Are the NYPD and FBI Trying to Frame Anonymous, Occupy Wall Street?

In one word? Probably. I wouldn't trust the police around my reform movement any more than I would trust a pedophile priest around my kid. They can't seem to keep their hands to themselves, and any rules of decency just go out the window. The NYPD and the FBI are the latest agencies alleged to try and infiltrate peaceful movements and commit crimes in the movement's name, bringing discredit to the overall movement. It's a move that the government has done time and time again. How it works is simple. The government infiltrates a group — let's say an anti-war group. It's not hard to do, considering the passionate, volunteer nature of political action groups. The government agent, or "rat bastard" as we like to call them, then does one of two things. In one case, he pushes the organization to do something criminal, using group psychology to manipulate the peaceful group into doing something it otherwise wouldn't do. For the anti-war group, he might convince them to blow up a vacant military recruiting station after-hours, under the guise of "stopping the war". In the other case, he just directly conducts the crime and takes credit for the crime as a member of the group. Either way, the media reports it as "anti-war group bombs military station" and the movement is discredited. It's the kind of crap the FBI has done inside the country and the CIA has done overseas for decades. With the success of internet hacktivist collective Anonymous and the growing popularity of the Occupy Wall Street movement (currently spreading across America), authorities in America are nervous. Both groups, each in their own way, threaten the power paradigm that keeps the wealthy enriched and in power. Both groups call for change and are willing to put their money where their mouths are. Anonymous uses the power of collective internet resources to hack and release government information, exposing corruption and returning the power of information to whom it belongs: the people. Since anyone can conceivably join Anonymous, and since there are no leaders to weed out bad actors, conceivably anyone could hack something and claim it was in the name of Anonymous. Occupy Wall Street is set up the same way, but with different goals. That group is about protesting for change inside society. Still, anyone could sit on Wall Street, carry a sign, punch a cop and say he/she was acting on behalf of the movement. So, you could say both movements (and those of us who support them both, as I do), were extremely skeptical of the claims made online this week, where someone posted that Anonymous was going to wipe the NYSE off the internet in support of Occupy Wall Street. It smelled like a scam and now, it appears it was a scam all along. The message was simple and straightforward. On TheAnonMessage YouTube channel, a video message said "On Oct. 10, NYSE shall be erased from the Internet. On Oct. 10, expect a day that will never, ever be forgotten." Look, I literally smell bacon in my head moments before I spot a cop on the side of the expressway. I have a bit of a sixth sense (or maybe I am paranoid) about police officers and their intrusions into our liberties and our lives. And folks, this "action" smells like doughnuts and cheap, mirrored sunglasses. The action calls for Anonymous members to use the Low Orbit Ion Cannon, their Distributed Denial-of-Service tool that lets their members shut down virtually any website they aim the cannon at. It's a powerful tool that anyone can use to participate in, essentially, an internet-based sit-in of any website they desire. Unfortunately for the cops, Anonymous took that tool out of use recently after some security flaws in its design led to the unmasking and arrest of a few members. The idea that they would utilize it now, in such a public manner (and to such a stupid end — shutting down the NYSE website for a few hours) is ludicrous. It is, frankly, the kind of asinine idea that only a half-educated government agent could come up with. I believe, and much of the social media I've read around the topic agrees with me, that the entire operation was an attempt to do two things: sully the Occupy Wall Street movement with tactics that are counter to what they're doing, and round up/arrest more Anonymous members. Luckily for both movements, our members are more intelligent than the police, and we can smell a trap when it is laid. I would love for the NYPD or the FBI to come out and admit which bonehead came up with this plan, but that seems unlikely. Instead, we are likely to see more (and more desperate) attempts by the government to discredit the peaceful Occupy Wall Street movement. And we will be there to report each and every Wile E Coyote attempt that ACME Elite Government throws at us. You can reach the author by email john@benzinga.com or on twitter @johndthorpe. To comment on this (or any of my columns), visit my user page at Benzinga.