Mike -  Consider yourself honored. My mother was on Nixon's "enemies list" and considered it the peak of her activist life!

For years the state of Washington and specifically the Olympia city police have had environmental activists under surveillance or have subjected them to periodic harassment. My son, a student at Evergreen, was present at a couple of protests in Olympia but was never charged with a crime. When he went to visit the state capitol to lobby for eco-friendly practices in state offices, he was surprised to see that the security guards at the entrance had his photo and personal information on their computer. When he asked why they would keep his personal data on file, the guards refused to give him an answer and denied him entry to a public state building. This, in a so-called progressive, eco-conscious state.  

It would be interesting to see how many of us have files being kept by local police and state law enforcement.

I first hear about this case in Truthout a while ago--not Mr Tidwell's story specifically, but just that the MD police were spying on peaceful activist as "terrorists".  The most alarming thing I could remember about the article was the reports of the questioning of the Chief of Police by in the MD senate (?--may have been the state house).  He sincerely did not seem to understand why his department's behavior in these cases was utterly wrong. He really seemed to think that treating peaceful activists as terrorist was OK, even admirable.  I know that police tend to be harsh to citizens who file false reports--how about police who willfully waste taxpayer resources harrassing people who are only exercizing their rights? It seems like this is a double waste--not only do you waste time and resources in the original misfeasance, but you also have to waste time and resources "defending" your actions--and often compensating the victims of the misfeasance.

I cannot wait until this long nightmare is over.