People Are a Bit Puzzled by the FBI's Tweet Honoring MLK
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The FBI and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were not, by any understanding of the word, friendly. So when the agency decided to commemorate King's assassination, which happened 49 years ago on April 4, by posting one of the activist's quotes on Twitter, people reacted accordingly: puzzled and prepared with clapbacks.
Social media users reminded the FBI that the bureau relentlessly spied on King, dedicated sparing resources to discrediting him, and even went so far as to encourage him toward suicide. Perhaps most egregiously, the FBI was also accused of being complicit in King's murder, and a jury agreed in a 1999 civil suit brought by Dr. King's family to recognize the existence of a conspiracy to murder the civil rights icon.
A few highlights of the best FBI burns are below.
King might be 88 today if FBI had cared more about stopping white terrorists than telling a civil rights leader to kill himself. https://t.co/copCFFBdk9
ā Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy) April 4, 2017
um @FBI you literally spied on him, encouraged him to commit suicide, and were found in court to be involved in his assassination... https://t.co/Bi2F2bQ5qv
ā hangry hangry hebrew (@SweetCuppinJake) April 4, 2017
The @FBI trying to honor MLK is like Trump trying to honor women. It's just weird and doesn't really match up.
ā Metro Bloomin (@Federal_flashes) April 4, 2017
Hilariously, one Twitter user even pointed out that the quote attributed to Dr. King by the FBI was not even originally spoken him.