The NYPD is seeking to overturn Judge Rakoff’s ruling in favor of the protestors — attend the hearing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard discusses documents newly obtained by the PCJF on the extent of DHS spying on Occupy Wall Street and other protest activities.

Department of Homeland Security documents obtained recently by the Partnership For Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) reveal that the agency, founded for combatting terrorism, has a policy of spying daily on peaceful activists and protesters in the United States.

A Department of Homeland Security division produced daily briefings on "peaceful activist demonstrations" during the height of the Occupy Wall Street protests, documents released Tuesday revealed.

The documents show that DHS, the sprawling Federal agency ostensibly created to combat terrorism after the September 11 attacks, routinely spies on peaceful First Amendment activities and required daily briefing on the extent of media attention being given to Occupy Wall Street activities.

Government documents obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) through its FOIA records requests reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), an agency created after the September 11 attacks under the rubric of combating terrorism, conducts daily monitoring of peaceful, lawful protests as a matter of policy.

The PCJF has filed a major brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in this matter. The brief is in opposition to the efforts by the NYPD to overturn U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff's ruling in favor of the protestors in this case.

Shannon McLeish of Florida is a 45-year-old married mother of two young children. She is also, like nearly all who have a relationship with the Occupy movement in the United States, being monitored by the federal government.

In this comprehensive interview Mara Verheyden-Hilliard provides a broad perspective explaining how the FBI and other police agencies collaboration with Wall Street against the Occupy Movement is part of an historic tug-of-war between grassroots movements' for change and the institutions of power and privilege. She also explains how government documents obtained by the PCJF show in detail that when the people of the United States rose up against the economic suffering caused by the biggest banks and corporations the FBI and other law enforcement agencies functioned as partners with the same banks and corporate entities in opposition to the Occupy movement and the labor movement and others fighting for justice.

There is some dark irony that an FBI program specifically dedicated to the partnership between the FBI, DHS and the private sector monitored the protests, providing information and tips to corporate partners on interacting with and combating Occupy groups.