The FBI pressured Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock activists before protests
Evidence
Sometimes the agency is more pointed: ahead of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, per the Washington Post, at least six Black Lives Matter activists said they were contacted by the FBI and essentially warned not to come to the city to protest. The FBI characterized the calls and in-person visits as “community outreach.” The FBI also directly contacted at least three people involved in the opposition at Standing Rock; all three people, according to reporting from the Guardian, asserted their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and would not respond to the agents’ requests to talk, fearing they were trying to build a criminal case. Red Fawn Fallis, a water protector at Standing Rock, was arrested in October 2016 and charged with firing a gun belonging to her romantic partner, who was, as The Intercept reported, an FBI informant. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 159
Categorization
- XREF: Gives concrete grounding for why minority communities see state surveillance, connecting to the shared threat/identity mechanism thesis. — connects to: Corporate security contractors surveilled and targeted Standing Rock water protectors. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 157; The FBI manufactured ‘black identity extremism’ to justify policing black protest — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 209; FBI counterintelligence programs targeted civil rights activism as threats to national security — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 392 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- The FBI manufactured ‘black identity extremism’ to justify policing black protest
#expands(0.90) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 209 - FBI counterintelligence programs targeted civil rights activism as threats to national security
#corroborates(0.85) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 392 - The FBI operated a documented program undermining civil rights leaders
#corroborates(0.85) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 153 - FBI invented a vaguely-defined ‘black identity extremism’ category mixing lawful protest with violent acts
#expands(0.85) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 206