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Activist Jailed for Facebook Posts; FBI Tracks Him as “Black Identity Extremist”

50 points by miek 8y ago

java_script 8y ago
He’s misunderstanding what tyranny is. Tyranny isn’t when the police state arrests you for criticizing them. Tyranny is when Peter Sweden or whoever is suspended from Twitter for being racist. (Said in a 2018 Libertarian voice).
- kurthr 8y ago
  Even with the parenthetical... Poe's law. I just can't tell any more.
  - orwin 8y ago
    I'm pretty sure this is satyric, but it bother me that even on HN, i have to read this type of comment twice to understand the author.
ghba66 8y ago
>Keighley made no mention of Balogun’s specific actions at the rally, but noted the marchers’ anti-police statements, such as “oink oink bang bang” and “the only good pig is a pig that’s dead”. The agent also mentioned Balogun’s Facebook posts calling a murder suspect in a police officer’s death a “hero” and expressing “solidarity” with the man who killed officers in Texas when he posted: “They deserve what they got.” Yeah he obviously does not know why they were paying attention to him!
- kbenson 8y ago
  Keighley, however, later admitted the FBI had no evidence of Balogun making any specific threats about harming police. That's the next sentence. It's not about why they were looking at him, it's about why they arrested him, and kept him detained. “Sometimes when you couldn’t prove somebody was a terrorist, it’s because they weren’t a terrorist,” he said, adding that prosecutors’ argument that Balogun was too dangerous to be released on bail was “astonishing”. “It seems this effort was designed to punish him for his political activity rather than actually solve any sort of security issue.” I'm not sure how this wasn't dismissed fairly quickly as an infringement of his first amendment rights.
  - logfromblammo 8y ago
    "You can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride." This was extrajudicial punishment for expressing anti-police sentiments. They were able to take away his freedom, job, home, vehicle, and family, without even going to trial. By the time the prosecution was forced to drop the case for lack of evidence, their mission had already been accomplished. They abused the justice system to punish prior to conviction, all based on their perception of his unforgivable blackness.
- jadedhacker 8y ago
  Dude was posting on FB. In the absence of a specific threat, he's like a million other people every day saying stuff on social media. I'm sure plenty of police officers posted horrific jokes in public and private channels and they are authorized to use deadly force and are totally unaccountable. The cops here are the brave thin blue line going after an internet poster because their posts hurt their feelings.
  - ghba66 8y ago
    That's what they nailed him for. I'm 100% sure this isn't the only thing he did to be investigated. You don't end up in jail for saying "fuck the cops", otherwise half the US would be in jail for that.
    - kbenson 8y ago
      > I'm 100% sure this isn't the only thing he did to be investigated. You don't end up in jail for saying "fuck the cops", otherwise half the US would be in jail for that. So you assertion is that if this happened once, it must be happening everywhere? For that to be true, it would mean there is absolutely no change in any of these systems, otherwise there could never be a first time. It also means that all laws have to be applied correctly and evenly across the united states, and that exceptions can't happen, and law enforcement can't make a mistake Because if laws are applied unevenly in some locations, or in some circumstances, or are applied incorrectly, or if this is the first (or the first of a few to get widely publicized), then it's very easy for this to be entirely about his publicized views combined with something above (or something else not covered). I see no reason why this can't be a localized overreach, or the beginning of a new trend. I'm not sure it is, but I'm definitely not 100% sure it's not.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
cruftyold 8y ago
If you would like to see what the United States will look like in 2024, look at Türkiye in 2018. Watching it all unfold is terrifying. All major countries right now are switching from Republics to single-man rule populists.
- mobilefriendly 8y ago
  Sorry, America was a republic centuries before Turkey and doesn't have the same authoritarian cultural tradition.
  - untog 8y ago
    True, but I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the possibility of the US sliding into a more authoritarian regime. The President is given a surprising amount of power, all things considered. Of course, it sounds vaguely hysterical to bring this up in the era of Trump, but if there's one thing he's proved inconclusively it's that the US political system depends on polite adherence to tradition over hard and fast rules a lot more than many of us thought.
  - cruftyold 8y ago
    Cultures change, governments change. The United States has different values, and cultures, and government history; but they are two sides of the same coin. The mythology of the meritocracy of the great "American Republic" is pretty hard to defend in a post 9/11 world. Listening to Republicans glow about Donald and hide his flaws is like listening to Kemalists glow about Ataturk or AKP-supporters rave about Tayipp. Here is what I see as the very striking similarities which are already equal or rapidly equalizing: - Single-man rule. (In both systems decrees are almost limitless and have replaced the legislation process. In the US it's DNC/NRA^WGOP, in Turkey it's the coalition of CHP&&CHP&&IYI vs the AKP&&MHP coalition. When representatives always vote down party lines, then you really have single man rule. - Active war against the press. America is just a few years behind this, and this article itself is a sign that Trump is emulating Putin and Erdogan. This isn't just a Trump thing, Obama's administration did the same, but just more quietly - Religion being respected and advocated by the government - Constant pro-war/support our troops rhetoric - Rapidly increasing display of flags and patriotic slogans - Unwarranted search and seizure - Endless state of emergency (you call it the PATRIOT act) - Violent crackdowns on protestors, supporting nationalists who attack/murder said protestors. Compare the AKP patriots in the Gezi protests to Trump's "Very fine, very nice people" in Charleston Really, you won't notice it until you're too late, and if you support the ruling power, then you probably will never notice it, especially if you profit from it. The only real difference I see is that Tayipp wants conservative Islam to be the primary value of the "republic", and Trump wants it to be business (but is happy to give almost unlimited power to Evangelicals). Different authoritarian styles, but still authoritarian. Any semblance of democracy ended the day the PATRIOT act was signed.
