Intelligence communities to operate. Threats exist from foreign and domestic sources. Those threats are real. Theyve been real throughout u. S. History, come from across the political spectrum. For over a century in addition to taking action against real threats to the lives of american citizens, bureaus and agencies within the United States government have is your veiled those who have expressed what the Kato Institute describes as, quote, Strong Political views that run counter to the prevailing government political paradigm. This challenges the notion often expressed by those that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear i want to come back to that later on in our class discussion. Maybe you will adhere to that view. Maybe youre on the fence about it. Maybe you firmly object it. Well have an opportunity to discuss that later. History of abuses in domestic surveillance in this country necessitates that discussion. Same tools that can be used to protect citizens in a Democratic Society from legitimate threats can be turned against those same citizens for less noble and even nefarious reasons. Merely want to take a look at history of surveillance in the United States, go back about a century to 1908. A special squad of investigators to work on behalf of the department of justice, becomes known as the bureau of investigation. By the 1930s, the federal bureau of investigation, fbi. The fbis own history, if you go on their website, they have a pretty long narrative description of their history. They link the creation of the fbi to the Progressive Movement that is really active at that period of time, at the turn of the century. The Progressive Movement is sort of the belief that the federal government must intervene to Foster Justice in an industrial society. Its a response to the sort of labor, unrest that we talked about in previous classes and everything that went on, that inspired the terrible kind of working conditions and so forth. So the Progressive Movement inspires things, for example, like the fda, to ensure that the food youre getting has labels and what youre eat something what you think youre eating. Right . It will eventually lead to things like child labor laws. It will also then create this sort of nationwide Law Enforcement body that was able to keep track of criminals across the country. This Creation Base d on the nee of professional Law Enforcement agency, rise in Violent Crime and corruption, both in politics and in big business. All that accompanying urbanization and industrialization at the turn of the century as well as National Security concerns particularly regarding anarchism, first modern day terrorists as well as threats of war time subversion and espionage. In 1909, the fbi makes its first efforts to infiltrate political organizations beginning with the socialist party of america. By the mid 1910s theyre investigating antimilitaryists and antienlistment groups. Over the years the fbi will spy on a variety of organizations, including the American Civil Liberties union, evangelical churches, aflcio, National Association for the advancement of colored people, the Ethical Society of philadelphia, the womens center, quaker social justice organization, the womens Peace Movement led by jane adams. Prolabor, antiwar folk singers like pete seeger, et cetera, et cetera. Siems these people and organizations are investigated for decades. These are not violent revolutionary threats, but rather political dissidents to oppose certain aspects of government policy and perhaps the particular form of government we have, through specific means, protected under the constitution. As we noted in our class at free speech not so much right at the turn of the century when anarchists left that thought as stlikt policed. Political spying will begin right around 1908, 1909, run until 1924 and then stop. The imp tus to stop is what is known as the first red scare. In 1918, the following year, 1919, sees a number of actions that will raise a lot of concerns about government surveillance. The seattle general strike in early part of 1919 shuts down that city. Tens of thousands of wovgers go on strike across industries. Spring of 1919, a bomb plot is broken up. Then theres a wave of bombings in the summer. Anarchist bombings targeting the attorney general, alexander palmer, his house is down on r right before you get to the main circle there where r hits massachusetts. I realized at some point that was his house and ive been driving by it for years. It was super weird. The bureau of investigation creates this radical division to sort of deal with this insurgence of anarchism headed by a young agent named j. Edgar hoover, it compiles files on roughly 200,000 individuals. The bureau then uses those files those files are then used to round up several thousand suspected radicals in 1919 and 1920, that occurred in at least 40 cities across the United States. Some of the people rounded up are wellknown prominent radicals. Emma goldman, russian immigrant to the United States. Other people are arrestedicism because they appeared foreign, were members of a labor union or so forth. Many arrested were held in communicado for months, no access to lawyers, to their families. 