| Friend,
The FBI’s surveillance of activists in the United States is becoming increasingly dangerous.
Last month, we found out that the FBI had lied about the extent of its tracking of Black activists and was covering up a program called IRON FIST that it created to target and infiltrate racial-justice groups.1 And this week, news broke that the FBI is treating groups that are protesting the administration's abhorrent immigration policies at the U.S. border as “extremist organizations.”2
These developments are extremely concerning. It appears that the FBI protocol is to ignore real domestic threats (like violent white supremacists) and instead go after anyone who opposes the Trump administration’s policies.
Sign the petition: Tell the FBI to stop surveilling and targeting immigrant-rights activists, anti-fascists and Black Lives Matter organizers.
We’ve written to you before about how the FBI has downplayed the most dangerous domestic-terror threat in the United States — white-supremacist violence — while at the same time targeting racial-justice advocates and labeling them as national-security threats when there is no real evidence to support this claim.
Meanwhile, right-wing extremists killed more people in 2018 than in any year since 1995 — the year of Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building — and 2019 has been even worse. In the past 18 months, white-supremacist active shooters in the United States have caused at least 65 deaths in seven episodes (and this info is one month old).3
Instead of acknowledging the real threats posed by far-right and white-supremacist violence, the FBI is targeting immigrant-rights activists, anti-fascists and Black Lives Matter organizers who are largely involved in First Amendment-protected, nonviolent civil disobedience.
Dissent is a vital part of our democracy. The FBI’s labeling of nonviolent activist groups as potentially violent “extremists” is meant to chill organized opposition to this administration's dangerous policies.4Tell the Bureau to leave activists alone.
At Free Press Action, we closely watch as the decisions shaping the media-and-tech landscape are made and sound the alarm when people’s rights are in danger. That’s why, through our Right to Connect 2020 platform, we’re calling on presidential candidates to end unwarranted government surveillance. Learn more about our platform here.
Thanks for all you do—
Lucia, Sandy, Candace and the rest of the Free Press Action team
freepress.net
P.S. The FBI has historically used surveillance and infiltration to disrupt protest movements (as it did with COINTELPRO, which targeted civil-rights leaders, antiwar activists and others in the 1950s and ’60s). This dangerous trend has continued under Trump — the Bureau is targeting activists at a terrifying rate and labeling nonviolent protest movements as “extremist.” Tell the FBI to leave activists alone.
1. “The FBI vs. Black Lives,” Free Press, Aug. 23, 2019: https://act.freepress.net/go/33021?t=9&akid=13304%2E10296224%2Ez1r9M3 2. “Document Reveals the FBI Is Tracking Border Protest Groups As Extremist Organizations,” HuffPost, Sept. 4, 2019: https://act.freepress.net/go/33022?t=11&akid=13304%2E10296224%2Ez1r9M3 3. “The Era of White Nationalism,” Axios, Aug. 6, 2019: https://act.freepress.net/go/33023?t=13&akid=13304%2E10296224%2Ez1r9M3 4. “Document Reveals the FBI Is Tracking Border Protest Groups As Extremist Organizations,” HuffPost, Sept. 4, 2019: https://act.freepress.net/go/33022?t=15&akid=13304%2E10296224%2Ez1r9M3  |
