Tell The FBI: Preserving Black Lives is NOT Terrorism! White Supremacy Is Terrorism.
- Target:
- The FBI
- Region:
- United States of America
- Website:
- colorofchange.org
BACKGROUND/OVERVIEW:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/06/the-fbi-has-identified-a-new-domestic-terrorist-threat-and-its-black-identity-extremists/
In August of 2017, the FBI's Counter-Terrorism Division report entitled, “Black Identity Extremists Likely Motivated to Target Law Enforcement.”, obtained and released released by "Foreign Policy", stated:
“The FBI assesses it is very likely Black Identity Extremist (BIE) perceptions of police brutality against African Americans spurred an increase in premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement and will very likely serve as justification for such violence.” Incidents of “alleged police abuse” have “continued to feed the resurgence in ideologically motivated, violent criminal activity within the BIE movement”.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has a history of implementing intrusive and often illegal and/or immoral practices in order to police the black community. Similar to the use of COINTELPRO in the 1960's, the responses and actions of black activists are criminalized and, consequently, the narrative focuses on isolated violent responses instead of the organized peaceful tact of official movements. With legislation such as the CISPA and Patriot Act that allow for more intrusive surveillance with those labeled as domestic terrorists, this is a blatant attack on the black community by the Federal Government of the United States.
This controversial report was leaked as racial tensions have increased and become more mainstream during the Trump Administration. This would be an optimal time for the President to utilize his platform and leadership to condone racism while utilizing the FBI to dismantle actual domestic terrorists and their racist and detrimental practices.
Instead, efforts are spent deflecting the legitimate criticism of policing and labeling citizens exercising their 1st amendment right to protest as domestic terrorists- an organized faction that now pose threat to police officers. The Black Lives Matter movement is not a domestic terrorist movement. Martin Luther King Jr. was not a communist. But if we do not hold our government and its agencies accountable, history will repeat itself.
PETITION:
We, the undersigned, call on The FBI to revisit and rename the violent black nationalists groups from "Black Identity Terrorist" as that title generalizes those who identify themselves with black culture and history while overshadowing the legitimacy of otherwise peaceful and legal movements. Furthermore, we demand that the FBI categorize white Nationalists and White Supremacist such as Neo-Nazis and the KKK as terrorist organizations as they utilize fear and violence to promote their political and religious viewpoints and ideologies. Our demands are as follows:
1. Adhere to the demands of the ACLU and Center for Media Justice by releasing all documents on the surveillance of black individuals reportedly labeled by the agency as "extremists."
2. Correctly label White Nationalist, White Supremacist, Neo-Nazi, and Alt-Right groups as terror organizations as they utilize violence and fear to push their political and ideological agendas.
3. Revisit and change the title of “black identity extremists” in efforts to describe violent black nationalists to avoid incorrectly categorizing law-abiding and peaceful community members and protest, as well as to avoid offending citizens proud of their heritage and history by labeling them as extremist for identifying with their culture and skin color.
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The Tell The FBI: Preserving Black Lives is NOT Terrorism! White Supremacy Is Terrorism. petition to The FBI was written by Dereck Allen and is in the category Civil Rights at GoPetition.