Chesapeake Climate Action Network founder and director Mike Tidwell, former deputy director Josh Tulkin, and another unnamed CCAN staffer were apparently classified by Maryland State Police as terrorists and entered in state and federal criminal intelligence databases between 2005 and 2006.
It seems the police are now acknowledging that they were wrongly classified and they will be “purged from state and federal databases.” Police have said that Tidwell and the other activists can view their files before they’re tossed out, but the police have refused to provide them hard copies of the files or allow them to bring a lawyer along.
Tidwell, who is also a Gristmill contributor, told The Washington Post that he thinks it was two peaceful protests at coal-fired power plants in 2004 and 2006 might have landed him in the database.
CCAN and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland held a press conference on Thursday to demand that the police explain why they were on the list.
