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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBlack activist jailed for his Facebook posts speaks out about secret FBI surveillance
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/11/rakem-balogun-interview-black-identity-extremists-fbi-surveillance
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)The FBI, Keighley said, learned of the protest from a video on Infowars, a far-right site run by the commentator Alex Jones, known for spreading false news and conspiracy theories.
Big fat puss bucket needs to be taken down.
Equinox Moon
(6,344 posts)misanthrope
(7,435 posts)It's not about Alex Jones. It's about federal authorities who took anything Jones said with any measure of gravity and then, after looking into it, felt it warranted this man's arrest solely for exercising free speech.
That's more worrisome than some loony-toons entertainer.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)After this I do not have nearly as high of an opinion of the FBI.
erronis
(15,428 posts)RandomAccess
(5,210 posts)misanthrope
(7,435 posts)This program and the precedent in this case is frightening enough by itself. If you combine that leeway with the precedent of civil asset forfeiture, where the state is allowed to seize your belongings simply by holding you in suspicion for a crime then it becomes even worse.
We are on a slippery, slippery slope these days.
Pluvious
(4,332 posts)If we can't alter our course soon, it's gonna get very bleak.
Equinox Moon
(6,344 posts)I heard somewhere an estimate that it will take us 20-30 years to recover from this period.
misanthrope
(7,435 posts)Recovering civil liberties once the public and state become comfortable with depriving them is exceedingly difficult.
uponit7771
(90,370 posts)Equinox Moon
(6,344 posts)An enlightened Governor could do that.
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)BY ALEX MACON
MAY 11, 2018 1:25 PM
... Balogun, whose legal name is Christopher Daniels, drew national attention as supporters questioned whether he was being prosecuted as a black identity extremist, a relatively new government term coined in the wake of protests in Ferguson, Mo., for what the FBI deems a growing domestic terror threat. Balogun was only charged for unlawful possession of a firearm he was convicted of misdemeanor domestic assault in Tennessee in 2007, and guns were seized during the FBI raid of his home in Dallas. A federal judge dismissed that charge this month, and Balogun was released from federal custody days ago.
But Baloguns supporters, and the FBI itself, in a hearing following Baloguns detention, say that he was initially targeted for his participation in an anti-policy brutality rally in Austin in 2015, and for social media posts Balogun made praising the killings of police officers, including one that said the Dallas police officers shot in July 2016 deserve what they got. The FBI, a federal agent testified, had first been hipped to the protest by videos posted on the right-wing conspiracy website Infowars ...
Balogun, in an interview with The Guardian after his release, says he lost his job and home while he was in federal custody. He assumes he will remain under FBI surveillance, but intends to continue his activism in Dallas, where he works with the black activist groups the Huey P. Newton Gun Club and Guerilla Mainframe.
https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2018/05/rakem-balogun-dallas/
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)In this case I was trying to figure out what the actual charges were.
It took forever to find they were charging him with being a prohibited person in possession of firearms because of a previous domestic violence conviction.
And it took more digging to figure out that the case was thrown out because the conviction was one that was a gray area as to if that law qualified as a domestic violence conviction under the Federal law, as a lot of state laws that are used to prosecute domestic violence offenders can also be used in circumstances that dont fit the more narrow definition the Federal statue uses- so you can be arrested and convicted for domestic violence but if the law your convicted under can also be applied outside what the Federal statute defines still legally own firearms.
So essentially he at some point was convicted for a crime of domestic violence under state law, but the way the law was worded and the courts have chipped away that conviction doesnt count to bar possession of firearms even though the intent of the Lautenberg Amendment was for it to.
I find the reaction here interesting. I suspect if it was anyone else in any other circumstances the outrage would be that a person convicted of domestic violence was allowed to still own firearms.
kcr
(15,321 posts)Yeah. I'm never surprised when a handful here twist and omit facts to fit their narrative.
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)Imagine if only one thing were changed on this- race.
A white open carry advocate is seen at a political rally open carrying, and they have a domestic violence conviction.
They come to the attention of LE because they are seen open carrying on a video at a rally and later make several Facebook posts about killing cops.
They get arrested for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and then beat the charge based on a judges ruling that their domestic violence conviction wasnt quite the right wording on the state law to be domestic violence, even though it was totally a domestic violence conviction.
Would the reaction be the same?
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)ANUARY 30, 2018
... In his affidavit, Keighley describes learning that Daniels placed a firearm in his checked luggage in compliance with airline regulations, according to the defense which was then delayed, before being returned to his home address in Dallas.
The FBI obtained a search warrant on Dec. 7, based on Danielss prior conviction, and the raid took place five days later.
In an email to FP, Daniels said his prior conviction was the result of a dispute with a girlfriend at the time; he also denied the charge. Daniels said that after a traumatizing experience in a small-town jail, he allowed a public defender to persuade him to plead guilty.
Daniels told FP he was unaware he was breaking federal law by having a weapon, and never tried to conceal his pro-gun stance. (In a motion to dismiss the indictment against Daniels filed on Jan. 24, Danielss public defenders contested the charge, arguing that domestic assault as codified by Tennessee law does not categorically fit the federal definition of domestic violence that would prohibit him from owning a firearm.) ...
http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/30/is-a-court-case-in-texas-the-first-prosecution-of-a-black-identity-extremist/