Activists on the Left have more to worry about than just police infiltration and surveillance campaigns. Fear of far-right attacks on activists also drove the need to develop op-sec (operational security) measures. During the early Trump era, far-right activists became more open in their activities, and clashes between them and antifascist activists became increasingly common. In some cases, protests and online activist networks were infiltrated by far-right activists, who leaked sensitive information, harassed activists, and, in many cases, perpetrated acts of violence.
It goes without saying that radical activists do not feel the police can be trusted to protect them from far-right violence; after all, the police had historically worked hand-in-hand with motivated citizens to crush radical organizing, from infiltration of unions by Pinkerton Detectives hired by big business at the turn of the 20th century, to police turning a blind eye to racial violence during the civil rights movement. Though little is known about present-day law enforcement participation in far-right activities, in some cases from the 2000s to the present, police officers were found to be actively supporting or participating in far-right activities.[1]
Furthermore, among far-right activists, particularly since the 1990s, the perception has been that it is the job of motivated patriots to do the work the police are unable to do. Thus, during periods of unrest, like the summer of 2020, far-right militias essentially operated as auxiliaries to local and federal law enforcement and blurred the line between armed groups and police.[2]
During protests in the summer 2020, far-right militias mobilized around the country in response to protests to “protect businesses from looters.” In some cases, police were seen interacting with, or encouraging militia members, while in others militia members claimed to be working directly with local law enforcement.[3] At one protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin on the night of August 25th, a militia member and military veteran named Ryan Balch claimed that police were pushing Black Lives Matter demonstrators towards militia positions to trap and arrest them, a claim later denied by local law enforcement.[4] Soon after, Kyle Rittenhouse, a militia member, shot and killed two demonstrators after a confrontation.
Earlier in the summer, in Portland, Oregon, masked federal police officers refusing to identify themselves arrested activists leaving the scene of a protest and loaded them into unmarked vans.[5] Rumors of the abductions circulated, with some saying that far-right militia members may be posing as police officers to kidnap Black Lives Matter demonstrators. These rumors were fueled by the permissive attitude taken by police towards far-right militia groups and escalating violence between right and left-wing activists, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.
By the summer of 2020 it was clear among activists that police, at best, would be ambivalent to violence perpetrated against left-wing demonstrators. As part of the operational security to defend against fascist violence at Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, some activists carried firearms and made regular patrols of the occupied area. Real fear of fascist attacks warranted the armed patrols of CHOP. Though that fear was certainly justified, the death of Antonio Mays Jr., the victim of the shooting at CHOP on the night of June 28th, was not. The paranoia which ultimately resulted in his death was an explanation for it, not an excuse.
Eating Our Own: The Impact of Paranoia on Present-Day Organizing
The advent of social media and digital communications has expanded the state’s ability to monitor activist movements. Beginning at least as far back as the early 2010s, federal alphabet agencies (FBI, DHS, DEA, ATF, etc.), have monitored social media as a means of “keeping their ear to the ground” and tracking threats to national security.[6] Posts on social media which may advocate anti-state or radical views are monitored, and lead to further investigations which often disproportionately target Middle Eastern, Latino, and Black Americans.[7] Similarly, during the racial unrest in the summer of 2020, local police departments monitored social media tags affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement (ex. #blm, #blacklivesmatter, etc.) to track and manage protests.[8]
Social media has also Left organizers and activists vulnerable to misinformation, which is often spread by the far-right. In June of 2020, public service announcements in Mesa, Arizona falsely claimed that a man in a white truck was shooting at Black pedestrians, despite no similar reports to local police or hate crime monitoring organizations.[9] As already mentioned, this kind of misinformation, combined with threats of real fascist violence, is what ultimately led to the death of Antonio Mays Jr. in Seattle.
Additionally, misinformation spread by foreign governments hoping to benefit from unrest in the US, like Russia or China, can sow paranoia, defeatism, or ambivalence within activist communities and the general public. On June 1st, 2020, social media reports of a complete blackout and mass killings during protests in Washington DC were soon disproven and found to be linked to Russian disinformation bots.[10] Such deceptions serve to muddy the waters, and force activists to spend time and energy to counter false narratives. Oftentimes, the disinformation is not meant to trick the American public into believing a false narrative; rather, it simply confuses those who may want to participate in social justice movements to the point of inaction.
In some cases, such as during mass protests in Hong Kong in 2019 or Iran in 2022, false narratives put forth by foreign governments are accepted by activists, particularly those on the authoritarian Left, known as “tankies.” Tankies may discredit popular protests in authoritarian countries unaligned with Western geopolitical goals by painting them as CIA-backed uprisings. In doing so, these activists “offer a mirror image of right-wing conspiracists, ignoring or understating the motivations of ordinary people and the material conditions that push them to struggle against state repression,” in the words of a research paper from 2023.[11] Additionally, these tankies become pawns in a larger geopolitical struggle which has little to do with the material conditions present in the US, and sow division between activists who are for or against certain governments or left-wing ideologies.