assblaster 8y ago
What is the line between exercise of free speech and incitement of violence? If a white supremacist openly advocates for the murder of Jews and helps organise armed militias, should that person be tracked by the FBI and prosecuted? If a high school student openly advocates for the murder of teachers and flaunts his access to firearms and knives, should that person be tracked by the FBI and prosecuted?
- untog 8y ago
  I'm not sure how either of those examples relates to the individual discussed in the article, given that: "the FBI had no evidence of Balogun making any specific threats about harming police" Absent of any actual connections your post just sounds like whataboutism.
- nwah1 8y ago
  I think you are being downvoted because you only read the headline. I'm with you that it is ok for the FBI to track people's public comments when they fit a risk profile, and to track their private communications with a warrent. But in this case, the problem is that this man was arrested and charged with a vague terrorism thing for what amounts to facebook posts expressing sympathy with copkillers. But in the US, it is your legal right to do that.
  - thinkcontext 8y ago
    > this man was arrested and charged with a vague terrorism thing Incorrect. He was charged with illegal possession of a firearm, that's a specific and not vague thing. He was denied bail as a potential threat based on him expressing sympathy for copkillers.
    - nwah1 8y ago
      Thank you for the correction.
    - miek 8y ago
      His possession of firearms was legal, and the judge tossed that charge. They didn't come to his home because they suspected an illegally possessed firearm. It certainly appears that they came on a fishing expedition because he was "identified" as a threat. The FBI admitted a lack of any direct threat.
posting 8y ago
>Per their statement, Balogon was in leadership roles with Geronimo Tactical, Huey P. Newton Gun Club, and Guerrilla Mainframe. Let’s take a look at these three groups. Geronimo Tactical: >Instagram account, which has almost four thousand followers, is much more straight forward. It simply has a quote from the Communist mass murderer Mao Zedong that says "Political power grows from the barrel of a gun", a PayPal link, and LOTS of pictures of the group conducting paramilitary training. Huey P. Newton Gun Club (HPNGC): >"In essence we take responsibility for the growth and development for our community which is an element to our nationalist ideals. We understand and know we will not win every person over to our methods and practices, however we accept we must walk this difficult path towards eventual armed struggle." >"We are servants above anything else and more than militants we employ the revolutionary ideals of nationalism. Nationalism will only organize the talents that we currently possess as a people and aid our function as a nation. The beginning of this tasks is to arm the body and minds of black people in America in which the Huey P. Newton Gun Club intends to be a part of." >HPNGC faced a lot of scrutiny when it was revealed that Micah Xavier Johnson, who ambushed and killed five police officers during a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas, Texas in 2016, may have been affiliated with the militant black nationalist group. They have also come under fire for brandishing their weapons and confronting employees at a Dallas gas station. Guerrilla Mainframe: >According to their website, Guerrilla Mainframe is another militia group founded in 2008 in Dallas, Texas. The organizations core foundations are Pan African with teachings from the likes of Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Toure, both African Marxist political leaders. >We support the abolishment of the U.S. Constitution as a political right, and favor a government based on the needs of the people. >We want all freedom fighters/prisoners of war to be freed immediately to rejoin the peoples struggle for revolution. >We demand the redistribution of land, power, and resources be returned to exploited people around the world. We are unified against the evils of capitalism, fascism, and imperialism in all forms. >We believe in Revolution, by this meaning the Total overthrow of the Capitalist System by direct struggle conflict. Some of Balogun's social media posts: >On July, 6th 2017, he changed his profile picture to an image of Micah Xavier Johnson in honor of the one year anniversary of the day he ambushed and murdered five Dallas police officers in cold blood. On that same day he said "Comrades and Family tomorrow is #ClaimMicahXDay in memory of a great sacrifice made by a local Dallas Revolutionary! Zalute" >On July, 7th 2017, the one year anniversary of the murders of Senior Cpl. Lorne Ahrens, Officer Michael Krol, Sgt. Michael Smith, Officer Brent Thompson, and Officer Patricio "Patrick" Zamarripa; he said "Today one year ago one Black Man brought Dallas Pig Department to their knees. #77”. On that same day he posted pictures of himself as well as pictures of Micah’s dead body with the caption “I’m wearing brown and khaki in solidarity for Micah X #77". Source for all of the above is https://farleftwatch.com/2018/01/08/far-left-militia-leader-rakem-balogun-arrested-by-fbi/ https://farleftwatch.com/2018/01/08/far-left-militia-leader-... which itself provides proper sourcing for these claims.
abrown28 8y ago
I suspect he got the attention of the FBI by being publicly vocal about his hatred of police but was arrested for having a gun when he was prohibited because of his conviction for domestic assault. http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/30/is-a-court-case-in-texas-the-first-prosecution-of-a-black-identity-extremist/ http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/30/is-a-court-case-in-texas...
- taylodl 8y ago
  Thank you for saving me from going on an anti-free speech tirade. And now I see the article has been flagged, presumably because the headline is misleading.
  - insickness 8y ago
    > But this month, a judge rejected the charge, saying the firearms law did not apply.
    - s2g 8y ago
      shhh, any excuse to deny a black man his rights is fine.
- pulisse 8y ago
  The FBI itself admitted that nothing he wrote could be characterized as a threat. However vitriolic, non-threatening speech should never, in a free society, trigger law enforcement action. And note that the gun-possession charge was evidently flimsy enough that a judge dismissed it before trial.

