“She’s not running with a good crowd, your friend Tanisha. Black identity extremists. Kind of organization where you scratch the surface and it’s all Russian infowar stuff, targeted ads getting people riled up and in the streets.” She shook her head slowly. “It’s a pity. I can tell her heart’s in the right place. It’s right there in her file. But you can’t deny that there’s a legitimate interest in keeping an eye on that sort of thing.”

I didn’t roll my eyes. “The Black-Brown Alliance is a Russian front?”

“I didn’t say that. Just that it’s some muddy waters. The rank and file believe in the cause, but they don’t have good information. They’ve been nudged and shoved around, pushed into a very ugly, confrontational politics that is designed to create civil unrest. Pushed to think of the police as enemy soldiers. Manipulated with weaponized, half-true stories about criminals being shot by law enforcement that make them look like victims instead of perps.”

Now I did roll my eyes. I couldn’t help it.