Also causing division among activists and radical organizers is cop-jacketing, fueled by the actual history of police infiltration and surveillance explored in Parts II and III. One article from an IWW-affiliated group from Minnesota reported that during protests outside the Minneapolis 4th Police Precinct, two activists were cop jacketed and had their photographs spread on social media.[12] In another article by Kick the Bucket Distro (KBD), a left-wing zine publisher, the authors report on other cases of cop jacketing during protests between 2020 and 2024. In one instance, a social media post reads “TORONTO!!! STAY HOME JUNE 6TH!!! There is a group of people planning a riot downtown and they are not with #blacklivesmatter! [sic]”.[13] In this case, the author’s post implies that activists must be affiliated with the Black Lives Matter organization to organize an event; of course, such an implication limits an independent organizer’s ability to draw a crowd for an effective protest and leaves one organization with the ability to dictate what counts as a legitimate means of resistance.
Similar posts were made in the summer of 2020 warning that law enforcement was leaving so-called “bait bricks,” or pallets of construction materials to instigate riots. There was no evidence that this was happening and, in the words of KBD’s article, “protests with unknown organizers or cop cars on fire were [implied to be] signs of a police set-up.”[14] The article goes on to say that Zionist groups used the Left’s paranoia against itself during protests against the Israel-Hamas War in 2024: “Projects like the ‘Shirion Collective,’ a Zionist doxing campaign that claimed on social media to be training undercover operatives, see and celebrate when the Left eats its own.”[15] Other cases of cop jacketing suggest that white activists working in racial justice movements might, in fact, be agitators or infiltrators[16] – an obvious parallel to law enforcement exploiting racial divisions between the New Left and Black Power movements in the 1960s and 1970s.
Conclusion
Paranoid and conspiratorial thinking is nothing new among radical groups of both the far-left and the far-right. However, in recent years, what seems to separate the theories and rumors believed by the Left from those on the Right is their basis in a long history of police repression and fascist violence. Conspiracy theories and rumors which are exclusive to the far-left, apart from tankie rumors of CIA-backed protests, tend to be localized and focused on accusations of a specific person or group infiltrating or attempting to attack an activist space.
Rarely does the Left draw on tropes typical of other conspiracy theories, such as outside infiltrators or a cabal taking control of the highest level of government, and a battle between good and evil. Rather, among anti-authoritarian leftists, when the state chooses to violently repress a protest, infiltrate an opposition group, or work with big business to break unions, it is acting exactly how they would expect a state to act. Similarly, when rumors go around of a potential fascist attack on a protest, it’s considered plausible because fascists, whether as lone wolves or entire groups like the Proud Boys, have attacked leftists in the past and will continue to do so in the future, with or without state support.
As a result of the state’s ever-expanding ability to surveil and infiltrate activist circles, organizers have been in a constant race to escape the reach of the state’s repression efforts. In some cases, the resulting paranoia, rumor-mongering, and conspiratorial thinking have sown division within activist circles and benefitted state efforts to disenfranchise social justice movements. In others, like the death of Antonio Mays Jr., it has led to the loss of innocent life, a collapse in public support for activists, and the takeover of a social justice movement by moderate political actors, hoping to maintain the status quo.
Despite these setbacks, radical organizers and activists have learned from these mistakes, particularly in the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd Protests, and developed measures to counter disinformation and disrupt the state’s ability to infiltrate and surveil radical movements. Activists have turned to encrypted messaging apps, such as Signal, as a means of protecting their personal communications. Activist networks on Signal or social media can work to counter disinformation, and track law enforcement activity during demonstrations. Others organize workshops or write pamphlets to educate activists on measures they can take to avoid taking unnecessary risks.
Additionally, the expansion of the state’s security and surveillance infrastructure, and the overreliance on new and often misunderstood technologies has left that infrastructure open to attack. Every security camera or license plate reader installed by local police is a financial liability that can be easily targeted with a laser pointer, paint, or a pellet gun. Every software program or social media account belonging to a police department or officer contains sensitive information that, if accessed, can be leaked and publicized. Fascists and agents of state repression are as easily identifiable through social media and online communications as activists are. All of this is not to mention the ease with which the internet can be used to spread information which counters narratives put forth by the state, moderates attempting to maintain the status quo, or the far-right. Though these defensive measures and attacks can do little to stop the state’s program of repression, they certainly throw a wrench in the gears and help limit the state’s ability to repress radical organizing efforts.
