Austin activist reveals himself to be FBI informant

Brandon Darby

In the days just prior to last year’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul, two activists from Texas used a rented U-Haul trailer to transport dozens of homemade shields, helmets and batons to Minnesota’s capital. The two activists, David McKay and Bradley Crowder, presumably intended the homemade protection gear to be used in street demonstrations during the RNC. They were eventually intercepted by St. Paul police officers who appeared to know what the two men were hauling. The officers, who did not use a warrant, proceeded to smash the trailer’s lock and seize its contents. This incident appears to have failed to convince McKay and Crowder of the obvious existence of an informant in their ranks. Soon afterwards, they allegedly began to plan building a number of Molotov firebombs. They purchased the necessary materials from a Wal-Mart store, assembled the firebombs, and stored them in a St. Paul apartment building. Soon afterwards, the city’s police raided the building and seized eight Molotov cocktails stored in the basement. McKay and Crowder are now scheduled to go on trial in Minnesota in late August. They face up to 30 years in prison each, if convicted on all counts.

Who is the principal witness against the two naïve protesters? Step forward Brandon Darby, well-known Austin-area activist and founder of Common Ground Relief, a New Orleans-based community aid agency launched in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Darby, who was known around Austin as “a fiery, grass-roots activist with a mistrust of government”, admitted in an open letter on December 30 that he was employed as an informant by the FBI. Documents handed over by the Bureau to McKay and Crowder’s defense team reveal that Darby began working as a government informant as early as November 2007. Since then, Darby reportedly wore “recording devices at planning meetings” in addition to routinely passing on to FBI “biographical and physical particulars” and offering “observations on the motives, attitudes and states of mind of activists”.

Interestingly, rumors of Darby’s informant status first emerged last October. Back then, many of his activist colleagues had refused to credit them. His co-worker and friend, Scott Crow, had dismissed the allegations as “absolute lie[s]” and had warned against “rumors, conjecture and innuendo” about Darby. Contacted by The New York Times following Darby’s coming-out, Crow said “Brandon Darby is somebody I had entrusted with my life in New Orleans, and now I feel endangered by him”.

Darby’s work appears to be part of a wider infiltration of activist groups by US local and federal law enforcement agencies in the period leading to the 2008 Republican National Convention. On December 1, intelNews reported the infiltration of the Minneapolis Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee by three undercover operatives of the local police department’s Special Investigations Unit. On the same day, intelNews‘ Joseph Fitsanakis analyzed these infiltration incidents as indicative of a pattern of intensification of surveillance of mostly lawful domestic political groups by US intelligence and law enforcement agencies. The relevant article is available here. [JF]