50 points by miek 8y ago

He’s misunderstanding what tyranny is. Tyranny isn’t when the police state arrests you for criticizing them. Tyranny is when Peter Sweden or whoever is suspended from Twitter for being racist. (Said in a 2018 Libertarian voice).

kurthr 8y ago
Even with the parenthetical... Poe's law. I just can't tell any more.
- orwin 8y ago
  I'm pretty sure this is satyric, but it bother me that even on HN, i have to read this type of comment twice to understand the author.

ghba66 8y ago

>Keighley made no mention of Balogun’s specific actions at the rally, but noted the marchers’ anti-police statements, such as “oink oink bang bang” and “the only good pig is a pig that’s dead”. The agent also mentioned Balogun’s Facebook posts calling a murder suspect in a police officer’s death a “hero” and expressing “solidarity” with the man who killed officers in Texas when he posted: “They deserve what they got.” Yeah he obviously does not know why they were paying attention to him!

kbenson 8y ago
Keighley, however, later admitted the FBI had no evidence of Balogun making any specific threats about harming police. That's the next sentence. It's not about why they were looking at him, it's about why they arrested him, and kept him detained. “Sometimes when you couldn’t prove somebody was a terrorist, it’s because they weren’t a terrorist,” he said, adding that prosecutors’ argument that Balogun was too dangerous to be released on bail was “astonishing”. “It seems this effort was designed to punish him for his political activity rather than actually solve any sort of security issue.” I'm not sure how this wasn't dismissed fairly quickly as an infringement of his first amendment rights.
- logfromblammo 8y ago
  "You can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride." This was extrajudicial punishment for expressing anti-police sentiments. They were able to take away his freedom, job, home, vehicle, and family, without even going to trial. By the time the prosecution was forced to drop the case for lack of evidence, their mission had already been accomplished. They abused the justice system to punish prior to conviction, all based on their perception of his unforgivable blackness.
jadedhacker 8y ago
Dude was posting on FB. In the absence of a specific threat, he's like a million other people every day saying stuff on social media. I'm sure plenty of police officers posted horrific jokes in public and private channels and they are authorized to use deadly force and are totally unaccountable. The cops here are the brave thin blue line going after an internet poster because their posts hurt their feelings.
- ghba66 8y ago
  That's what they nailed him for. I'm 100% sure this isn't the only thing he did to be investigated. You don't end up in jail for saying "fuck the cops", otherwise half the US would be in jail for that.
  - kbenson 8y ago
    > I'm 100% sure this isn't the only thing he did to be investigated. You don't end up in jail for saying "fuck the cops", otherwise half the US would be in jail for that. So you assertion is that if this happened once, it must be happening everywhere? For that to be true, it would mean there is absolutely no change in any of these systems, otherwise there could never be a first time. It also means that all laws have to be applied correctly and evenly across the united states, and that exceptions can't happen, and law enforcement can't make a mistake Because if laws are applied unevenly in some locations, or in some circumstances, or are applied incorrectly, or if this is the first (or the first of a few to get widely publicized), then it's very easy for this to be entirely about his publicized views combined with something above (or something else not covered). I see no reason why this can't be a localized overreach, or the beginning of a new trend. I'm not sure it is, but I'm definitely not 100% sure it's not.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

