The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Media Justice (CMJ) filed a complaint on Thursday accusing the FBI of "improperly withholding" information sought in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the organizations in October regarding surveillance of black activists.
The organizations sought to obtain information related to the surveillance of black people on the basis of a "purported shared ideology." The request was made in response to a 2017 FBI report titled "Black Identity Extremists Likely Motivated to Target Law Enforcement," in which connections are drawn between alleged police brutality against African Americans and an increase in ideologically motivated violence toward law enforcement.
