Year-to-date, police have killed 867 people: 199 were black; at least 15 people were both black and totally unarmed — that is, no guns, no knives, no hammers, no pens, no cell phones. Reasonable people agree that something is broken; that something needs fixing. Black Lives Matter has been in the forefront demanding that police be held accountable for unwarranted killings of innocent, unarmed people. For the audacity of daring to care for members of their community — of daring to call for a sophisticated, responsive, and professional police force — #BLM has earned the wrath of the willfully blind, an assortment of white supremacist groups, and the current administration of Donald J. Trump.
Let’s say it again, #BLM is protesting against over-policing and brutality!
The Department of Justice under Jefferson Bureaugard Sessions III heard the anguished cries and heartfelt pleas of a wounded community and immediately went to work. The DOJ went to work to delegitimize the genuine concerns of a people under siege. One of the first things the new administration did was to invent a brand new terrorist organization; an entity they creatively named “The Black Identity Extremist (BIE).” Here’s the Executive Summary of the FBI’s report introducing this dangerous new group:
The FBI assesses that it’s very likely “Black Identity Extremist (BIE) perception about police brutality against African Americans spurred an increase in premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement and will very likely serve as justification for such violence. The FBI assess this increase began following the 9 August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, and the subsequent Grand Jury November 2014 declination to indict the police officers involved. The FBI assesses it is very likely incidents of alleged police abuse against African Americans since then have continued to feed the resurgence in ideologically motivated, violent criminal activity within the BIE movement. The FBI assesses it is very likely incidents of alleged police abuse against African Americans since then have continued to feed the resurgence in ideologically motivated, violent criminal activity within the BIE movement. The FBI assesses it is very likely some BIEs are influenced by a mix of anti-authoritarian, Moorish sovereign citizen ideology, and BIE ideology. The FBI has high confidence in these assessments, based on a history of violent incidents attributed to individuals who acted on behalf of their ideological beliefs, documented in FBI investigations and other law enforcement and open source reporting. The FBI makes this judgment with the key assumptions the recent incidents are ideologically motivated.
Scared yet?
People of good conscience who are versed in the art of sniffing out racist bullshit wherever and whenever it raises its vile head immediately saw this bit of sleight of hand for what it really is: An attempt to stifle dissent, to bully protestors in to silence and, even more foul, an attempt to criminalize Black Lives Matter. From the New York Times:
“This is fiction.” Daryl Johnson, a former Department of Homeland Security Intelligence agent, when asked by Foreign Policy in October why the F.B.I would create the term “B.I.E,” said, “I have no idea” and “I’m at a loss.” Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent and fellow with Brennan Center for Justice’s liberty and national security program, said the “Black Identity Extremists” label simply represents an F.B.I. effort to define a movement where none exists. Basically, it’s a black people who scare them,” he said.
Enter Karen Bass
Primarily because of his many lies of his difficulty in recalling pertinent details having to do with Russia, JBS III was dragged in front of the House Judiciary Committee to give an accounting for his actions. Not ones to miss an opportunity, African American members of the Committee had some pointed questions for the Attorney General, but one woman, in particular, had the Attorney General desperately looking around for help.
Congresswoman Karen Bass of California needed just a little over five minutes to destroy Jefferson Bureaugard Sessions III; to reduce him to a stammering, blundering idiot as he attempted to describe this mythical, bloodthirsty B.I.E. group. Session’s nightmare on the night of Tuesday, 14 November 2017 was of him running from two black women — Kamala Harris and Karen Bass — from California hollering “Holp! Holp!” Run, Jeff, run!
Watch Rep. Bass as she methodically exposed a pernicious lie for what it is:
See the CNN transcript here:
REP. KAREN BASS (D), CALIFORNIA: So can you tell me what that term means to you? Do you believe that there is a movement of African- Americans that identify themselves as black identity extremists and what does that movement do?
SESSIONS: It would be interesting to see the conclusions of that report, but I'm aware that there are groups that do have an extraordinary commitment to the racial identity. And some have transformed themselves even into violent activists.
BASS: Are you aware of white organizations that do this as well? Given the white supremacy as well documented, well researched such as the neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, et cetera, are they White Identity Extremists?
SESSIONS: I didn't follow that question. Please, again.
BASS: Is there a term or a report on White Identity Extremists? You mentioned you were familiar with black people who identify with the racial identity.
SESSIONS: Yes. But it's not coming to me at this moment.
BASS: Not coming to you?
SESSIONS: It's —
BASS: Certainly a group such as the Ku Klux Klan.
SESSIONS: Yes. And then the skinhead movements, but there is a racial identity white movements that have been identified for —
BASS: Well has the FBI done a report on White Identity Extremists that are likely motivated to target to law enforcement officers?
SESSIONS: I'm not aware of that.
One of the more startling and pertinent admissions forced from the Attorney General by Rep. Cedric Richmond at the hearing on Tuesday is that he [Jeff Sessions] does not have one single solitary African American aide.
Later, under questioning by Rep. Cedric Richmond, an African American Democrat from Louisiana, Sessions confirmed that he had not hired African American aides.
"I do not have a senior staff member at this time that is African American," Sessions said.
I am not even a little bit surprised. Are you? In the meantime, don’t forget to look under your beds before going off to sleep tonight. You don’t want that dangerous BIE hiding under there, do you? It has to be somewhere...