By Aaron Kesel

The Department of Homeland Security has expressed to law enforcement how to ID anti-racist Antifa protesters—by looking for people who are sent to scout out marching routes wearing black, The Daily Beast reported.

The Counterprotesters at white supremacist rallies risk being characterized as “anarchist extremists,” even if they have nothing to do with Antifa itself, Department of Homeland Security documents showed according to The Daily Beast.

A September 2016 DHS report shortly before Obama left office describes law enforcement response during clashes between white supremacists and antifascists (commonly known as “Antifa”). The report, which was obtained by the government transparency nonprofit Property of the People and shared with The Daily Beast, revealed how the Obama DHS had profiled leftist protesters. A few months after the report’s release, the Trump Justice Department would use similar, overbroad profiles to prosecute hundreds of people who protested at President Donald Trump’s inauguration day ceremony.

The DHS report highlights “two violent clashes in 2016 in Sacramento and Anaheim between anarchist extremists and lawfully protesting white supremacists at legally permitted rallies.”

The report uses those cases to describe how law enforcement might target future “anarchist extremists” who protest at white supremacist rallies. But the agency’s description of “anarchist extremists” is dubious and suggests the DHS might be conflating multiple distinct social movements.

On Jan. 20, 2017, three months after the DHS report’s publication, D.C. police arrested hundreds of people who protested outside Trump’s inauguration. Guess what? The prosecutors in that case initially pressed charges against 200 people, accusing them of conspiring to riot based on evidence they were walking with the group or wearing dark clothing.

Further, in a move straight out of Minority Report, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wants to develop advanced facial recognition technology that scans the faces of travelers as they enter and leave the U.S. border on highways, Activist Post reported.

If that wasn’t enough, the DHS’s response if you feel they are violating your rights is comical.

Last year, Homeland Security clarified their position on domestic spying stating Americans who don’t want faces scanned leaving the country “shouldn’t travel.”

“The only way for an individual to ensure he or she is not subject to collection of biometric information when traveling internationally is to refrain from traveling,” the DHS wrote in a document.

Not only does the DHS want a facial recognition database, the DHS is also seeking to spy on journalists, bloggers and anyone who mentions its name keeping a database i.e. this reporter reporting on the overall insanity of profiling going on within the DHS. The First Amendment, both the right to assemble and the rights to a free press, is singing its final swan song and dying right before our very eyes.

Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post. Support us at Patreon. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Steemit, and BitChute. Ready for solutions? Subscribe to our premium newsletter Counter Markets.

Image credit: Pixabay (modified)