Part 1 of This Essay Can Be Found Here
David Wazana is a journalist and photographer based in Los Angeles, California. In 2025 he graduated from Ithaca College with a BA in Documentary Film Production and a BS in Environmental Science. David’s writing and photography interests include radical politics, history, environmental issues, technology, and conflict. His most recent work is as a reporter with the Rochester Beacon, a non-profit newspaper in Rochester, New York, and freelance writing and photography covering the Israel-Hamas War, natural disaster recovery in Appalachia, and the 2024 US Presidential Campaign. See some of his work on Instagram, @davwaz5.
References
[1] William Rosenau and Megan McBride, “What We Know—and What We Don’t Know—About the Presence of Right-Wing Extremism in US Law Enforcement”, The Center for Naval Analysis (CNA), April, 2021, https://www.cna.org/reports/2021/04/what-we-know-and-what-we-dont-know-about-the-presence-of-right-wing-extremism-in-law-enforcement.pdf.
[2] Visual Investigations, “How U.S. Police Took a Hands-Off Approach to Armed Groups in 2020”, New York Times, Nov. 2, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa9_hJVmav8&list=PL4CGYNsoW2iAZt9-UzPyPZOH-AlRMxcIE&index=24.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Visual Investigations, “A Fatal Night in Kenosha: How the Rittenhouse Shootings Unfolded”, New York Times, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpTW2AJE9MQ&rco=1.
[5] Sarah Jong and Sergio Olmos, “The Portland Van Abductions”, The Verge, Oct. 19, 2022, https://www.theverge.com/c/23374765/portland-van-abductions-protests-2020-homeland.
[6] Rachel Levinson-Waldman, Harsha Panduranga, and Faiza Patel, “Social Media Surveillance by the US Government”, Brennan Center for Justice, Jan. 7, 2022, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/social-media-surveillance-us-government.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid and “Social Media Surveillance”, LAPD Architecture of Surveillance, Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, Oct. 20, 2024, https://architectureofsurveillance.notion.site/LAPD-Architecture-of-Surveillance-106f82e2b6568044829ed53806491be1?p=ffff82e2b656816c8464c4a8e5a28578&pm=s.
[9] Ali Swenson, Beatrice Dupuy, Arijeta Lajka, and Amanda Seitz, “NOT REAL NEWS: False stories from this week about protests, Aunt Jemima, CNN”, ABC 7 Eyewitness News, Jun. 20, 2020, https://abc7ny.com/fake-news-not-real-aunt-jemima-cnn/6257686/.
[10] Martin Austermuhle and Miles Parks, ‘None Of This Is True’: Protests Become Fertile Ground for Online Disinformation”, NPR, Jun. 1, 2020, https://www.npr.org/2020/06/01/867137863/none-of-this-is-true-protests-become-fertile-ground-for-online-disinformation.
[11] Stephen Harper, and Tom Sykes. “Conspiracy Theories Left, Right and … Centre: Political Disinformation and Liberal Media Discourse.” new formations: a journal of culture/theory/politics 109 (2023): 110-128. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/911312.
[12] “No Badjacketing: The State Wants to Kill Us; Let’s Not Cooperate”, Twin Cities General Organizing Committee, 2020, https://twincitiesgdc.org/badjacketing/.
[13] “Not Liking Someone Doesn’t Mean They’re a Cop”, Kick the Bucket Distro, 2024, https://north-shore.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/On-Badjacketing-Online.pdf.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
Sources
“COINTELPRO Black Extremist Files 03”, FBI Records: The Vault, https://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro/cointel-pro-black-extremists/COINTELPRO%20Black%20Extremist%20Part%2003/view
“COINTELPRO New Left Buffalo Part 01”, FBI Records: The Vault, https://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro/new-left/COINTELPRO%20New%20Left%20Buffalo%20Part%2001%20%28Final%29/view
“COINTELPRO New Left Los Angeles Part 01”, FBI Records: The Vault, https://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro/new-left/COINTELPRO%20New%20Left%20Los%20Angeles%20Part%2001/view
Harper, Stephen and Sykes, Tom. “Conspiracy Theories Left, Right and … Centre: Political Disinformation and Liberal Media Discourse.” new formations: a journal of culture/theory/politics 109 (2023): 110-128. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/911312
“No Badjacketing: The State Wants to Kill Us; Let’s Not Cooperate”, Twin Cities General Organizing Committee, 2020, https://twincitiesgdc.org/badjacketing/
“Not Liking Someone Doesn’t Mean They’re a Cop”, Kick the Bucket Distro, 2024, https://north-shore.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/On-Badjacketing-Online.pdf
Olmsted, Kathryn, Real Enemies, Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11, Oxford University Press, 2009
Palmer, A. Richard, “The Case Against Reds”, The Forum Magazine, 1920, https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=3992
Goldman, Emma, Living My Life, Dover Publications, 1970
Greenberg, Ivan, Surveillance in America, Critical Analysis of the FBI, 1920 to the Present, Lexington Books, 2012
Marshall, Everett, Free Society, 1901
Owens, Dave, “A Review of Intelligence Oversight Failures”, Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin (Dec. 2012), https://irp.fas.org/agency/army/mipb/2012_04-owen.pdf
“Project Mockingbird”, Files at Gerald Ford Presidential Library, https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/sites/default/files/pdf_documents/library/document/0180/75573204.pdf
Rosenau, William and McBride, Megan, “What We Know—and What We Don’t Know—About the Presence of Right-Wing Extremism in US Law Enforcement”, The Center for Naval Analysis (CNA), (Apr. 2021), https://www.cna.org/reports/2021/04/what-we-know-and-what-we-dont-know-about-the-presence-of-right-wing-extremism-in-law-enforcement.pdf
Schmidt, Regin, Red Scare, FBI and the Origins of Anticommunism in the United States, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2000.
