NYPD Spied on MLK: Freedom, Not Profit, Is the Real Threat
The Intercept's recent piece revealing extensive NYPD surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. offers a timely reminder: while modern media obsesses over 'foreign influence,' the US security apparatus has a long, documented history of aggressively targeting its own citizens—especially those demanding fundamental change. The FBI's notorious COINTELPRO program, launched in 1956, actively sought to
'disrupt' and 'neutralize' Black nationalist groups and leaders, including King himself. The FBI infamously sent King an anonymous letter urging him to commit suicide, calling him a 'fraud' and a 'moral degenerate.' This wasn't about protecting 'democracy'; it was about preserving a racial and economic status quo. So, when politicians and pundits scream about threats to 'our way of life,' one
might ask: which way of life are they defending? The one where civil rights leaders are harassed and criminalized by state forces, or the one where protest is a vital component of democracy? The targeting of domestic critics, from MLK to modern-day climate activists and anti-war protestors, consistently dwarfs the outrage directed at actual foreign interference. Apparently, asking for justice
within America is a greater threat than corporate malfeasance or weapons sales to despots.