Fusion Center FOIA Docs Show Surveillance of Peaceful Protests
Del. Josh Cole's tweet from 2021 was shared as intel between members of law enforcement.
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Fusion Center FOIA Docs Show Surveillance of Peaceful Protests
By Josh Stanfield
As we close out Sunshine Week, an effort “to promote open government and shine light into the dark recesses of government secrecy,” let’s take a look at recently released documents from the Virginia Fusion Center, a notoriously opaque law enforcement collaboration. Activists, elected officials, and students of American history likely won’t be surprised by the revelations. But for Virginians who plan to attend a peaceful protest, we now have confirmation that protests are surveilled - not only by local police departments but also by the Virginia State Police and FBI.
The FOIA Request
On February 1, 2023, I sent a FOIA request to Fredericksburg Police Chief Brian Layton requesting documents concerning the killing of 18-year-old Xzavier Hill. Although the killing didn’t happen in Fredericksburg, Chief Layton’s son Seth Layton was, along with Trooper Benjamin Bone, one of the Virginia State Police troopers involved in the shooting that killed Xzavier Hill.
I didn’t know it at the time, but as reporter Patrick Wilson subsequently reported in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Seth Layton was the subject of an internal affairs investigation while with the Richmond Police Department. Though Layton quit the RPD before the investigation ended, Wilson reports:
“The commonwealth’s attorney’s office on Oct. 5, 2020, sought criminal charges for simple assault against Layton and Caesar, but a grand jury opted not to indict them, the internal affairs report said. Virginia State Police had hired Layton as a trooper about a week earlier. State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said the department was aware of the pending investigation of him by Richmond police and hired him on a conditional basis.”
Wilson continues:
“Layton and Trooper Benjamin I. Bone shot and killed 18-year-old Xzavier Hill, who is Black, on Jan. 9, 2021, after chasing him at high speeds on I-64. The troopers say Hill pointed a handgun at them after his car had stopped, which an attorney for Hill’s mother disputes in a pending lawsuit in U.S. District Court. Hill’s mother filed the Richmond police internal affairs report with the court in connection with her lawsuit.”
In response to my FOIA request to Fredericksburg Police Chief Brian Layton, I received over 1,000 pages of documents and communications - but no text messages. Fredericksburg Police Sergeant Ben Johnson informed me that “portions of the records you have requested relating to correspondence from the Virginia Fusion Intelligence Center are not subject to FOIA under Va. Code 52-48. Therefore, these emails have been redacted from the records being released to you.” He further clarified that only three records were withheld.
To Sergeant Johnson’s credit, he was eminently professional and provided over 1,000 pages of documents to me for free - a rare occurrence these days. He also included the documents below, email correspondence which allow us to better understand how law enforcement surveil peaceful protests in Virginia.
Warning to Law Enforcement
One of the first documents to catch my eye was the Fusion Center NVRIC Highlight below focused largely on “increased anti-law enforcement sentiment.” In particular, notice that under “Events May Increase Anti-Law Enforcement Sentiment” the document lists the failed January 6, 2021 insurrection and the shooting of Xzavier Hill as events equally notable in allegedly generating anti-law enforcement sentiment.
Tracking Protests
Xzavier Hill’s family has been protesting for years - first to release the names of the troopers who killed Xzavier, then to release the dashcam footage, and now for justice. Here you can see the tracking of weekly protests (notice the inclusion of local law enforcement, VSP, FBI, and military contacts):
Identifying and Tracking Protestors
In anticipation of a February 24, 2021 Fredericksburg protest to release the dashcam footage in the Xzavier Hill case, Karrie Toland of the Richmond Police warned her colleagues: “The group was incredibly antagonistic to [law enforcement officers] and also with vehicles they encountered yesterday in Goochland.” Cassandra Scott of the Fusion Center wanted details on the protestors, and details she got:
Social Media Monitoring
These documents show that not only were law enforcement officers tracking the social media of Xzavier’s family members, but they also infiltrated online groups and monitored the Twitter account of former state Delegate, Joshua Cole. Note that the FBI was included on the communications concerning then-Delegate Cole.
These snippets - and the other interesting documents within the 1,000+ page release - should remind us all that even if you’re not breaking the law, and even if there’s no suspicion that you will break the law, you’re still subject to surveillance while peacefully protesting. Granted, the intelligence methods revealed in these documents are by no means sophisticated. But if you plan to peacefully assemble or protest, say in response to the recent killing of 28-year-old Irvo Otieno, understand these bare minimum surveillance techniques your government may deploy against you.