Martin Luther King and the Secret Police

 

Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover at his desk, ca 1930s-1940s. Source: FBI.gov 

Today (January 16, 2023) is the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday. It's a good day to remember the man, his principles, and his courage. It's a good day to celebrate his ideals of equality, peace, and justice.

And freedom.

This brings to mind one aspect of King's life that should never be forgotten. It's his relationship with America's Secret Police, the Federal Bureau of the Inquisition Investigation.

In the early 1960s, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover decided that Martin Luther King Jr. was an "enemy" of the United States. He persuaded President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy that one of King's advisors was a communist. They gave Hoover permission to investigate King, and Hoover bugged King's bedroom.

Hoover used the recordings, which contained evidence of adulterous sexual activity, to try to threaten King into withdrawing from public life if not drive him to suicide. King ignored this "anonymous" blackmail attempt even as Hoover sent the tapes to others in politics and the media. No one but Hoover was obsessed with King's private life.

King had the courage to face down Hoover, who couldn't go public himself and admit he surveilled King without a search warrant.

But how many others did Hoover succeed in blackmailing? In 1971, House Majority leader Hale Boggs said, "Our very fear of speaking out (against the FBI) … has watered the roots and hastened the growth of a vine of tyranny … which is ensnaring that Constitution and Bill of Rights which we are each sworn to uphold."

 

Has the FBI and other federal police/spy agencies grown more enlightened since the days of Hoover, who died in 1972?

Is there any reason to believe that they are?

The FBI was repeatedly caught breaking the law in the years after the USA "PATRIOT" Act was passed. 

Some years later, Edward Snowden proved that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied to Congress about collecting data on American citizens, Snowden was forced into exile while Clapper was never charged with perjury.

The impulse of secret police agencies like the FBI is to do what they please until they get caught. Some minor reforms might pass, but the lawbreakers face no consequences. Then they find new ways to do what they've been doing all along, which is to spy on people who have wealth, fame, and influence.

My assumption is that the entire system - political, economic, cultural - operates on blackmail just as Hale Boggs implied. When social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube began censorship in earnest some five years ago, I believe they did so under threat.

The Feds have the goods on the CEOs of the world's most powerful corporations. Whether it's to cover up their scandalous private lives or to protect themselves from prosecution for financial shenanigans, America's most influential people play ball.

The "Deep State" is often dismissed as a "conspiracy theory," as if it doesn't exist. But even those who mock conspiracy theorists know what Hoover did. 

J. Edgar Hoover was the Deep State, and it did not die with him. 

Do I have evidence - a paper trail - proving that America's law enforcement and security agencies are as devoid of ethics, restraint, and respect for the rule of law as Hoover was?

Can I "prove" that they are the masters and politicians, judges, the rich, and the famous are their puppets?

No, I cannot prove that.

But I know what common sense tells me.

The institution that went after Martin Luther King didn't turn into a bastion of integrity when it went after politicians you don't like. 

We can't condemn the FBI when it used "communism" or "Islamic extremism" as excuses to trample on the Bill of Rights, but then encourage it to trample on the Bill of Rights to go after "nationalism" or 'anti-government extremism."

It's the same monster.

 

I don't give the FBI the benefit of the doubt.

I'll never assume good intentions from the secret police.

James Leroy Wilson writes JL Cells, The MVP Chase, Daily Miracles, and The Daily Bible Chapter, Thanks for your subscriptions and support! You may contact James for your writing, editing, and research needs: jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com.