249 resident aliens are put on a boat and deported to russia at the end of 1919 because of their alleged anarchist beliefs. Theres a tremendous political backlash in this in particular because a lot of these people who are rounded up, again, are not engaged in radical, violent behavior. Now maybe they hold very radical views, but nonetheless they have not exactly engaged in anything and some of them are simply, right, immigrants from russia, from southern eastern europe. It brings the spying to a halt this palatable, especially to those in power and have been inclined to support this kind of roundup at first in part because of new immigration quotas put in place in 1924, restricting immigrants from southern and central europe, totally shut down immigration from east asia, which well talk about next week in the context of talking about japaneseamerican internment. 1929 sees the end of a tenyear long intelligence Gathering Program run by an organization known as the black chamber. Could they pick aid more nefarious name . Made up of people from the army. Running a telegraph company Like Western Union provided them with incoming and outgoing cable traffic. This is shut down by hoover by president hoovers incoming secretary of state, henry st stenson. Not necessarily spying in general but spying on the u. S. s diplomatic allies. Saying very famously, gentlemen, dont read each others mail. Theres a Supreme Court case at the end of the 20s that deals with wire tapping and weighing whether or not tapping into someones phone conversation, you have to imagine this right early on in this period where there are phones. Does that violate the Fourth Amendment . Here is what the Fourth Amendment says. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and affects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. William howard taft, formerly president of the United States then joins the Supreme Court. He speaks for the courts decision to basically rule against the notion that wiretapping violates the Fourth Amendment. The Court Approves this and that approval will last for roughly 40 years. Again this is in favor of ruling in favor of wire taps, claiming they dont violate the Fourth Amendment, congress may, of course, protect the secrecy of telephone messages by making them, when intercepted, inadmissible in federal criminal trials by direct legislation f Congress Wants to rule on this, they can, and thus depart from the common law of evidence. The courts may not adopt such a policy by attributing an enlarged and unusual mete meaning to the Fourth Amendment. The reasonable view is that one who installs in his house a telephone instrument with connecting wires and tends to project his voice to those quite outside and that the wires beyond his house and messages while passing over them are not within the protection of the Fourth Amendment. Those who interrucepted the projected vois were not in the house, party to either conversation, nor many of the federal decisions brought to our decision hold the Fourth Amendment to have been violated against a defendant unless there has been an official search and seizure of his person or such a seizure of his papers or tangible material effects or actual physical invasion of his house for the purpose of making a seizure. A standard which would forbid the reception of evidence, if obtained by other than nice, ethical conduct by government officials would make society suffer and give criminals greater immunity. What hes saying here is that if you are using a telephone machine, it is connected to wires that go outside the house and speak to someone outside of your home. Thus, someone tapping into the wires, not actually going into your house and searching your belongings, right, that is outside your home. Thus, does not fall under the auspices. Thats how the court rules. A standard which would forbid the reception of evidence if obtained by other than nice, ethical conduct by government officials would make society suffer and give criminals greater immunity than has been known heretofore. In the 20s, the standard was set for free speech in his dissent that ultimately became the courts ruling many decades down the road. He dissented into this case as well. Tafts last comments, essentially, right in some ways say thath ends justify the means. Here is what he says, decency, security and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subject to the same rules of conduct that demands to the citizen. In the government of allow laus, existence will be imperilled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. In the government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law skrup allocrupu. