COINTELPRO-Style Behavior

What It Is, How To Recognize It, What To Do When You See It

On Saturday, April 5th, tens of thousands of protesters gathered across the country to push back against the Trump regime’s unrelenting attacks on democracy, the rule of law, and basic human rights. I was in DC for the event, and it was beautiful.

Today, on the Internet, I noticed some behaviors I recognize from 2020. People attacking the protests as useless for not engaging in more direct civil disobedience, going so far as to say the libs are purposefully using these protests to diffuse anger and avoid actual change. People accusing a member of the LA protests of calling the cops on a vendor with no evidence beyond accusations from the vendor in question. Etc. Etc. Etc.

This is great news. It means protests are gaining momentum. It also means it’s time to talk about COINTELPRO-style behavior: what it is, how to recognize it, and what to do when you see it. Many people who engage in these types of behavior aren't federal agents. They probably mean well. They are also engaging in behaviors that are so good at disrupting movements that the FBI literally weaponized them.

Let's back up.

The FBI developed COINTELPRO (short for Counterintelligence Program) in 1956, shortly after Civil Rights protests began to threaten the status quo. The program used a variety of tactics to neutralize left-wing movements, especially organizations fighting for Black liberation. Frivolous legal charges. Withholding evidence. Intimidating witnesses.

COINTELPRO agents also infiltrated organizations and disrupted them by provoking fights and stoking paranoia.

I mentioned COINTELPRO briefly in my article for New Lines Magazine about the Rainbow Coalition, an alliance of activists for working people ultimately thwarted by the FBI. Here's the relevant paragraph (emphasis added):

…Though the FBI tracked, harassed and targeted both [Fred Hampton and Martin Luther King Jr] before 1969, the full force of its infamous COINTELPRO strategy of destabilizing organizations through infiltration and violence did not hit until after these cross-racial efforts began. King was assassinated just as the Poor People’s Campaign, in which people of all races camped on the National Mall to demand economic justice, began to take off. The FBI helped Chicago police officers murder Hampton in his bed a few months after the Rainbow Coalition formed. The Black Panthers, Young Lords and Young Patriots found themselves buried in frivolous legal cases brought against them, which consumed most of their time and resources. The FBI also sent infiltrators to sow dissension, often by playing up racial tensions; a baseless rumor that the Young Patriots were affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan took an especially harsh toll. Within two years, the coalition collapsed.

The FBI officially wound down the program in 1971, but they continue to use these tactics to this day. The Alphabet Boys is a fantastic podcast on the FBI’s use of COINTELPRO-style tactics during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. The most striking example: Michael Adam Windecker, who began showing up to Colorado Springs BLM protests, became a regular, and started encouraging violence, starting drama, and accusing other activists of being federal agents. As it turns out, Windecker was the fed. The Intercept ran a long article about exactly what these COINTELPRO-style tactics looked like on the ground. It will, should you choose to read it, be the most important thing you read all week.

Here are some COINTELPRO-style tactics we should all watch out for:

1. Accusations of impropriety, espcially in the days following a successful event. Bonus points if the accusers:

   1. Say they have strong evidence but never provide it, or demand you believe them without evidence.

   2. Use the incident to disproportionally paint a person or group as irredeemably tainted.

   3. Pivot, when you ask reasonable questions about the accusations, to accusing you of being complicit in the crime. This behavior takes advantage of your desire to be a good person and invokes fear that you'll be cast out in a time when we need community more than ever.

   4. "But Laura, are you saying we should never listen to people who accuse groups or leaders of impropriety?!!" Absolutely not! Serious accusations must be taken seriously. Also, ask for evidence. Opt for dialogue and conflict resolution over ostracism and denunciation when possible.
      

2. Broad statements about a faction within a wider organization. Some paraphrased examples I’ve seen recently:

   1. "the left is always attacking liberals, they hate us and can't be trusted"

   2. "Establishment libs organizing protests are deliberately pacifying the populace"

   3. “Where are Black people in the Palestinian solidarity movement?”

   4. “These protests are unserious, useless, performative garbage. Typical white people behavior.”
      

3. Constant drama. People are going to get into fights and have personal beef, but if someone is ALWAYS having personal beef, and ALWAYS litigating that beef in public within activist circles, that person is disrupting the movement whether they mean to or not. This is a known COINTELPRO tactic.
   

4. People who openly call for violence, property destruction, or other illegal behavior. There is literally NEVER a reason to do this. If violence and/or property destruction become necessary, why would you put it in writing?! We KNOW the Trump regime is going after people for domestic terrorism. Encouraging people to advocate for violence or property destruction online is a great way to take someone out of the fight for absolutely no gain.

Again: the people doing these things are PROBABLY NOT FEDERAL AGENTS. They probably are doing these things because they understand how high the stakes are and desperately want things to succeed. It doesn't matter. These types of actions destroy solidarity, and we have to shut them down immediately

If you encounter these ideas online, some things you can do (from least to most aggressive):

1. Calmly point out that the statement seems counterproductive and explain why

2. Ask for evidence of serious accusations

3. Call them out. Establish a norm of not putting up with that shit

4. Block them

I have a medium account on Bluesky that gets decent engagement. If someone persists in COINTELPRO-style behavior, they're getting blocked eventually -- not because I'm uninterested in discussion or because I think they're a bad person, but because I'm not going to provide a platform for that shit.

If you encounter these actions on the ground, at a protest, things get more difficult. Here are some things I’ve either done or seen done

1. Ignore them. Ice them out. Let them shout at no one. This is good for provocateurs or people behaving erratically when no one’s biting.

2. Shout them down. At one of the first NYC protests in 2025, one person tried to get a “Kill Trump!” chant going. When they halfway succeeded, I yelled “Nope!” repeatedly at the top of my lungs until it stopped. This did not make me popular, and it wasn’t super kosher as someone who was there to document, but these are not ordinary times; I wasn’t there on behalf of a media outlet, I don’t feel bad about it, and I’d do it again. If Fox News got that chant on film, it would have been used to discredit the protests and paint everyone there as terrorists.

   1. Note: the person who did this left shortly after the chant attempt, alone

3. Escort them out of the protest. This is a last resort for when someone will not stop being disruptive, and it may provoke a fight. That sucks. It feels bad. You will be accused of being the protest police. There are times when it has to happen.

The left is tolerant in ways the right can never be. It's our greatest strength, but can also be used against us. There are certain types of bad behavior we're really bad at calling out, especially if someone is using left-coded jargon and concepts to perform it.

Anyway, if yesterday's protests are any indication, a mass movement may be starting up. This is very exciting, but also means we need to exercise caution. The stakes are only going to get higher, and tension is only going to increase. There will be missteps. It's going to be difficult.

It's hard not to fall for COINTELPRO-style disruption, but it's possible. People are actively pushing back against this type of behavior in ways they rarely did in 2020. Lessons have been learned.

We can avoid this trap. We can choose a different path this time.