Black activist jailed for his Facebook posts speaks out about secret FBI surveillance

[Equinox Moon]

Exclusive: Rakem Balogun spoke out against police brutality. Now he is believed to be the first prosecuted under a secretive US effort to track so-called ‘black identity extremists’.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/11/rakem-balogun-interview-black-identity-extremists-fbi-surveillance

Handcuffed and shaking in the cold wind, Balogun thought a misunderstanding must have led the FBI to his door on 12 December 2017. The father of three said he was shocked to later learn that agents investigating “domestic terrorism” had been monitoring him for years and were arresting him that day in part because of his Facebook posts criticizing police.

“It’s tyranny at its finest,” said Balogun, 34. “I have not been doing anything illegal for them to have surveillance on me. I have not hurt anyone or threatened anyone.”

[ProudLib72]

1. This is Alex Jones' doing

Investigators began monitoring Balogun, whose legal name is Christopher Daniels, after he participated in an Austin, Texas, rally in March 2015 protesting against law enforcement, special agent Aaron Keighley testified in court.

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]

3. I read something recently that he has some lawsuits for libel or slander or both.

[misanthrope]

7. Your energy is focused in the wrong place

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]

10. It's a general lack of critical thinking skills in this country

After this I do not have nearly as high of an opinion of the FBI.

[erronis]

2. Kicking++. Law Enforcement in the US is becoming similar to the brown-shirts.

[RandomAccess]

4. This is unbelievable -- and very, very frightening

[misanthrope]

8. As I said elsewhere

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210604703

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]

5. Our Country is broken

If we can't alter our course soon, it's gonna get very bleak.

[Equinox Moon]

6. Agreed, yet I think it is bleak now.

I heard somewhere an estimate that it will take us 20-30 years to recover from this period.

[misanthrope]

9. I think that's a generous estimate.

Recovering civil liberties once the public and state become comfortable with depriving them is exceedingly difficult.

[uponit7771]

11. This is disgusting, the FBI literally admitted in court they had no reason to arrest him

[Equinox Moon]

12. I wonder if he could the arrest wiped off this record?

An enlightened Governor could do that.

[struggle4progress]

13. Charges Dropped in Dallas

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 Balogun’s supporters, and the FBI itself, in a hearing following Balogun’s 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]

14. I hate articles that take forever to get to relevant points

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 don’t 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 doesn’t 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]

17. So, the FBI routinely shows up for those?

Yeah. I'm never surprised when a handful here twist and omit facts to fit their narrative.

[Lee-Lee]

18. When you pop on their radar they do

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 wasn’t 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]

15. Prosecution of a 'Black Identity Extremist'?

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 Daniels’s 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, Daniels’s 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/

[demmiblue]

16. K&R