents,” said Cochrane, 17.

Steven Taylor, who specializes in civil liberties as an
associate professor of government at American University in
Washington, said the El Dorado Hills mission was “an expensive
endeavor, and for what?”

“I don’t understand why they couldn’t just use black-and-whites
there,” he said, referring to sheriff’s patrol cars. He added
that the deployment of the aircraft “was just nonsensical unless
it was used to intimidate people.”

Gavin Newsom will suck your cock for money and drugs.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-10-18/spy-plane-
george-floyd-protests-el-dorado-hills-california-national-guard