A judge has dismissed the indictment of a man believed to be the first person to be designated a black identity extremist. That man, Christopher Daniels, was ordered to be released from pre-trial detention early this week, Al Jazeera reports.

Daniels was arrested by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in December 2017 for possessing rifles. The federal agencies argued that Daniels could not possess firearms given that he was charged with a misdemeanor domestic assault in Tennessee in 2007.

Daniels' supporters maintain that he was arrested as a black identity extremist for his work with two armed groups that regularly protest police brutality, the Huey P. Newton Gun Club and the Guerilla Mainframe.

The term "black identity extremist" first became public following the release of an FBI report in 2017. The report claims that the deaths of Michael Brown and other black men at the hands of law enforcement have spawned a dangerous new class of domestic threats.

“The FBI assesses it is very likely black identity extremist (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 report read. The report went on to say that further black deaths would only "feed the resurgence in ideologically motivated, violent criminal activity within the BIE movement."

Newly released documents show that the FBI kept tabs on members of the Black Lives Movement following the compilation of the black identity extremist report.

Documents from Daniels' court hearings show that he too was being watched by the FBI, who took notice of him after he appeared on several far-right news outlets in reports covering anti-police brutality protests. Prosecutors also used his social media posts criticizing the police when making their case to the court as to why Daniels ought to remain in jail.

Daniels' lawyers claimed that while he did own firearms, because the Tennessee definition of misdemeanor domestic assault differs from the federal definition, that he broke no laws.

Judge Sidney Fitzwater agreed, and Daniels should be a free man again shortly.

Christopher Daniels

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