Jerry Koch has been imprisoned inÂ New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center for nearly five months. He isn’t accused of any crime. He wasÂ subpoenaed to a federal grand jury, where he refused to answer questions about his anarchist political beliefs and his community. I previously wrote about Koch’s case forÂ Vice, and Anna Simonton has recently published an excellent article about the use of grand juries to target political dissidents on Alternet.

Here’s an excerpt:

Grand juries have been a tool in the FBI’s arsenal of intimidation and information-gathering tactics for decades. They were a hallmark of the Red Scare, COINTELPRO, and more recently the Green Scare, in which animal rights activists and environmentalists have been branded â€œeco-terroristsâ€ by law enforcement.

Over the past year grand juries have seen a resurgence as the FBI has cracked down on radical communities. Koch’s case was preceded by a high-profile grand jury in the Pacific Northwest, where four people from Washington and Oregon were imprisoned for refusing to testify.

Will Potter, author ofÂ Green Is the New Red, a historical survey of the Green Scare, says there are parallels between these recent grand juries and past FBI interference in social movements. But these cases also mark what he views as a change in tactics on the part of law enforcement.

â€œWhen we’re seeing things like the grand juries in the Northwest, or Jerry’s case in New York, we have to remember that the FBI is givingÂ training presentationsÂ to new agents identifying anarchists as ‘criminals in search of an ideology,’â€ Potter warns. â€œWhat we’re seeing is a criminalization of an entire belief system.â€