Justin King

(TheAntiMedia) As the world waits to see if the thin blue line will protect itself once again in Ferguson, the hacktivist collective Anonymous has targeted the infamous Ku Klux Klan. The white supremacist organization recently attempted a rebranding to show the world it wasn’t about hate, but its true colors have shown through. Those colors are white and blue.

Missouri Klansmen circulated a flyer stating they would use lethal force against “terrorists masquerading as peaceful protesters.” The Klan states it won’t tolerate threats against cops and their families.

Anonymous stepped in and has started doxing (internet slang for gathering every piece of publicly available information about a person) area Klansmen as part of #OpKKK, which can be found under the hashtag #HoodsOff.

Tactically and structurally, the two groups are more similar than either would like to admit. Both groups use the anonymity of a mask to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies, both maintain at least a partially decentralized leadership, both are ideologically motivated, both have the ability to wield a massive amount of political power from behind the scenes by using members that hide their affiliation, and both have established a reputation for following through with their threats. That’s where the similarities end.

The Klan’s reputation comes from violent acts perpetrated in the name of maintaining white supremacy, and the reputation of Anonymous has evolved from cyber attacks against the establishment. Given that one is a pro-establishment organization prone to mob mentality, and the other is an anti-establishment hive whose effectiveness rests on a highly-evolved mob mentality, it was inevitable that the two organizations would eventually face off.

The threat from the Klan against the protesters must be taken seriously. If they have the suspected ties to the area’s law enforcement, they aren’t defending the cops, they are defending themselves. They will probably have the silent consent of local law enforcement when carrying out criminal activities. Unlike the protesters, the Klan has been classified as a terrorist organization. So the threat against the protesters is real.

Those behind the Anonymous operation are worried that Klansmen will infiltrate protests and intentionally provoke their colleagues on the police force to give them an excuse to attack the protesters. It’s not an unrealistic fear. The Klan’s relationship with law enforcement goes back over 100 years, and that pairing has effectively neutralized civil rights protesters in the past.

Anonymous has a large contingent of operatives already on the ground in Ferguson. They have a command center set up just blocks from the courthouse where there are no less than two dozen Anons at any given time, and have carloads of activists showing up throughout the day. Antimedia spoke with some of the Anonymous activists on the ground in Ferguson to get their reaction to the news that they are Klan targets. The responses were typical of Anonymous. All names are pseudonyms to protect the activists from Klan or police initiated violence.

AB2 said: “F—k the Klan!” JD said: “They’re a bunch of backwoods inbred pricks. They are just looking for a reason to act like racist dipsh-ts. This whole thing doesn’t even concern their cause. Running around in a bunch of [deleted] stained sheets. The Klan won’t do sh-t, Justin. I would be more worried about the Aryans as they are more radical. And the Aryans won’t show up in Ferguson because they are sorely outnumbered by… well… everyone.”

There might be a small level of overconfidence on the part of Anonymous. Throughout most of the country, the KKK-cop relationship has diminished steadily since the early 1980s, but the Klan’s relationship with law enforcement in Missouri is strong. The white supremacist group openly raised money for the cop that pulled the trigger, Officer Darren Wilson. Local departments whose officers were sporting “I am Darren Wilson” paraphernalia are probably going to provide the Klan with a large degree of operational latitude.

Interestingly, Imperial Wizard Frank Ancona disagreed with the fundraising activities because it’s against the organization’s rules to speak to the press (He said in an interview with the press). In the interview with The Wire, Ancona dropped a bombshell that went largely unnoticed because it was overshadowed by the mass of police violence and threats during the Battle of Ferguson. He said his members were

“patrolling neighborhoods where people are concerned and reporting to law enforcement in regards to what they are seeing.”

Let that sink in. The Klan is reporting to law enforcement. The Klansmen were ordered not to wear Klan insignia. It forces the question: how many of the people thought to be plain clothes officers seen during the Battle of Ferguson were Klan members? This tie casts doubt on the authority of all law enforcement in the area, and further alienates citizens who are not racially motivated.

The Klan has yet to publicly respond to the Anonymous operation, but an organization that is highly secretive is unlikely to sit by while their membership roster is disclosed. Anon accounts have posted the names and photographs of dozens of Klan members. They have used social media accounts to determine where the Klan members and their families shop. This will certainly cause trouble for Klansmen who oftentimes struggle to keep their controversial beliefs a secret.

The call to violence put out by the Klan is likely to inflame tensions that are already high ahead of the Grand Jury’s decision. A failure to indict the shooter is certain to set off protests that will likely turn violent as police and their Klan allies attempt to suppress their First Amendment rights.

This article (The Battle of Ferguson II: Anonymous faces off with Klan in #OpKKK) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TheAntiMedia.org. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive our latest articles.