We know both were super closely watched by the
intelligence agencies. Their every move was followed. Their associates were watched. Their phones were tapped. Not only the agencies micro watched, but they also intervened here and there at will. Like, fire that staffer of yours. As in, it was important for them to let MLK know he was being watched. That was psychological warfare designed to unnerve him, to perhaps break his will.
There is a reason why the
right to privacy is a basic human right. The right to privacy is essential to a human being’s sense of self. Unless you have a probable cause that you are shadowing a criminal, in which case you get approval from a judge with an intent to persecute, you have no business shadowing a human being. The agencies violating MLK’s right to privacy was gross and racist. America’s heart stopped in the 60s because JFK, MLK, RFK all got killed. It was not assassination. It was heart attack. Why do conservative elements on the political spectrum have ready and entrenched allies in the state apparatus? The state is supposed to stay neutral.
If you violate a human being’s privacy enough, in the organized and thorough ways that an intelligence agency’s resources make possible, at some point they no longer feel like human beings. You could snuff their life and not even feel a thing. It is objectification of the highest order. It is kind of like, those who commit hate crimes first have to dehumanize their objects of interest. I am not sure if the
MLK assassination was a hate crime or a genocide. A people’s dream got wiped out just like that. The world had to wait for a BHO. Those were long decades.
It is not hard to kill and not leave a trace. There is no proof. How hard is that to do? Most murders in America (and the world) go unsolved. And these are loner criminals doing the deed, or maybe some organized gangs. Intelligence agencies have way more resources than the mightiest cartels down south. See in the movies how it gets done. There is no trace. There is no way to find out.
I am not pointing fingers. I have no proof. But I am tempted to connect the dots. The intelligence agencies totally, thoroughly violating MLK’s right to privacy was gross beyond words can describe. He was never suspected of any crime, so why was he followed around like he ran a cell for the
Al Qaeda? It is not like they were throwing a security blanket around him. The country should have given him bodyguards. The
Dalai Lama gets bodyguards in India. And he has no sworn enemy. MLK received death threats like you and I receive phone calls. MLK was let out to pasture. It was deliberate.
MLK’s right to privacy being violated is not like a public figure’s right to privacy being violated. The public figure chooses to go into the public domain. The public figure is not micro shadowed like he/she were a terrorist. There is no agency collecting relentless data and analyzing and making counter moves as if the public figure is a criminal. What MLK deserved was a security blanket provided for by the state, what they call Z grade security in India. Instead he got monkeys tapping on his phone.
The
surveillance state can get out of hand. It is like the top Bollywood actor
Shahrukh Khan got held at an airport in
New Jersey for hours because his name showed up on some list. I am sure his last name is on every list! But you just wronged a billion strong nation.
The surveillance state can get out of hand and ordinary people can suffer in scores. Racial profiling can be taken to a whole new level through the surveillance state. No community deserves to be harassed.
There has to be a way for you to get your name off a list if you suspect maybe your name is on some list and erroneously so. Like you have a right to know what your credit history is. You have a right to know if your name has been put on any list. Muslims are the blacks today.
The right to privacy is like the right to free speech, like the right to follow the faith of your choice. If a community is being harassed for being Muslim, that right to follow the faith of one’s choice is being violated, and that’s a no no. The
American state impinging on the fundamental rights is the American state doing the bidding of the people it is at war with. Their attack is on values, not on some physical structure. Values are hard to hold, and that is why they have to be held to in a tight embrace.