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law breaker, it briefeds contempt for law, invites every man to become a law unto himself. It invites anarchy. To declare that the end justifies the means, to declare that the government can commit crimes in order to secure conviction of a criminal would bring terrible retribution against this pernicious doctrine, this court should resolutely set its face. Political spying ends from roughly the 20s to 1936 when Franklin Roosevelt requests it will be resumed. Government surveillance again, it does not necessarily target any one particular group. Historically, its targets have leaned left not always. Purveyance of one particular party or ideology. Franklin roosevelt requests that spying be reinitiated in 1936, led by our man up here, j. Edgar hoover, appointed head of the bureau of investigation at the age of 29, younger than i am. Hoover had helped put together the list used in the first red scare to round up a swath of people. He managed to escape the political fallout of that, the blade came down the heads of a few people higher up than him and the bureau rebounded within that decade. Hoover really tried to emphasize the bureaus role as a Crime Fighting organization, particularly in the 1930s when, during the depression, have you famous criminals that rise, people like john dillinger, people that the fbi put in a lot of work in capturing. Hoover knows how to work the media in his favor. The bureaus reputation rebounds. Fdr is concerned about soviet spies and fascists. Fashi fascism is on the rise in europe. Enough that they can hold a rally in Madison Square garden. Immediately after adolf hitler invades poland, treason and sabotage, all federal crimes. But hoover also adds to that list sub verversive activities. How many Franklin Roosevelt, his attorney general, people high up in the government knew the extent of what hoover would do. Theres no record of that particular meeting and exactly what was said in it. Roosevelt has bigger fish to fry in some sense, not knowing whats coming down the road. Economic depression that continues to grind along, ultimately have the war to deal with. Even prior to the century, but theres no sense that fdr opposed hoovers intel work either. Hoover renews this. His renewal of verth investigative activities is authorized outside the courts. He discourages roosevelts administration to get legislative approval. Congress had actually been very suspicious of the bureau of investigation even being created in the first place, concerned about creating a secret state police force. Hoover warns fdr that hater also twist the truth and so fdr proves political spying, the resumption of political spying without congressional approval. Its ultimately not come to pass to have every person in america fingerprinted. That was the Newest Technology at the moment. Wl when the aclu complains, trying to ensure that the United States does not become involved in anything thats happened over there, fdr responds in writing that he sees nothing wrong with investigating groups that spread, quote, false information and engage in, quote, false teachings. Worth noting, his house had been bombed in 1919. And that certainly may have colored his views of political dissidents. Moreover, fdr has hoover look into political opponents as well. In particular, he has the fbi investigate several senators and several prominent public figures, including charles lindbergh, all of whom oppose any intervention in europe. Hoover learns from this experience that he can curry favor and gain leverage into digging into any perceived enemies. For example, he never blackmails the kennedy brothers. But he does give Robert Kennedy, attorney general under his brothers presidency, an update on people he knows, accusations against him, family members. On the one hand this is helpful personal knowledge that Robert Kennedy can use however he sees fit. But it also ensures that the kennedys know that hoover knows everything, knows everything that everybody is doing. So the kennedys have the inclination to suddenly shut down what he might be doing, theyll know in the back of their mind that hoover has tabs on anything theyve been doing. Restoration of spying takes place in the context of the emerging National Security state, one were familiar with today when the Second World War ends, cold war begins shortly thereafter. The House American Activities Committee which investigates suspected subversives. And sniffing out anybody who might have descending political views, all those rely on fbi reports. In 1956, they go on the defensive cp usa, Counterintelligence Program specifically designed to target the communist party of the United States of america. It is specifically Counter Intelligence rather than prosecutorial. Theyre not trying to dig up evidence to go to court but instead a counterintelligence operation to destroy a political enemy of the government. For a couple of reasons. One, Legal Proceedings against communist Party Leaders had been very successful in sending a number of them to prison. The laws are very favorable for doing that in this period of time. It had also exposed fbi informants. They had to go before a judge and wellplaced informants were revealed. Hoover is not real keen on that. And in 195657, the court begins to roll back laws that had been put in place in the late 30s and early 40s that had given free reign to round up anybody who was a member of a