There’s a new top cop in New York City. On Thursday, September 12, former NYPD captain and current NYC Mayor Eric Adams appointed Thomas Donlon as the new interim head of the NYPD. Donlon is a former FBI agent who specializes in counterintelligence and “counterterrorism.” His appointment signals a worrying turning point in the rising tide of political repression, particularly against activists engaged in the Palestinian liberation movement and in national liberation struggles generally.

Thomas Donlon replaces former NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, who resigned earlier the same day on September 12, amidst an ongoing federal investigation into corruption among top NYPD officials.

As commissioner, Caban routinely used his power to shield the police from accountability. He intervened in more than 50 disciplinary cases to protect cops who brutalized New Yorkers and dropped the disciplinary actions against the two officers who murdered Kawaski Trawick in 2019.

He also oversaw the deployment of over 1,000 additional cops to the New York City subway system—the consequences of which played out tragically on Sunday, September 15, when the police shot and injured three people and one of their own officers while chasing a fare evader in Brooklyn. In any other context, therefore, Caban’s resignation would have been a victory for the movement against police crimes. But instead, his resignation has paved the way for someone even worse.

While with the FBI, Thomas Donlon was section chief of the National Threat Center. He oversaw the FBI Terrorism Watch List and created the FBI’s first centralized terrorism threat database, called Guardian. He ran the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force, and after retiring from the FBI, he served as director of the NY State Office of Homeland Security. Most recently, he was the CEO and founder of a private security and consulting company Global Security Resolutions.

Eric Adams’ reasons for appointing a retired FBI agent to head the NYPD are self-evident. The federal investigation into NYPD corruption is in addition to at least three other federal investigations and one state-level investigation into the Adams campaign and administration. The investigations have played out dramatically and publicly. In November 2023, the FBI seized Eric Adams’ phone, and on September 5, the FBI raided several other top Adams administration officials, including the school chancellor and the first deputy mayor. By appointing a retired FBI agent, Adams hopes to placate federal investigators and mitigate the impact of their inquiries.

But the motivations for appointing Thomas Donlon in particular are more nefarious still. Since October 7, 2023, New York City streets have been flooded with protests against the ongoing U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people. The student encampment movement that swept like wildfire across the country in the spring of this year began at Columbia University. The Zionist collaborators in the New York City government are scared. For that reason, they are using every weapon in their arsenal to repress the Palestinian liberation movement, and chief among those weapons is so-called “counterterrorism.”

The recent experience of the New York University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society is an illustrative example. NYU SDS was a key player in the NYU student encampment last spring and kicked off this semester with a pro-Palestine protest that disrupted Welcome Week. Subsequently on September 6, NYPD counterterrorism officers showed up at SDS’s first meeting of the semester in a blatant attempt to intimidate student organizers.

The NYPD has had a special interest in the Palestinian liberation movement far before October 7. Whenever there was a pro-Palestine protest, the NYPD would deploy the special unit designed to quell dissent—the Strategic Response Group (SRG). The SRG has been responsible for brutalizing organizers and activists whenever a militant show of force arises. Created in 2015 in response to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests for Eric Garner, this unit has a special focus on protests and large gatherings. In New York City, if the NYPD shows up to brutalize you, it will be the SRG. If the NYPD is showing up to find out information, it’s the counterterrorism unit. Under Donlon, we can expect to see an increase in the presence of both.

As the moribund U.S. empire declines and the masses rebel against the government’s warmongering, the ruling class reacts by attacking our First Amendment rights to protest their actions.

In Tampa, Florida, the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) and the Uhuru Movement were targeted for their political views. Also, September 12, the same day as Donlon’s appointment, a jury without a single Black person on it convicted three leaders of the Black-led APSP and the Uhuru Movement on the charge of conspiring to act “as agents of the Russian government within the United States without prior notification.” The so-called evidence for this convict

ion was APSP’s international solidarity work, such as condemning the U.S. proxy war with Russia in Ukraine and submitting a United Nations petition denouncing genocide on Africans.

Palestinian organizations across the U.S. have faced similar attacks. Congress has already demanded that some Palestinian organizations provide copies of their internal documents and communications, in order to “prove” that they should not be required to register as foreign agents. Like the conviction of the Uhuru 3, this witch hunt is intended to criminalize and chill international solidarity.

Other Palestinian-led organizations, including National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) are being sued in civil court and being accused of aiding and abetting groups designated as “terrorists” by the U.S. government. The lawsuits allege that these groups provided “substantial support” to terrorists by educating the public about Israel’s genocide, uplifting the political and historical analysis of the Palestinian resistance, and calling for Palestinian liberation throughout historic Palestine. If found liable for aiding and abetting so-called “terrorist organizations,” these groups could be forced to pay tens of millions of dollars in damages. This ‘lawfare’ goes hand-in-hand with the criminalization of solidarity.

Of course, the repression of our movements is nothing new. Fourteen years ago, in 2010, the U.S. government launched a heavy attack against the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, antiwar, and international solidarity through FBI raids and grand jury subpoenas. Thanks to tireless organizing, a strong defense campaign, and the support of the masses, FRSO was able to fend off these attacks and emerge stronger for it. As repression mounts, we must remember these lessons: the agents of government repression are not all-powerful, and with the people on our side, we can defeat them.

Under Thomas Donlon, we can expect to see a yet greater increase in the intimidation and repression of our movements in NYC. But as experience has shown time and again, we are our own best defense. Solidarity is not a crime and the struggle for national liberation is not terrorism. We will fight to defend our movements, and we will win!

#NewYorkNY #NY #InJusticeSystem #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #FRSO #Statement