News Release

More FBI Powers: Won’t Be White Supremacists Bearing Brunt

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Newsweek reports: “FBI Ranks ‘Black Identity Extremists’ Bigger Threat Than Al Qaeda, White Supremacists: Leaked Documents.”

CHIP GIBBONS, chip at RightsAndDissent.org, @rightsdissent
Gibbons is policy and legislative counsel for Defending Rights & Dissent. He just wrote the piece: “Expanding the Powers of the FBI Is Not the Solution to White Supremacist Violence.”

He said today: “Many well-meaning people are looking for a way to counter the very real danger of white supremacist violence by touting one particular ‘solution’: to create a new law countering ‘domestic terrorism.’

“The argument is simple: Due to a lack of a domestic terrorism statute, the FBI is somehow powerless to stop these acts of violence. Such a law would grant the FBI more surveillance powers. A new domestic terrorism statute would allow the agency to investigate and prosecute far-right violence.

“But this approach is misguided — and dangerous. First of all, the FBI is not an ally in the fight against racism. It has, in fact, often thwarted racial justice advocates and continues to be defined by deep-seated institutional racism. With many activists rejecting the carceral state or counter-terrorism framework, and embracing police and prison abolition, whether a law enforcement agency can ever counter white supremacy is a subject of debate.

“What is extremely clear is that the FBI has extraordinary tools at its disposal. It operates under the loosest guidelines at any point since the post-Hoover era reforms. These current guidelines allow the FBI to investigate an individual without any factual predicate that the person has committed a crime or poses a threat to national security. The FBI is allowed to attend public meetings without disclosing its participation. The FBI has conducted counter-terrorism investigations into nonviolent groups on the left, including civil rights organizations. In other words, the FBI is hardly powerless to investigate and surveil activities it labels ‘domestic terrorism.’ The FBI’s history of abuse, in fact, raises a troubling likelihood: A domestic terrorism law would almost certainly be used to silence dissent from the left.”