group that might espouse to over throw the United States government in Court Rulings was interpreted pretty loosely. Designed to put top leaders in jail. Top leaders are controlled from moscow. Party lines controlled from moscow, to be sure. But this sort of rollback in legal power, this sort of threat of exposing more informants leads to the Counterintelligence Program. Hoover memo calls for actions to ne aboutgate communist partys quote, influence over the masses, ability to create controversy leading to confusion, penetration of specific channels in American Life where Public Opinion is molded and espionage and sabotage potential. Of those, the last two are illegal. Espionage and sabotage. Influence over the masses, ability to create controversy, penetration of specific channels of American Life where Public Opinion is molded, you may find the ideas of the communist party to be reprehensible, nonetheless, those are not specifically illegal things. The objective to destroy the communist party for its political activities. Effectively destroys what remains of the communist party. From 1956 to 71, there are 1,388 different actions conducted against the communist party. Its membership roughly around 80,000. At end of Second World War drops to maybe 1,000 active members in the 60s. A large part that have is due to the legal measures used against the party they also take a huge hit when in 1956, krushev comes to power in the soviet union and reveals all the rumors about stalins behavior were true, that he was a tyrranical monster, and committed show trials of people who he thought might be his enemies. Nonetheless hoovers obsession with the party keeps this going long past the point where cpsu is relevant. Theres dissent in the ranks of the fbi in the 60s because hoover will not let this go even though the party is well past the point where it poses any sort of remotely conceivable threat to the United States. Tactics for attacking cpusa include leaking smear attacks to the media, planting evidence to suggest the Party Leaders are informants. Plant evidence and hope that someone else comes along, sees it, and believes theyre coleaders, an fbi informant. Creating a fake organization in order to further internal disputes. Are you a marxist or trovskyite . My personal favorite of these, operation hoodwink. Send false documents to provoke a fight between the communist party and Sicilian Mafia. A suggestion for how to deal with this. Lets see. This is to repair the following letter, anonymous letter, xerox copies of which would be mailed to the same teams ter unions. Dear union boss, im the loyal union man who wrote you around the end of january. Ive got more news for you. Your member i told you then that i heard from my commy brotherinlaw that leaders of his party had been in moscow and among the instructions they came back with was to try to get rid of the hoodaluminums and docking companies in this country. He asked how things were going in my teamster local. I said okay. He told me he knew that there was a lot of gangster in my union but things would be changing for the best. That some of the leaders were in hungary and it came up again how his party was going to clean up the gangstercontrolled unions in the United States. I told him he was all wet but i didnt use those words. Im afraid these commies mean business. Thank you for the use of a free copy machine to get the word around about this. Another example of a fake letter that the fbi is going to send, suggesting that theyll be targeting the Sicilian Mafia, involved in things like the teamster union. This is a lie. With respect to the above letter it is a fact that three leaders of the communist party usa were in budapest, hungary in february and march 1968 to attend an international consultative meeting. And accounts appeared in newspaper articles. Two of three leaders have since returned to the United States. However, the information in the letter that in hungary it came up again about how his party is going to clean up the gangsteres have no basis in fact. Should they approve this letter for anonymous mail it will be updated and xerox copies of this letter, blah, blah, blah, sent out. This is all a plot. The fbi knows what the Sicilian Mafia does if someone is coming after them. The idea is to provoke the mafia to retaliate violently against members of the cpusa. Theres noefd that this works but its not for a lack of trying. Also used to attack noncommunist Party Political opponents. Mens members of his konlg re gas station and circulated a petition. City Council Campaign of a lawyer who defended people prosecuted under the smith act. Members of the communist party, the fbi attempts to smear him to sink his political campaign. This is not surveillance of violent threats. This is something different. The fbi then will target the Civil Rights Movement for africanamerican rights which is cointell pro begun in 1967. The fbi began investigating the naacp for communist links as early as 1941, finds nothing. Nonetheless attempts to get the naacp on to a list of subversive organizations in the 50s. Southern leadership