cruftyold 8y ago

If you would like to see what the United States will look like in 2024, look at Türkiye in 2018. Watching it all unfold is terrifying. All major countries right now are switching from Republics to single-man rule populists.

mobilefriendly 8y ago
Sorry, America was a republic centuries before Turkey and doesn't have the same authoritarian cultural tradition.
- untog 8y ago
  True, but I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the possibility of the US sliding into a more authoritarian regime. The President is given a surprising amount of power, all things considered. Of course, it sounds vaguely hysterical to bring this up in the era of Trump, but if there's one thing he's proved inconclusively it's that the US political system depends on polite adherence to tradition over hard and fast rules a lot more than many of us thought.
- cruftyold 8y ago
  Cultures change, governments change. The United States has different values, and cultures, and government history; but they are two sides of the same coin. The mythology of the meritocracy of the great "American Republic" is pretty hard to defend in a post 9/11 world. Listening to Republicans glow about Donald and hide his flaws is like listening to Kemalists glow about Ataturk or AKP-supporters rave about Tayipp. Here is what I see as the very striking similarities which are already equal or rapidly equalizing: - Single-man rule. (In both systems decrees are almost limitless and have replaced the legislation process. In the US it's DNC/NRA^WGOP, in Turkey it's the coalition of CHP&&CHP&&IYI vs the AKP&&MHP coalition. When representatives always vote down party lines, then you really have single man rule. - Active war against the press. America is just a few years behind this, and this article itself is a sign that Trump is emulating Putin and Erdogan. This isn't just a Trump thing, Obama's administration did the same, but just more quietly - Religion being respected and advocated by the government - Constant pro-war/support our troops rhetoric - Rapidly increasing display of flags and patriotic slogans - Unwarranted search and seizure - Endless state of emergency (you call it the PATRIOT act) - Violent crackdowns on protestors, supporting nationalists who attack/murder said protestors. Compare the AKP patriots in the Gezi protests to Trump's "Very fine, very nice people" in Charleston Really, you won't notice it until you're too late, and if you support the ruling power, then you probably will never notice it, especially if you profit from it. The only real difference I see is that Tayipp wants conservative Islam to be the primary value of the "republic", and Trump wants it to be business (but is happy to give almost unlimited power to Evangelicals). Different authoritarian styles, but still authoritarian. Any semblance of democracy ended the day the PATRIOT act was signed.

assblaster 8y ago

What is the line between exercise of free speech and incitement of violence? If a white supremacist openly advocates for the murder of Jews and helps organise armed militias, should that person be tracked by the FBI and prosecuted? If a high school student openly advocates for the murder of teachers and flaunts his access to firearms and knives, should that person be tracked by the FBI and prosecuted?

untog 8y ago
I'm not sure how either of those examples relates to the individual discussed in the article, given that: "the FBI had no evidence of Balogun making any specific threats about harming police" Absent of any actual connections your post just sounds like whataboutism.
nwah1 8y ago
I think you are being downvoted because you only read the headline. I'm with you that it is ok for the FBI to track people's public comments when they fit a risk profile, and to track their private communications with a warrent. But in this case, the problem is that this man was arrested and charged with a vague terrorism thing for what amounts to facebook posts expressing sympathy with copkillers. But in the US, it is your legal right to do that.
- thinkcontext 8y ago
  > this man was arrested and charged with a vague terrorism thing Incorrect. He was charged with illegal possession of a firearm, that's a specific and not vague thing. He was denied bail as a potential threat based on him expressing sympathy for copkillers.
  - nwah1 8y ago
    Thank you for the correction.
  - miek 8y ago
    His possession of firearms was legal, and the judge tossed that charge. They didn't come to his home because they suspected an illegally possessed firearm. It certainly appears that they came on a fishing expedition because he was "identified" as a threat. The FBI admitted a lack of any direct threat.

