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UNCLASSIFIED/ALAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE (U) Executive Summary (U//FOUO) The FBI assesses it is very likelya Black Identity Extremistb (BIE) perceptions of police brutality against African Americans spurred an increase in premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement and will very likely serve as justification for such violence The FBI assess it is very likely this increase began following the 9 August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the subsequent Grand Jury November 2014 declination to indict the police officers involved. The FBI assesses it is very likely incidents of alleged police abuse against African Americans since then have continued to feed the resurgence. in ideologically motivated, violent criminal activity within the BIE movement. The FBI assesses it is very likely some BiEs are influenced by a mix of anti-authoritarian, Moorish sovereign citizenc ideology, and BIE ideology. The FBI has high confidenced in these assessments, based. on a history of violent incidents attributed to individuals who acted on behalf of their ideological beliefs, documented in FBI investigations and other Iaw enforcement and open source reporting The FBI makes this judgment with the key assumption the recent incidents are ideologically. motivated. a (U) Scc Appendix A: Expressions of Likelihood (or Probability). b (U//rOUO) The FBI defincs black identity cxtremists as individuals who seck. wholly or in part. through unlawful acls of forcc or yiolcncc. in rcsponsc to pcrccivcd racism and injusticc in Amcrican socicty and somc do so in furtherance of cstablishing a scparatc black homcland or autonomous black social institutions. communitics. or govcrning organizations within the United States. This desire for phy sical or psychological separation is typically. bascd on cithcr a religious or political bclicf sy stem. which is somctimes formed around or includcs a belicf in racial supcriority or supremacy. Thc mere advocacy of political or social positions. political activism. usc of strong rhetoric. or generalized philosophic cmbracc of violcnt tactics may not constitute cxtremism. and may bc constitutionally protccted. c (U//FOUO) Thc FBI defincs sovercign citizen cxtremists as individuals who opcnly rcjcct thcir US citizenship status. bclicvc that most forms of cstablishcd govcrnment. authority. and institutions arc illcgitimatc. and seck. wholly or in part. through unlawful acts of forcc or violcncc. to further thcir claim to bc immunc from govcrnment. authority. The mere advocacy of political or social positions. political activism. usc of strong rhetoric. or gencralized philosophic cmbrace of violent tactics may not constituie exiremism. and may be constitutionally protected. d (U) Sce Appendix B: Confidence in Assessments and Judgments Based on a Body of Information.. UNCLASSIFIED/ALAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE 2