conference, investigated for communist party links in the 1950s. Here are the things that prompt that. Martin luther king jr. Gave a speech at the Training School accused of being a communist training center. Here say billboard that floated around the south, right . Martin luther king at communist Training School. There he is. Thats not a communist Training School. Spoiler. But this billboard accusation is rooted in inaccurate history of the communist party in the 30s especially, supporting civil rights or africanamericans. They did that to further the partys interest and saw that as a great wedge issue. But this is right on the fear that will be spread by many segregationist, that the Civil Rights Movement is a communist front being orchestrated by moscow to create social unrest in the United States. Martin luther king jr. Saint thank you letter to someone who donated blood to king after he was stabbed in 1958. A member of the socialist Workers Party offered to join as a clerk in the main office. I dont think he got the job. Hoover quietly tells congressmen, senators and kennedys that Stanley Levinson is a Party Communist member taking orders from moscow. He left the party in the 1950s. Hoover uses to make this accusation with information thats over five years old. If youre in intelligence, you know thats probably not very useful. The fbi, in fact, had attempted to recruit levinson to be an informant. How much of a threat can this person be if the fbi thought they could turn them . And theres no evidence at all that moscow is influencing levinson or king. Here is the head of the cointel operations, sullivan, shortly after the march on washington in which Martin Luther king jr. s famous i have a dream speech. We must mark king now, if we have not before, as the most dangerous negroe in the future of this nation, in terms of the communi communi communism. To limit our accusations to legalistic proofs to stand up in court or before committees. Wire kennedy approves wiretaps of kings home in the fall of 1963 after the march on washington. The fbi will also tap kings hotel rooms, which kennedys maybe, maybe did not know about. Unclear. In 1964, the fbi goes after king by feeding tips about alleged communist ties and sexual proclivities. They find nothing untourid. Extra marital sexual encounters. The idea here they send one tape to make it sound as though king is having an extra marital affair with several women in his hotel room. Its a composite of several different incidents in which this happened. They send this tape to king, anonymously, with a letter. Jump around a little bit in this. King, in view of your low grade this is from the fbi. King, in view of your lowgrade, abnormal personal behavior i will not dignify your name with a mister, reverend or doctor and your last name calls to mind only the type of king, such as king henry viii, countless acts of adultery and conduct lower than that of a beast. Look into your heart. You know you are a complete fraud and great liability to all of us negroes. Definitely dudes in the fbi. White people in this country have enough frauds of their own but im sure they dont have one at this time that is anywhere near your equal. You are no clergyman and you know it. A fraud and evil, vicious one at that. You cannot believe in god and act as you do. You clearly dont believe in any personal moral principles. Lets go down. Youre fill the. Et cetera, et cetera. It is all there on the record. Your sexual originallies. List listen to yourself, you filthy animal. Youre on the record, all your adulterous acts, et cetera, et cetera. Church organizations that have been helping, protestant, catholics and jews, will know you for what you are, abnormal, evil beast. So will others who have backed you. You are done. King, there is only one thing left for you do. You know what it is. You have 34 days to do what you need to do. You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal, fraudulent self is beared to the nation. Fbi encourages dr. Martin luther king to kill himself because he is such a threat to the nation in their view. The fbi offers this tape. King does not, obviously, kill himself. The fbi offers to turn this tape over to the press. The press turns them down. Imagine such an error. The fbi backs off in the face of looming investigation into electronic surveillance. The timing that have works out in his favor, i suppose. From 1965 to 67, Lyndon Johnson takes over for assassinated john f. Kennedy, clamps down on wire tapping, suggests it should be foremanally outlawed. Burger v. New york and katz versus United States in 1967. The Supreme Court in both cases changes its tune and say wire taps have to follow the same procedures for a warrant. There must be probable cause. People initiating the wire tap have to specify the crime theyre investigating, specify the place to be searched, the conversations to be seized. In 1968, Congress Follows suit, sets specific standards for obtaining wire taps. This will not stop intell overall. Theyll go on to other political groups, black Panther Party wirks it helps to destroy with informants, misinformation