Last year, I got ahold of several hundred pages of police documents on anti-fascists, “black identity extremists,” and white supremacists via records request and built a story around them, along with other reporting, for Shadowproof. Police agencies downplayed the threat of white supremacists leading up to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville last year to focus on “anarchist extremists” and other anti-racist counter-protesters. The police’s surveillance harassment of anti-racists in Charlottesville is also linked to a broader campaign of political repression targeting those who have squared off against white supremacists.
Also, check out my interview as part of a roundtable discussion partly related to this story on the It’s Going Down podcast.
Police Targeted Anti-Racists In Charlottesville Ahead of ‘Unite The Right’ Rally, Documents Show