{"id":469,"date":"2018-09-16T13:29:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-16T17:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pilr\/?p=469"},"modified":"2018-09-16T13:29:57","modified_gmt":"2018-09-16T17:29:57","slug":"fbi-surveillance-takes-on-community-outreach-and-the-metoo-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pilr\/2018\/09\/16\/fbi-surveillance-takes-on-community-outreach-and-the-metoo-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI Surveillance Takes on Community Outreach and the #MeToo Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo source: https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2018\/09\/01\/metoo-fbi-informant-environmental-activism-rod-coronado\/<\/a> A self-portrait Julie Henry took after she was assaulted in 2014.<\/p>\n

By: Alta Viscomi<\/p>\n

Spike Lee\u2019s highly anticipated movie \u201cBlacKkKlansman\u201d winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes, debuted on August 10th<\/sup> to nearly collective high praise.[1]<\/a> A few days later, director Boots Riley, took to Twitter to remind viewers that the movie\u2019s plot was a \u201cmade up story in which the false parts of it to [sic]try to make a cop the protagonist in the fight against racist oppression\u2026[t]he real Ron Stallworth infiltrated a Black radical organization for 3 years.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s movie and Riley\u2019s criticism, while centered on a movie set in the 1970s, also illustrate the amorphous boundary between community partnership and surveillance of today\u2019s FBI. Lee\u2019s decision to fictionalize Ron Stallworth\u2019s career comes in an era when community outreach and community monitoring are increasingly difficult to distinguish from one another. Two recent targets of new FBI tactics? Muslim communities in the Bay Area and women whose sexual assailant happens to be a heavily monitored environmental activist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the same way that community policing in the 1980s and 1990s relied on partnerships with African American churches and youth in poor neighborhoods, the federal government’s current community engagement programs focus on mosques, community institutions, and youth in Muslim communities.\u201d[3]<\/a> Such programs have been especially prolific since 9\/11. During the 2004-2008 Mosque Outreach program run by the FBI in the California Bay Area, FBI agents attended religious services and met with various Muslim community leaders.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Optimistically interpreted, the program is evidence of the FBI working to build open lines of communication with Muslim communities and to provide reassurance of their commitment to equal protection.[5]<\/a> However, Akbar cautions that participants don\u2019t realize the extent of surveillance and documentation that results. \u201c[R]ecords detail the FBI’s broad collection of information: the topic of a particular sermon is noted, along with names and phone numbers of the people with whom the FBI spoke,\u00a0the relationship between an Islamic school and its parent organization\u2026 and congregants’ political opinions.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

The scope of the FBI\u2019s surveillance of these communities remains unknown after a Federal Appeals court overturned a ruling by a judge in California that would have required the FBI to release documents from the efforts to spy on and recruit informants from Muslim communities in Northern California.[7]<\/a> The case was initiated by a lawsuit filed in 2010 by the ACLU, the Asian Law Caucus, and the Bay Guardian Newspaper.[8]<\/a> \u201c\u2018We don\u2019t need additional information to know that the FBI has saturated our community with informants and set up listening posts that continuously monitor the Muslim community,\u2019\u00a0Gadeir Abbas, an attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told\u00a0Newsweek<\/em>.\u201d[9]<\/a> While some documents were made publicly available, others were withheld at the FBI\u2019s discretion,[10]<\/a> rendering their motivations for and extent of their hybrid community monitoring strategy elusive.<\/p>\n

Another frontier of FBI community informant strategy came to light earlier this month after environmental activist Julie Henry was contacted by FBI agent Kera O\u2019Reilly. O\u2019Reilly wanted to talk about Henry\u2019s rapist, environmental folk activist or eco-terrorist (depending on who you ask), Rod Coronado.[11]<\/a> \u00a0Henry recounts O\u2019Reilly\u2019s statement that \u201c[w]e\u2019re in the throes of the #MeToo movement\u201d to explain her decision to reach out.[12]<\/a> For Henry and the general public, the motives behind an FBI agent seeking justice for a sexual assault victim whose assailant happens to lead a closely monitored activist group are difficult to parse out.In fact, sexual assault is rarely a crime over which federal agents have jurisdiction.[13]<\/a> But Henry noticed that O\u2019Reilly was quick to emphasize that, if she was willing to share new information, the FBI could bring any other charges against Coronado.[14]<\/a><\/p>\n

The FBI\u2019s emerging strategy of overt community engagement with a social justice flair may serve to heal old wounds in historically ostracized groups. Simultaneously, it complicates an individual\u2019s decision to interact willingly with an FBI agent. As these programs continue, Activists like Julie Henry and members of FBI outreach targeted groups like the Muslim communities in Northern California will have to decide with limited information if they risk exposing their community members to surveillance and prosecution.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Michael Nordine, Boots Riley Criticizes Spike Lee\u2019s Portrayal of Cops in \u2018BlacKkKlansman,\u2019 Calls the Real Ron Stallworth a \u2018Villain\u2019<\/em>, IndieWire (Aug. 18, 2018, 12:18 PM) https:\/\/www.indiewire.com\/2018\/08\/boots-riley-blackkklansman-spike-lee-criticism-1201996032\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Boots Riley (@BootsRiley), Twitter (Aug. 17, 2018, 3:02 PM), https:\/\/twitter.com\/BootsRiley\/status\/1030575674447212544\/photo\/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1030575674447212544%7Ctwgr%5E373939313b636f6e74726f6c&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indiewire.com%2F2018%2F08%2Fboots-riley-blackkklansman-spike-lee-criticism-1201996032%2F<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Amna Akbar, National Security\u2019s Broken Windows<\/em>, 62 UCLA L. Rev. 834, 843 (2015).<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Id.<\/em> at 837.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Id. <\/em><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Id.<\/em> at 838.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Cristina Maza, Is the FBI Spying on Muslims?<\/em> Court Decides Bureau Doesn\u2019t Have to Reveal Surveillance of Muslim Americans<\/em>, Newsweek (Feb. 2, 2018, 12:08 PM), https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/fbi-spying-muslims-court-surveilance-798219<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Alleen Brown & John Knefel, The FBI Tried to Use the #MeToo Moment to Pressure an Environmental Activist into Becoming an Informant<\/em>, The Intercept (Sep. 1, 2018, 8:00 AM), https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2018\/09\/01\/metoo-fbi-informant-environmental-activism-rod-coronado\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo source: https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2018\/09\/01\/metoo-fbi-informant-environmental-activism-rod-coronado\/ A self-portrait Julie Henry took after she was assaulted in 2014. By: Alta Viscomi Spike Lee\u2019s highly anticipated movie \u201cBlacKkKlansman\u201d winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes, debuted on August 10th to nearly collective high praise.[1] A few days later, director Boots Riley, took to Twitter to remind viewers that the movie\u2019s plot was a \u201cmade up story in which the false … Continue reading FBI Surveillance Takes on Community Outreach and the #MeToo Movement<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4024,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pilr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pilr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pilr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pilr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pilr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pilr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pilr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pilr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pilr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}