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Order "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"

How the FBI treated him: Revisiting a painful historical double-standard

  • Jan 18, 2021
  • 1 min read

Updated: Apr 23



Protesters supporting President Trump gather near the east front door of the U.S. Capitol after groups breached the building’s security on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images.
Protesters supporting President Trump gather near the east front door of the U.S. Capitol after groups breached the building’s security on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images.

This Martin Luther King Day, I am reminded anew of the FBI’s remorseless treatment of Dr. King, and how sharply it contrasts with tactics the same agency has apparently failed to employ against white supremacists and would-be revolutionaries. While Capitol Police, the commander in chief, social media platforms and Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley have rightly been reviled as co-conspirators in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the FBI has mysteriously escaped due scrutiny.


The Washington Post’s recent findings that the FBI’s Norfolk branch secured information not effectively relayed to Capitol Police is stunning. We now know that the FBI was well aware insurrectionists were posting their unfiltered intentions, including calls to action such as: “Stop calling this a march, or rally, or protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die.”


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