BTR News: James Comey’s Claims of Ethical Leadership Should Be Closely Examined

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BTR News – Former FBI director James Comey’s memoirs titled “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership” hit number one in its first week. Although Comey is portraying himself as some straight shooting law and order man and seen as a hero of the opposition to Donald Trump, his record at the FBI shows the former Republican was very much a part of the racist culture nurtured at the FBI by one of its other former directors, J Edgar Hoover.

While J Edgar Hoover was known to be a blatant racist who targeted Black leaders, Comey has carefully crafted a public persona by invoking the name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and mentioning how he has a copy of King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”. While Comey has talked about the racist past of law enforcement in the country, the record shows his loyalty has been to upholding a racist and religiously biased system and he is was not a principled leader while at the FBI unless we are talking about the principles of white supremacy.

In an article published by the Intercept, Professor of political science and author Jeanne Theoharis explores the hypocrisy of Comey’s expressed disgust with the treatment of Dr. King when paired with his actions at the bureau.

Theoharris writes, “Despite this professed appreciation for King and his aim to right the wrongs of the bureau’s past, Comey presided over many of the same racialized tactics and assumptions in his tenure as FBI director: broadly targeting the Muslim-American community, coercing informants, trafficking in racial profiling, surveilling Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock activists, and largely standing aside amid police violence and misconduct. As he hits the lecture circuit this week, feted by many across the political spectrum as the nation’s conscience, we would do well to move beyond his claims of “ethical leadership” to his actual actions as director of the FBI.”

Black Talk Media Project founder Scotty Reid is the host of BTR News and New Abolitionists Radio which he co-hosts. He has been hosting and producing news talk radio and podcasting since 2007 and has interviewed hundreds of guests on various topics. He is also a freelance writer who focuses on social and political issues from around the world and has been published by various outlets. Currently, the live program is on hiatus but check the feed for pre-recorded podcasts.