and violence. The American Indian movement which ends with a violent 1971 siege in south dakota. The fbi will also go after the new left and the ku klux klan and undermine to some degree which well talk about. And in 1965, watergate. Revelation notice New York Times that government spying prompted special Congressional Committee led by senator frank church, democrat in idaho, to investigate the intelligence community. Someone managed to break into an fbi headquarters somewhere, grab a whole bunch of documents. When they got back to their little hidey hole they realized they had this cointell stuff nobody ever heard of and started leaking that to the press. This comes out in an era that the pentagon papers had been released, which turned out that the government knew that the vietnam war was hopeless and had been lying to the public for years. Despite rumors that the if ib had data banks of u. S. Citizens, had used information on members of congress as blackmail for budget and policies and occasional screwup like the bay of pigs invasion, supported by the cia. There are oversight committees in each chambers, Armed Services committee, but they clearly had done nothing. Here is what the Church Committee discovers, a laundry list of awful things. Turns out the fbi had files that over 1 million americans, investigated 500,000 of them from 1960 to 74. People who were suspected of subversion. That produced zero court convictions. National Security Agency had investigated every cable from american sent overseas from 1974 to 75. I are. S allowed Tax Information to be used by intelligence agencies for political purposes. Lyndon johnson ordered the cia to spy on antiwar protesters, believing that the soviets or chinese had to be behind it because he could not wrap this idea around his mind around the idea that American Students were on their own, so deeply opposed to his policies, particularly right when he had thrown so much weight behind civil rights and the Great Society programs. It has to be the soviets. It has to be the chinese directing these students. This is a direct violation of the cias charter, which prohibits it from conducting Domestic Intelligence operations. The name of the operation, operation chaos. Its like theyre not even trying to hide how nefarious this stuff is. 300,000 names with indepth files of over 700,000 people. No evidence of foreign direction found for any of them. Not entirely related to our class but nonetheless worth noting, Church Committee also reveals things like the cia conducted drug experiments on unsuspected u. S. Citizens, infiltrated academic institutions in the United States. Attempt to assassinate foreign political leaders. This was a gun that was supposed to give someone a heart attack if you shot them with it, so it looked like they had not been assassinated. Cointell pro, revelation of these programs is especially shocking to congress because its proactive counterintelligence. The historical lesson if you want to draw one, antifascist and anticommunist paranoia of the cold war built this momentum that led to, famously, the second red scare, the house of American Activities Committee investigations, right, later mccarthyism. Its all part of the same sort of spectrum. But it doesnt end with mccarthys sort of public downfall and roll back of some of these laws that allowed for the communist leaders. Instead it continues through. The ends justify the means in the governments view. Emblematic exchange between senator Walter Mondale and Deputy Director of the nsa regarding this collection of cable intelligence. Mondale, were you concerned about its legality . Buffam, legality . Mondale, whether it was legal . Buffam. In what sense . Whether that would have been a legal thing to do . Mondale, yes. Buffam, that didnt enter into the discussion. Mondale trying to give him another chance, i was asking if you were concerned whether that would be legal or proper. Buffam, we didnt consider it at the time, no. The threats seem so egregious that in the minds of these folks, right, theyll just act to address the threat and deal with the legal consequences later. Even though, right, there turns out to be no evidence that there was a nefarious plot to inspire antiwar protests, Civil Rights Movement activities and so forth. Yeah . I was curious when you were talking about the fbi counterfeiting letters to king, what year was that . Right after he received the nobel peace prize. Thank you. Yeah. The Church Committees investigations on the legal side of it, this is probably the most important legacy the establishment of a better degree of legislative checks on domestic and foreign intelligence agencies. Its not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. The Senate Select committee on intelligence is made permanent in 1976. House creates its own in 1977. This is opposed by the white house, by the intelligence community. By some Government Conservatives at the time, especially the hard core anticommunist ones. They basically argued that this will cap the United States ability to protect itself against all the threats that all