Boxing was still a really big deal in 1971 when, on this day, Muhammed Ali was defeated in the ring by Joe Frazier. The heavily promoted match in Madison Square Garden was heavily anticipated and went the full fifteen rounds, giving Frazier the heavyweight title by unanimous decision.
The self styled Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the FBI's offices in Media, Pennsylvania and stole over 1,000 documents. The break in was timed to coincide with the boxing match, as the participants knew that it was likely to distract anyone who would otherwise hear them break in. The stolen documents demonstrated that the FBI was engaged on spying on political entities, with most of them being left wing political entities. They immediately offered the information to the press but it wasn't until the Washington Post started publishing from the materials that other papers followed suit.
This FBI was unable to determine the identity of the thieves and a five year statute of limitations ran out, upon which they closed their investigation. In the 2010s five of the eight members of the Commission agreed to be interviewed and identified for a book. Two chose to remain identified only by pseudonyms. Only one of the members actually had taken flight following the theft. It was the only action the Commission took during its existence, although two members were part of the Camden 28, a left wing Catholic youth organization that broke into the draft board in Camden, New Jersey, several months later, a fairly pointless act when its realized that the United States was drawing down from the Vietnam War at the time. Those two were tried along with the rest of the 28 and found not guilty in 1973 in an act of jury nullification.
The event presents some interesting moral questions. The self styled commission had no authority other than its own, and it engaged in theft. However, it did expose the FBI to having been engaged in illegal activity.
No comments:
Post a Comment