The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found itself at the center of controversy on Monday after its official Twitter account made a post celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“Today, the FBI honors the life and work of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,” the FBI Twitter account posted. “A quote from Dr. King is etched in stone at the FBI Academy’s reflection garden in Quantico as a reminder to all students and FBI employees: ‘The time is always right to do what is right.’ #MLKDay.”
Today, the FBI honors the life and work of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A quote from Dr. King is etched in stone at the FBI Academy’s reflection garden in Quantico as a reminder to all students and FBI employees: “The time is always right to do what is right.” #MLKDay pic.twitter.com/UKMLAAZw5w
— FBI (@FBI) January 20, 2020
Many social media users were outraged over the post, and responded by pointing out that the FBI launched a surveillance and harassment campaign against King in the 1960s– which included a letter sent to King encouraging him to kill himself.
Your agency sent MLK letters telling him to kill himself. It followed and harassed him. It plotted to murder him. How dare you? https://t.co/BmNiTfY6xZ
— FERRARI SHEPPARD (@stopbeingfamous) January 20, 2020
You motherfuckers harassed him, tapped his phones, and sent him him a letter suggesting he kill himself. Sit the fuck down today, k? https://t.co/tO3XD40EDx
— Jason Bailey (@jasondashbailey) January 20, 2020
According to the Select Committee on Assassination’s final report on Martin Luther King Jr, the @FBI “grossly abused and exceeded its legal authority & failed to consider the possibility that actions threatening bodily harm to Dr. King might be encouraged” https://t.co/eucF2wRbRe https://t.co/c15pgMdoJU
— Cato Institute (@CatoInstitute) January 20, 2020
the fbi surveilled king and his friends for decades under the suspicion that they were subversives who might become terrorists
meanwhile, white supremacists across the south were literal terrorists, bombing black churches, and the fbi did nothing https://t.co/yc0BBZoeIq
— Dianna E. Anderson 🏳️🌈 (@diannaeanderson) January 20, 2020