Well if BLM had a leader I'm sure they'd be under surveillance in this administration.
The Russia investigation was not the only concern of a black lawmaker questioning Rod J. Rosenstein
By
Eugene Scott
December 14, 2017 at 3:10 PM
Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) grilled Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Dec. 13 about an FBI report on “Black Identity Extremists.” (House Judiciary Committee)
The exchange between a top justice department official and a black lawmaker regarding the FBI’s labeling of black activists was another reminder of the historically tense relationship between the law enforcement agency and civil rights activists.
Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein spent most of Wednesday
defending special counsel Robert S. Mueller III against questioning from the House Judiciary Committee about whether bias might have compromised the integrity of the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Rosenstein also ended up having to defend the FBI against concerns that the agency was unjustly targeting black Americans protesting racism and police violence.
The Washington Post previously
reported that the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, an investigative unit which focuses on threats from terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda, created a new label for domestic terrorist groups: “Black Identity Extremists” or BIEs.
An FBI report broadly categorized black activists as threats to national security, wrote Shanelle Matthews, director of communications for the
Black Lives Matter Global Network, and Malkia Cyril, executive director of the Center for Media Justice:
“It uses unrelated acts of violence, such as the July 2016 shootings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, as justification for targeting black dissident voices. And it labels black activists — whose central demands are that government officials be responsible stewards of their power, accountable to the people who elect them and transparent about decision-making — as a threat to national security.”
Bass, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, expressed her concerns with ways the report could shape perception of police shootings.
Bass: “When you send a document like that to law enforcement around the country, in some places I will worry they will take that to say any time there is an officer-involved shooting and then there is a protest, the people that protest might be Black Identity Extremists.
Rosenstein: To the best of my knowledge, the FBI is not investigating people who are peacefully protesting. I haven't read that document. I'll review it and see what it says.
Bass: I would appreciate if you would. If there is no basis for this term, then the FBI should take a step to retract the document and send a message to law enforcement around the country that no such category exists.
Rosenstein: *Silence*
Bass: I yield back my time.
This was not the first time a black lawmaker demanded the Justice Department address this issue.
Last month, Bass asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions at a hearing about the FBI's “black identity extremists” label. Sessions said he was unfamiliar with the report: “I'm aware of groups committed to racial identity, transformed into violent activists.”
Rep. Barbara Lee (D.-Cal) also previously accused Sessions of using the label to target peaceful protesters. “‘Black Identity Extremism’ does not exist & this report is nothing more than an excuse for Sessions’ DOJ to target peaceful black activists,”
she tweeted last month.
Rosenstein did not suggest he would oversee the eradication of the term. Black lawmakers do not look like they will back down from holding the FBI accountable for what they view as unfair targeting of their constituents.
Trump has an 11 percent approval rating with black Americans, according to the latest Washington Post poll. His Justice Department's labeling of community members as “extremists” for speaking out against racism is probably not going to change that.
Eugene Scott writes about identity politics for The Fix. He was previously a breaking news reporter at CNN Politics. He is a D.C. native.