Is a Court Case in Texas the First Prosecution of a ‘Black Identity Extremist’?

revolutionaryeye:

The FBI is looking for terrorists. Civil rights advocates say it is targeting people engaged in free speech.

Christopher Daniels and his 15-year-old son awoke on Dec. 12, 2017,
to heavily armed FBI agents outfitted in bulletproof vests and helmets
pouring into the one-bedroom apartment they shared in Dallas, Texas. The
pair were hurried outside, where they were separated while Daniels was
arrested.

Items seized during the raid on
Daniels’s apartment included two firearms — a Taurus Protector Poly 38
Special and a Norinco AK-style assault rifle — items the government says
he is prohibited from possessing due to a misdemeanor conviction in
2007 for domestic assault in Tennessee. Also seized was a book, Negroes With Guns, by Robert F. Williams, a civil rights leader and advocate of armed resistance to racial oppression.

Held outside in nothing but his
underwear, Daniels was unaware that the raid occurring in his home was
the product of more than two years of FBI surveillance.

Today, Daniels, known to many in his
Dallas community as Rakem Balogun, stands indicted for unlawful
possession of a firearm and has been in federal custody since his
December arrest. Friends and family of Daniels believe the FBI targeted
Daniels because of his political beliefs and anti-law enforcement
rhetoric, rather than any legitimate threat he poses. They point
specifically to a new government classification for domestic terror
threats, which the FBI calls “black identity extremists.”

The terrorism classification
is used to describe individuals who resort to violence or unlawful
activities “in response to perceived racism and injustice in American
society,” according to a copy of the report obtained and published by Foreign Policy.

“The [black identity extremist]
classification has grown from a report on paper, to a national
investigation of Black Lives Matter and and black gun ownership
advocates,” wrote Daniels’s brother, Yafeuh Balogun, in a statement on
the arrest. “Rakem Balogun has been classified as B.I.E, we must defend
him.”

“This is a continuation of COINTELPRO in a modern-day form,” Balogun said in a telephone interview with FP,
referring to J. Edgar Hoover’s counterintelligence program, which
targeted domestic political organizations, particularly those in the
civil rights movement.

The FBI declined to comment on any
aspect of Daniels’s case, including whether he was tracked as a black
identity extremist, but in interviews, civil rights advocates expressed
concerns about the precedent of targeting African-Americans, like
Daniels, for their political activism, and using broad categories
anchored in race to potentially criminalize speech and political
activity.

For
those involved in activism, Daniels’s arrest poses the even more
troubling possibility that his case could be just the first of many

Activist and attorney Kamau Franklin said people like Daniels are easy
targets because of their nonmainstream politics. “This is obviously the
first of what will be several attempts to begin to criminalize black
organizing, militant black organizing in particular, and work their way
down to other types of organizing,” he said……

Continued:– http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/30/is-a-court-case-in-texas-the-first-prosecution-of-a-black-identity-extremist/

Revolutionary Eye:- Know your Black and socialist history well.Your life could depend on the precautions you now take.Cointelpro was a program of extermination of activists or permanent incarceration.John Clutchette in jail now for 48? years…Remember they will try to infiltrate and discredit you first.