posting 8y ago

>Per their statement, Balogon was in leadership roles with Geronimo Tactical, Huey P. Newton Gun Club, and Guerrilla Mainframe. Let’s take a look at these three groups. Geronimo Tactical: >Instagram account, which has almost four thousand followers, is much more straight forward. It simply has a quote from the Communist mass murderer Mao Zedong that says "Political power grows from the barrel of a gun", a PayPal link, and LOTS of pictures of the group conducting paramilitary training. Huey P. Newton Gun Club (HPNGC): >"In essence we take responsibility for the growth and development for our community which is an element to our nationalist ideals. We understand and know we will not win every person over to our methods and practices, however we accept we must walk this difficult path towards eventual armed struggle." >"We are servants above anything else and more than militants we employ the revolutionary ideals of nationalism. Nationalism will only organize the talents that we currently possess as a people and aid our function as a nation. The beginning of this tasks is to arm the body and minds of black people in America in which the Huey P. Newton Gun Club intends to be a part of." >HPNGC faced a lot of scrutiny when it was revealed that Micah Xavier Johnson, who ambushed and killed five police officers during a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas, Texas in 2016, may have been affiliated with the militant black nationalist group. They have also come under fire for brandishing their weapons and confronting employees at a Dallas gas station. Guerrilla Mainframe: >According to their website, Guerrilla Mainframe is another militia group founded in 2008 in Dallas, Texas. The organizations core foundations are Pan African with teachings from the likes of Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Toure, both African Marxist political leaders. >We support the abolishment of the U.S. Constitution as a political right, and favor a government based on the needs of the people. >We want all freedom fighters/prisoners of war to be freed immediately to rejoin the peoples struggle for revolution. >We demand the redistribution of land, power, and resources be returned to exploited people around the world. We are unified against the evils of capitalism, fascism, and imperialism in all forms. >We believe in Revolution, by this meaning the Total overthrow of the Capitalist System by direct struggle conflict. Some of Balogun's social media posts: >On July, 6th 2017, he changed his profile picture to an image of Micah Xavier Johnson in honor of the one year anniversary of the day he ambushed and murdered five Dallas police officers in cold blood. On that same day he said "Comrades and Family tomorrow is #ClaimMicahXDay in memory of a great sacrifice made by a local Dallas Revolutionary! Zalute" >On July, 7th 2017, the one year anniversary of the murders of Senior Cpl. Lorne Ahrens, Officer Michael Krol, Sgt. Michael Smith, Officer Brent Thompson, and Officer Patricio "Patrick" Zamarripa; he said "Today one year ago one Black Man brought Dallas Pig Department to their knees. #77”. On that same day he posted pictures of himself as well as pictures of Micah’s dead body with the caption “I’m wearing brown and khaki in solidarity for Micah X #77". Source for all of the above is https://farleftwatch.com/2018/01/08/far-left-militia-leader-rakem-balogun-arrested-by-fbi/ https://farleftwatch.com/2018/01/08/far-left-militia-leader-... which itself provides proper sourcing for these claims.

abrown28 8y ago

I suspect he got the attention of the FBI by being publicly vocal about his hatred of police but was arrested for having a gun when he was prohibited because of his conviction for domestic assault. http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/30/is-a-court-case-in-texas-the-first-prosecution-of-a-black-identity-extremist/ http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/30/is-a-court-case-in-texas...

taylodl 8y ago
Thank you for saving me from going on an anti-free speech tirade. And now I see the article has been flagged, presumably because the headline is misleading.
- insickness 8y ago
  > But this month, a judge rejected the charge, saying the firearms law did not apply.
  - s2g 8y ago
    shhh, any excuse to deny a black man his rights is fine.
pulisse 8y ago
The FBI itself admitted that nothing he wrote could be characterized as a threat. However vitriolic, non-threatening speech should never, in a free society, trigger law enforcement action. And note that the gun-possession charge was evidently flimsy enough that a judge dismissed it before trial.