◆ SpookStack

UNCLASSIFIED/LAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE (U) Scope Note (U) This intelligence assessment focuses on individuals with BIE ideological motivations who have committed targeted, premeditated attacks against law enforcement officers since 2014. This assessment does not address BIEs who have attacked law enforcement officers during the course of officers' routine duties, such as responding to calls and traffic stops, in which violent actions were reactionary in nature.. (U//LES) This assessment addresses the following key intelligence questions: .(U//LE$) To what extent are BIEs' targeting interests retaliatory? (U/LES) What cross-programmatic relationships influence the BIE movement? (U//LES) This assessment is the first FBI analytic intelligence product to assess influences between the sovereign citizen extremist movement and the black identity extremist movement. The FBI has previously reported on BIE retaliatory violence against law enforcement in two products, both of which had findings consistent with this assessment. The 23 March 2016 FBI intelligence bulletin, titled "(U//FoUO) Black Separatist Extremists' Call for Retaliation in assessed incidents involving allegations of law enforcement abuse and related legal proceedings would likely lead to BSE calls for violent retaliation and incite these domestic extremists to commit violent acts against law enforcement. The 14 November 2014 FBI intelligence bulletin, titled "(U//FOUO) Potential Criminal Reactions to Missouri Grand Jury Announcement," assessed the announcement of the grand jury's decision in the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson would likely be exploited by some individuals to justify threats and attacks against law enforcement and critical infrastructure.. UNCLASSIFIED/LAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE (U) Source Summary Statement (U/LES) Reporting in this intelligence assessment was derived primarily from FBI and Iaw enforcement investigations and open source reporting-media interviews of subjects. subjects' posting on social media accounts. and online news articles-deemed credible and reliable. The review of FBI investigations occurred between September 201 and December 2016. The open source reporting was current as of 17 January 2017. Statements made by the subjects to law enforcement during the course of investigations were particularly helpful to identify motivations behind BIE attacks against law enforcement because ideological motivations are infrequently identified or collected. Additional reporting on the ideological motivations bchind BIE attacks would improve the confidence lev'els in this assessment.. UNCLASSIFIED/ALAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE 3