GOODY TWO SHOES: Activist Turns Informant, Activists Turn On Him
Austin, TX, community activist Brandon Darby is a man of conscience. His conscience compelled him to go to New Orleans to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. His conscience also compelled him to become an FBI informant in an effort to prevent violence at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. He divulged his moonlighting in an open letter posted on Indymedia.org, reports The New York Times:
“The simple truth is that I have chosen to work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I strongly stand behind my choices in this matter.”
In a telephone interview, Darby “defended his decision to work with the F.B.I. as ‘a good moral way to use my time’” and “acknowledged that many people he spied on might not accept his explanation that he was motivated by conscience.”
His fellow activists in Austin are outraged - not by David McKay and Bradley Crowder, who are accused of making and possessing Molotov cocktails – but by Darby, who will be a key witness against them when they go on trial in MN later this month:
Mr. Darby’s revelations caused shock and indignation in the activist community, with people in various groups and causes accusing him of betrayal.
“The emerging truth about Darby’s malicious involvement in our communities is heart-breaking and utterly ground-shattering,” said the Austin Informant Working Group, a collection of activists from the city who worked with Mr. Darby. “Through the history of our struggles for a better world, infiltrators and informants have acted as tools for the forces of misery in disrupting and derailing our movements.”
Darby tells The Times: “I am well aware that I’ve stepped outside of accepted behaviors and that I’ve committed a sin in the eyes of many activists.”
Perhaps the reporter from The Times didn’t ask Austin Informant Working Group, but The Stiletto is wondering how lobbing home-made incendiary devices at convention-goers would have made the world a better place.
Brandon Darby has absolutely NO conscience. For years he advocated for militant, and sometimes armed confrontations with law enforcement. He began to work for the FBI in February of 2007, and did not start even meet the 2 young activists who he is now railroading into jail until 2008. Brandon is a liar, hypocrite, snitch, agent provocateur and all around jerk. if you are not convinced, please check out http://brandondarby.com
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Lee Otis Johnson - no matter how many websites you post your garbage on it will still remain untrue.
I have known Brandon Darby for years and have the greatest respect for him and his years of activist work in groups such as Common Ground. I know that his decision to work with the FBI was made after a lot of thought and soul searching. It wasn't made lightly, or to hurt the greater community of activists, it was made to stop a small contingent of violent people from carrying out potentially lethal activities at the RNC.
A look at the facts shows that Brandon's concerns were well founded. Over a period of months the group made riot shields by cutting up traffic barrels and driving deck screws through the plastic to serve as spikes. The group then drove across the country with a trailer containing 35 of the spiked shields plus baton and helmets. I don't think anyone can say that spiked shields, batons and helmets are the tools of peaceful protest. After the trailer of goodies was confiscated, two of the group purchased the materials for, and assembled, a number of gasoline filled firebombs. The eight firebombs recovered weren't 'alleged', or 'hypothetical', they were real. And they had the potential to injure or kill a number of people. These firebombs are what the 'Texas 2' were arrested for, not for exercising free speech. And, remember, one of the Texas 2 plead guilty this week to the charges against him.
Many in the Austin activist community, including Lisa Fithian and Scott Crow, knew of the group's plans to violently disrupt the RNC but they chose to stand idle and not prevent the violence. They are now trying to make Brandon the scapegoat rather than admit they should have done more to self-police the group.
Brandon is a good person who made a tough choice because he could not stand by and let people get hurt.
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