The American Police State Under Trump Takes Its Next Big Step

I have written a number of times about the constitutional abuses by ICE and CBP. And we all know about excessive police brutality and racial discrimination and violence which is documented virtually every single day in this country. Now the Guardian has an expose of the first victim of Jeff Sessions' crackdown on these amorphous "black identity extremists" (BIE).

Rakem Balogun was arrested in mid-December, 2017 in a raid by the FBI. Balogun had been an activist fighting police brutality and promoting black gun ownership. Bizarrely, he first came to the FBI's attention through his participation in a 2015 rally in Dallas opposing police brutality. A video of that rally was passed to the FBI by Alex Jones' Infowars which is how the FBI first identified Balogun. While Balogun's actions during the rally were not unusual, he had posted a couple of inflammatory comments on Facebook calling a black man who had killed a cop a "hero" and saying that five officer in Texas who had been murdered "deserved what they got".

The case against Balogun rested primarily on the overly broad interpretation that he was part of a BIE and a threat to law enforcement, as well as a lesser charge of illegal gun ownership. Since all the FBI really could produce as evidence against Balogun was those Facebook posts, the case eventually fell apart, but not after Balogun had spent five months in jail and was denied bail because the prosecutors claimed he was too dangerous. The lesser gun charge was also dismissed by the judge.

As one former FBI agent and now a fellow with the Brennan Center noted, "It seems this effort was designed to punish him for his political activity rather than actually solve any sort of security issue." Sessions' focus on the mythical BIE has raised fears of a reprise of the Cointelpro of the 1960s and 1970s that targeted Martin Luther King and other black activists. The fact that the FBI felt the need to actively surveil and then arrest Balogun simply because of his attendance at a rally, his activism, and a couple of inflammatory Facebook posts makes those fears real.

The arrest thoroughly disrupted Balogun's life as he lost his home, his car, and his job. But that may have been the point, namely to provide a clear warning to other activist that their lives can be ruined anytime. As Balogun noted, "t’s tyranny at its finest. I have not been doing anything illegal for them to have surveillance on me. I have not hurt anyone or threatened anyone." And, even after his ordeal, Balogun live with the knowledge that the FBI will probably continue to monitor his activities.