members acting negatively toward each other. The FBI's goal was to get different branches of the party to fight amongst themselves. Another tactic used to discredit the BPP and other Black revolutionary organizations was to use infiltrators and provocateurs to engage in illegal activities which could cause Party members to be arrested for felonious crimes. These agent provocateurs were also assigned the task of spreading false information. The fabrication of information was yet another tactic used by the FBI. This included the intimidation of witnesses and coercion. For example, the Bureau concocted a threatening letter to jurors in efforts to obtain convictions. Today, because of COINTELPRO, Geronimo Pratt is a prisoner, serving a life sentence in the California penal system for the murder of Caroline Olsen. The FBI wanted Pratt "neutralized," a goal they accomplished through COINTELPRO techniques. The Los Angeles FBI office designated Pratt a "Key Black Extremist", though there was never any evidence given to validate that he was in fact a threat to national security. During a COINTELPRO raid, Fred Hampton, one the leaders of the BPP, was murdered. Hampton was a promising young leader, and one off the most outspoken members of the BPP. Given the assumptions of the classical liberal theory and Tocqueville's republican virtue theory, the FBI had the right idea, however just went about it in absolutely the wrong way. COINTELPRO is a direct violation of the real ideals of classical liberalism. The theory calls for a strong government, which existed in the US. However, this government may serve only to preserve the freedoms of all individuals within the society. COINTELPRO is one of the first signs of the despotic emergence that Tocqueville feared. After all, the FBI's intentions were in the right place- they sought only to protect its citizens. But against all the principles of classical liberalism, they did this by taking away the fre...