“The CIA’s Family Jewels”, National Security Archive, June 26, 2007, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB222/index.htm
Contemporary News Articles and Webpages
Austermuhle, Martin and Parks, Miles, ‘None Of This Is True’: Protests Become Fertile Ground for Online Disinformation”, NPR, Jun. 1, 2020, https://www.npr.org/2020/06/01/867137863/none-of-this-is-true-protests-become-fertile-ground-for-online-disinformation
Brownstone, Sydney and Gutman, David, “’Everybody Down!’: What happened at the shooting that killed a teenager and led to CHOPs shutdown”, The Seattle Times, July 8, 2020, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/everybody-down-what-happened-at-the-chop-shooting-that-killed-a-teenager-and-led-to-the-areas-shutdown/
Jones, Sam and Kishi, Roudabeh, “Demonstrations and Political Violence in America: New Data for the Summer 2020”, Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), Sept. 2020, https://acleddata.com/2020/09/03/demonstrations-political-violence-in-america-new-data-for-summer-2020/
Jong, Sarah and Olmos, Sergio, “The Portland Van Abductions”, The Verge, Oct. 19, 2022, https://www.theverge.com/c/23374765/portland-van-abductions-protests-2020-homeland
Singhvi, Sahil, “Police Infiltration of Protests Undermines the First Amendment”, Brennan Center for Justice, Aug. 4, 2020, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/police-infiltration-protests-undermines-first-amendment
Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, “Social Media Surveillance”, LAPD Architecture of Surveillance, Oct. 20, 2024, https://architectureofsurveillance.notion.site/LAPD-Architecture-of-Surveillance-106f82e2b6568044829ed53806491be1?p=ffff82e2b656816c8464c4a8e5a28578&pm=s
Swenson, Ali, Dupuy, Beatrice, Lajka, Arijeta, and Seitz, Amanda “NOT REAL NEWS: False stories from this week about protests, Aunt Jemima, CNN”, ABC 7 Eyewitness News, Jun. 20, 2020, https://abc7ny.com/fake-news-not-real-aunt-jemima-cnn/6257686/
Levinson-Waldman, Rachel, Panduranga, Harsha, and Patel, Faiza, “Social Media Surveillance by the US Government”, Brennan Center for Justice, Jan. 7, 2022, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/social-media-surveillance-us-government.
Weill, Kelly, “The Far Right is Stirring Up Violence at Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone”, The Daily Beast, June 16, 2020, https://www.thedailybeast.com/seattle-capitol-hill-autonomous-zone-visited-by-violent-proud-boys/?ref=home
Videos and Podcasts
Aaronson, Trevor, host, “Alphabet Boys”, iHeartPodcasts, Feb. 2020, https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-alphabet-boys-107700229/
Hanrahan, Jake, “The Rise and Fall of the Seattle CHOP”, Popular Front, Aug. 9, 2020, 24 min., 43 sec., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DwZ_s1gSjQ&rco=1
Shaw, Larry, dir. The X-Files, Season 1, Episode 10, “Fallen Angel”, Nov. 19, 1993, on Fox
Visual Investigations, “A Fatal Night in Kenosha: How the Rittenhouse Shootings Unfolded”, New York Times, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpTW2AJE9MQ&rco=1
Visual Investigations, “How U.S. Police Took a Hands-Off Approach to Armed Groups in 2020”, New York Times, Nov. 2, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa9_hJVmav8&list=PL4CGYNsoW2iAZt9-UzPyPZOH-AlRMxcIE&index=24