those cointell operations that were found. Church committee counters that. Intelligence agencies have violated the law. There were legal routes through which u. S. Security objectives would have been met. In other words the Church Committee argues that security and liberty are compatibility. In 1978, Congress Passes the foreign Intelligence Surveillance act, creating a special court to secretly review wire tap requests against suspected foreign spies operating in the United States. This is meant to draw a line between foreign and domestic spying. Monitor threats while nonetheless protecting Civil Liberties of citizens. Theres also a tenyear term limit placed on the director, hoover is director until he dies in 71. Nonetheless, here we are, because this doesnt entirely stop. In the 80s, folks opposed to reagans policies in central america. Fbi spies on occupy wall street, on code pink. They spy on burning man. The terrorist attacks of september 2001, unsurprisingly, are a huge impetus to reactivate this program. Fear drives this, that you must act regardless of the legal propriety of it. Nsa after september 11th begins collecting every meta data in the phone call in the United States, who did you call . How long did you call them . What time . What date . Phone conversations, the actual transcripts so long as someone is outside of the United States or involved in International Terrorism as far as the fisa court is concerned. Internet communications now obstenibly theyre only allowed to do this as long as one person is outside the United States but its collected, too, because you cant sort out theres no automatic way to sort out foreign and domestic internet traffic. Its the world we live n its all interconnected. What do you do when apple servers are in ireland, for example, right . The nsa stuff is first reported in 2005, 2006, confirmed years later with the revelation of the snowden documents. There was a review of this broad Data Collection under george w. Bush when revelations come out about the nsas illegal wiretapping. Department of justice determines its illegal and bush decided to reup it anyway and only threatened resignation of then fbi director Robert Mueller and acting director james comey keeps him from doing so. Then the fisa Court Approves it so its legal. Peoples suspicion of the government is through the roof. Americans will never trust the government again. And it turns out cia has been attempting to murder foreigners and fbi has infiltrating and destroying political dissident groups, including peace activists. Within the Africanamerican Community specifically, you can certainly point to some things, right, the suspicion that the fbi set up king to be assassinated in memphis. Not that the fbi did it, but knew that an assassination attempt was coming and chose to do nothing. Cia introduced heroin and then brought it into the black community to destroy it from within. The fbi did, in fact, infiltrate civil rights organizations and attempt to destroy them through nefarious, sometimes violent means. Of course the suspicion is there. And yet how uncomfortable and suspicious are we . We carry tracking devices everywhere we go, that always knows where you are. Soon, this will be scanning your face. We want police to wear body cameras. Those cameras can be used to film our private residences, taser. The company, taser, its like kleenex. Its actually a company. Police body cameras will soon have facial recognition software. Youll scan your face here and police, as they see you, will know who you are. We use these, this tracks everywhere youve gone, every purchase youve made, to use a metro card, tracks everywhere youve gone in the city. Fitness software that tracks how many steps you took, knows where those steps were. Now on the one hand, some of this is necessary. You want the police to be able to effectively police. Of course. It would be this is loaded very much this lecture ew is your loaded very much in a direction of no surveillance. Of course, there is a necessity for t violent actors do exist in the world and crimes very much take place. Some of this is innoccuous. I enjoy personally receiving coupons from my Grocery Store based on the purchases ive made. Its a little weird to know that they know what bagels i like or what creamer i use. Nonetheless its awesome because then its cheaper. But someone is tracking all that stuff. And thats the flip side of this on the other hand, yes, some of this is innoccuous. Some of this is advantageous to Law Enforcement that keeps us safe. On the other hand, though, this requires faith in the person at the switch. And that person at the switch now may not be the person who is at the switch the next administration around or ten years down the road. I distinctly remember listening to bill murrays interview in 2007, 2008 when the nsa stuff was really in the media being kicked around. Conservative legal scholar, who was deeply opposed to what the nsa had been doing, made this point. And it was if you support what the George Bush Administration is doing as a necessary action to keep us safe from the threat of terrorism