Oops. Sorry. Didn’t happen. Just being ironic.
No, just more of the same. With echoes of J.Edgar Hoover, The Intercept reported March 21 that the FBI planted spies in racial justice groups in the wake of civil unrest following George Floyd’s 2020 murder by Minneapolis police. The FBI used the plants not only to gather intelligence, but also to encourage violence — in other words a taxpayer-funded, political effort to discredit racial justice work.
The story focuses on one particular spy who infiltrated a racial justice group in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The operative went by the name “Chelsie.” She had long, pink hair, claimed to be from Washington state and dropped hints she was a sex worker. Her real job was working as a detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department.
Once Chelsie gained people’s trust, she “tried to set up at least two young men in gun-running conspiracies,” the Intercept reported. (In both cases, the men said “no.”)
Another FBI informant, Mickey Windecker, worked in Denver, “drove a silver hearse, rose to a leadership role in the racial justice movement, and encouraged activists to become violent,” the story said.
Windecker was a violent felon, The Intercept reported Feb. 7.
Read both stories, they’re stomach turners.
Thought experiment: What would the Captains of Industry do if the FBI started planting spies in large companies as an early warning system? Imagine if the FBI would have had insiders in Big Tobacco and exposed (much earlier than occurred) that those companies knew the health risks from smoking? How many lives would have been saved?
Or what if the FBI had planted agents inside Wells Fargo who could have sounded the alarm earlier about the bank’s predatory lending practices? How many people would have avoided foreclosure?
Or if the FBI had insiders at 3M and forced quicker action on “forever chemicals”?
Take it one step further. How would industry react if those same FBI spies started encouraging their corporate colleagues to break the law so the government could increase the criminal charges and discredit their businesses?
An incredible imbalance exists in the public scrutiny of environmental advocates compared to corporations.
In the recent Enbridge Line 3 crude oil pipeline debacle, the state of Minnesota allowed Enbridge to reimburse law enforcement agencies $8.4 million to suppress Line 3 dissent. In some cases, they were no more than glorified Line 3 security guards. Meanwhile, the state allowed Enbridge to hire and train the environmental monitors who oversaw Line 3 construction on behalf of state agencies.
In related news, there are ongoing efforts to charge those who try to protect the land and water as “domestic terrorists,” which increases criminal penalties and serves the interest of those who want to exploit the land and water.
For instance, activists in the Atlanta area have been protesting Cop City, the construction of a large police training facility in what was supposed to be a protected forest.
On March 5, police stormed a music festival held in the Atlanta forest and arrested 23 people, alleging they were engaged in vandalism and arson at a Cop City construction site more than a mile from the festival.
The probable causes cited didn’t link defendants directly to illegal acts, the story said. They included such things as people having mud on their boots or “a legal support phone number on their arms.”
“It’s collective punishment,” said Marlon Kautz, an Atlanta-based organizer with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund cited by The Intercept. “The police are trying to establish a de-facto norm that anyone who associates with a political movement will be attacked and charged for the actions of any other supporter of that movement.”
At their initial hearing March 7, 22 of the 23 defendants were denied bond, the story said. They face up to 35 years in prison if found guilty.
healingmnstories.wordpress.com 
In all the Spring rush, I missed this good summary piece. Glad to catch up to it today.
A message all need to consider indeed. What if the FBI was infiltrating corporations… instead of grassroots groups trying to protect our homelands from the dangerous corporate schemes to destroy in the name of profit for a few?
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