The news outlet Foreign Policy has uncovered an FBI counterterrosim report on so-called “Black extremists” as posing a new threat to the nation’s security.
Specifically, the report focuses on “black identity extremists” in assessing that such groups’ “perception of police brutality against African Americans have spurred retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement”. In response to this report the interim NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson has released the following statement:
“In a time when white supremacists are marching down city streets with loaded weapons and tiki torches— organizing rallies of terror around the country – it comes as a great shock that the FBI would decide to target black identity groups protesting police brutality and their right to exist free of harm as a threat.
“Sadly, this report comes as no surprise from an organization that has a history of targeting black civil rights groups and leaders, including wiretapping Martin Luther King Jr. and others fighting for civil rights in the 1960s.
“We do have a real threat in the United States and it’s the rise of right-wing extremists, white nationalists and white supremacists, who have been emboldened by this administration. In light of this report, the NAACP is resolved to double down on our efforts to advance the rights of black Americans and people of color across this country. We remain steadfast and immovable in our fight for justice and equality – and we are not afraid.”
