Screenshot of symbols listed in the Anarchist Violent Extremism section in the recently released FBI Domestic #Terrorism Symbols Guide. Includes sections titled Animal Rights or Environmental Violent Extremism, Anarchist Violent Extremism & Militia Violent Extremism.
Noticeably absent from the symbols guide was the branding of the far-right extremist Proud Boys which has known connections to Trump, FBI agents and local law enforcement all over the country.
This includes the attempted coup on January 6, 2021, that Open Source Intelligence communities (OSINT) warned about and were ignored. A recent DHS report highlighted intelligence failures by FBI and DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) in the lead-up to #January6 .
However, racists and bigots in law enforcement aren’t new. While the FBI has issued countless warnings over the last several decades, they leave out which police departments neo-Nazis and extremists work for — including those among the ranks of the FBI.
The notion that groups who respond to hate groups and fascist ideas are violent extremists is disinformation coming from one of the most powerful law enforcement agencies in the United States.
Despite an FBI disclaimer stating that it “may not base any investigative activity solely on the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment,” it does not discount the problematic nature of how they use and pass on the information to local and state law enforcement agencies and the public at large.
Problematic Monitoring Extends Beyond FBI to Homeland Security Structures - Created by the Patriot Act of 2001, DHS has a reach never before seen in U.S. history and it arguably does more to put people at risk than it does to serve national security interests.
With DHS in the White House and federal authorities providing access to databases and loopholes for local and state law enforcement to target whomever they choose, it’s no wonder we’ve seen murders like that of Breonna Taylor where police were found to have used data provided by said databases and private corporations.
The role of federal authorities continues to be the targeting of various social justice movements throughout the country. From the “Green Scare” to the arrests of environmental and animal rights activists to prosecutors withholding evidence against six Inauguration Day protesters in 2017 in an attempt to secure convictions, ignoring the precarious nature of these loose classifications can further harm already marginalized groups in the United States. https://unicornriot.ninja/2023/fbi-labels-anti-fascists-and-anti-racists-as-violent-extremists/
Despite an FBI disclaimer stating that it “may not base any investigative activity solely on the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment,” it does not discount the problematic nature of how they use and pass on info to local & state law enforcement agencies and public at large.
Thats an unfair assesment, though there is valid room for criticism here.
First off to be clear, they labeled certain groups as violent extremists, they did not label anti-fascists and anti-racists collectively as extremist and violent.
I also find it misleading that the screenshot presented intentionally left off the one part of the page where they go out of their way, and even put it in bold, to indicate that not all people who use those symbols are violent.
Every single entity on the internet is under surveillance. I doubt all servers with those symbols are under any more surveillance than any other. Some are, the ones who are more violent I'm sure, and no one can deny there are violent ones, I mean hell we have seen calls to violence from servers before that has caused a lot of discussion... but simply for having the symbol, probably not.
That reminds me of a scene in The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comics.
Since assuming that their phone line was tapped was the safest option, they made sure it was.
One of the brothers mentions several inflammatory words e.g. 'bomb' and possibly yelled down the phone line.
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