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U.S. NEWS Monday 20 noveMber 2017

FBI report on black ‘extremists’ raises monitoring fears

president, Barack Obama, ing this past week.
and black attorney gen- Sessions said he was aware
eral, Loretta Lynch. of “groups that do have an
But black voters over- extraordinary commitment
whelmingly opposed Don- to their racial identity, and
ald Trump. And they are some have transformed
suspicious of his administra- themselves even into vio-
tion, which has been criti- lent activists.” He struggled
cized as insensitive on ra- to answer the same ques-
cial issues, including when tion about white extremists.
Trump was slow to con- It wouldn’t be unusual for
demn white nationalist pro- an attorney general not
testers following a deadly to have seen such an FBI
rally in Charlottesville, Vir- assessment, which the FBI
ginia. creates on its own to circu-
Attorney General Jeff Ses- late internally among law

In this Nov. 17, 2017, photo, the cover page of a FBI report on sions, a former Alabama enforcement agencies. But
the rise of black “extremists” is photographed in Washington. senator whose career has the exchange with Rep.
The report is stirring fears of a return to practices of the Civil been dogged by questions Karen Bass, a Los Angeles
Rights era, when the agency notoriously spied on activist groups about race and his com- Democrat, presented an
without evidence they had broken any laws. mitment to civil rights, did uncomfortable moment.
(AP Photo/Jon Elswick) not ease lawmakers’ con- “What worries me about
By SADIE GURMAN taliation for perceived past cerns when he was unable this terribly is that this is that
RUSSELL CONTRERAS police brutality incidents.” It to answer questions about it is a flashback to the past,”
Associated Press warned that such violence the report or its origins dur- Bass said after the hearing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An was likely to continue. ing a congressional hear- q
FBI report on the rise of Black leaders and activists
black “extremists” is stirring were outraged after For-
fears of a return to prac- eign Policy revealed the
tices used during the civil existence of the report last
rights movement, when month. The Congressional
the bureau spied on activ- Black Caucus, in a letter
ist groups without evidence to FBI Director Christopher
they had broken any laws. Wray, said the report “con-
The FBI said it doesn’t target flates black political activ-
specific groups, and the re- ists with dangerous domes-
port is one of many its intel- tic terrorist organizations”
ligence analysts produce and would further erode
to make law enforcement the frayed relationship be-
aware of what they see as tween police and minority
emerging trends. A similar communities.
bulletin on white suprema- “I have never met a black
cists, for example, came extremist. I don’t know
out about the same time. what the FBI is talking
The 12-page report, issued about,” said Chris Phillips, a
in August, says “black iden- filmmaker in Ferguson.
tity extremists” are increas- Before the Trump adminis-
ingly targeting law enforce- tration, the report might not
ment after police killings of have caused such alarm.
black men, especially since The FBI noted it issued a
the shooting of Michael similar bulletin warning
Brown roiled Ferguson, Mis- of retaliatory violence by
souri, in 2014. The report de- “black separatist extrem-
scribes cases in which “ex- ists” in March 2016, when
tremists” had “acted in re- the country had a black