FBI invented a vaguely-defined ‘black identity extremism’ category mixing lawful protest with violent acts
Evidence
A leaked memo from the agency written in August 2017 warned that such people might be angry about police officers killing African Americans. “Police brutality against African Americans spurred an increase in premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement,” the memo claimed. “And will very likely serve as justification for such violence.” The memo never clearly defined the meaning of “black identity extremism.” Judging by the examples it cited, the category is an unholy mix of lawful protest against police violence, violent acts against police committed by members of such groups as the Moorish Nation, and lone wolves like Micah Johnson, an Army Reserve soldier who returned from Afghanistan and in 2016 killed five police officers in an ambush in Dallas. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 206
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes vault material on manufactured terror threats against Muslim communities as an enforcement category. — connects to: The FBI pressured Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock activists before protests — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 159; The FBI manufactured ‘black identity extremism’ to justify policing black protest — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 209; A former FBI agent judged the black-extremism category a fabricated enforcement justification — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 209 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- The FBI manufactured ‘black identity extremism’ to justify policing black protest
#corroborates(0.95) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 209 - A former FBI agent judged the black-extremism category a fabricated enforcement justification
#corroborates(0.85) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 209 - The FBI constructed a good-bad Islam binary to police racial politics
#complicates(0.75) - FBI surveillance shifted from communist to black movement targets
#expands(0.70) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 184