How did a young Ferguson activist get caught up in an FBI sting? It’s a long and complicated tale with many sides.
Following the killing of Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 20143 by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, Olajuwon Davis was inspired to speak out against and protest police brutality. He became part of the local New Black Panthers group and made his voice known.
Davis, who was also attracted to the teachings and beliefs of the Moors, adopted the title “Minister of Truth and Justice.” “He identifies as an ‘Aboriginal Moor’ and a ‘sovereign citizen,’ freed from the legal authority of what he considers an illegitimate government,” RiverFront Times reported.
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He became very active in the Ferguson community, even uploading a video of himself seeking the assistance of the United Nations “in helping the indigenous peoples of the world.”
He often addressed crowds of protestors and began to be noticed by not only the locals and news media, but also by law enforcement, including the FBI. To law officials, he was becoming militant.
And on Nov. 21, 2014, Davis attempted to buy a pipe bomb from the FBI. He has actually been set up in a sting by a close friend.
Davis is now in a federal prison in Milan, Michigan, and is scheduled to be released from prison in 2020. By then he will have served more than six years in various institutions as a result of his arrest in the 2014 FBI sting operation.
Davis was arrested along with a second Black Panther, Brandon Baldwin.
According to a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, citing “sources close to the investigation,” the two men had reportedly plotted to detonate a pipe bomb in the observation deck at the top of the Arch.
“Davis was the ringleader of the plot, the sources said. The Post-Dispatch described a plan of ambitious violence that included the assassination of Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson and St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch,” RiverFront Times reported.
Davis and Baldwin both pleaded guilty in June 2015, then-U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan released a statement.
But some still question how this all came about.
“Left unsaid, however, was the full story of how two Black Panthers became targets in a weeks-long FBI sting operation whose every element (including inert bombs) was meticulously arranged and largely funded by two confidential informants posing as protesters,” RiverFront Times reported.
It all seemed out of character. After all, Davis had been a college-bound musician and an aspiring actor, who felt the need to speak out against injustices. That was until his former friend starting working secretly with the FBI to put him in prison.
Davis was already on the FBI’s radar after being arrested for transpassing when he refused to pay taxes on an item he bought at a store. He had believed he could declare himself as his own independent nationality, or “sovereign,” and this would exempt him from taxes and government interference in his travel. He even printed out his own identification card, which included a field for “Ancestral Estate: North, South, Central Amexem/Africa/America,” and on the card he had designated his race as “human.”
The FBI had two confidential sources who set up Baldwin and Davis. According to the police information, the pair made their first “straw buy” at a store Baldwin worked at. During the buy, Baldwin used his employee discount to purchase a .45-caliber handgun priced at $500. They had been given money for the gun was given to them by Davis’ “family friend” turned informant.
Davis and Baldwin were not arrested at that point. The FBI has another setup in mind.
According to court records, on the way back from buying the gun, a confidential informant recorded Davis and Baldwin as they “discussed purchasing ‘black powder’ from the outdoors retailer to use in making bombs.” Baldwin allegedly stated that he would distribute bombs to ‘hit them in places where it hurt, hit someone important.'”
“In reality, the two were broke twenty-somethings with no known connections to anyone close to a bomb seller or a terror network. Aside from Davis’ trespassing citation, neither even has a criminal record. But they perfectly fit the profile of the sort of suspected ‘lone wolf’ terrorist that the FBI targeted in the decade of the War on Terror, cases that involved predominately Muslim targets identified in mosques or found in radical Islamic chat rooms,” RiverFront Time reported.
For many Ferguson, it was set up by the FBI.
“It’s like a play, with the FBI providing the set, the dialogue, the characters and equipment. The production just needs willing actors who believe in the role so deeply that they never realize they’re trapped in a thriller whose ending is already written,” RiverFront Times reported.
