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The NAACP took to social media Thursday to share a contentious split image of a masked ICE agent and a hooded Ku Klux Klan (KKK) member, comparing the government agency to a White supremacist terrorist group.
Along with the shocking photo, the NAACP posted, “Different mask, same agenda.” “Fear. Terror. Division. Unlawful arrests. No due process. Now Murder. Quit hiding. Your agenda is being exposed,” the post read. “The PEOPLE have a clear response: No Fear. No Failure. No Division.”
Nearly 70,000 people reacted to the photo on Facebook, which garnered nearly 10,000 comments and 30,000 shares.
The KKK was founded in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, following the South’s defeat in the Civil War, and targeted Black freedmen and their allies.
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Members used threats and violence in an attempt to restore White supremacy, spreading terror across the South with little risk of prosecution, according to the National Park Service (NPS) website.
Congress took action to prosecute Klansmen in the 1870s, but there was a resurgence in 1915, near Atlanta, Georgia, with a new focus on anti-immigration, anti-Catholicism, prohibition and antisemitism.
Researchers estimate that there are as many as 150 Klan chapters currently active in the U.S., with between 5,000 and 8,000 members nationwide, according to the NPS.
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The NAACP’s post came amid protests related to the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent Wednesday after allegedly attempting to drive into the officer during an immigration operation.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials described the shooting as an act of “self-defense,” noting Good was a member of the immigration activist group “ICE Watch,” which aims to monitor, track, interfere and oppose ongoing federal immigration enforcement operations.
ICE Watch-style networks have been linked to multiple confrontations with federal law enforcement, including incidents where vehicles were used to block or strike officers.
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Footage taken by the agent who was allegedly targeted by the SUV showed another ICE agent approaching Good’s stopped SUV, attempting to open the driver’s side door, before the car lunged forward toward him.
“After nearly 10 vehicle rammings targeting ICE and CBP officers this week, the NAACP is smearing and demonizing ICE law enforcement, likening them to the KKK,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Our officers wear masks to protect themselves from being doxxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers. Not only is ICE law enforcement facing a more than 1,300 percent increase in assaults against them, but we’ve also seen thugs launch websites to reveal officers’ identity.”
“The men and women at CBP, ICE, and all of our federal law enforcement agencies put their lives on the line every day to arrest violent criminal illegal aliens to protect and defend the lives of American citizens,” McLaughlin added. “Make no mistake, this type of demonization is contributing to the surge in assaults of law enforcement officers.”
Democrats initially claimed the woman was not trying to hit the federal agent, labeling the shooting a “murder.”
“[The ICE agent] properly defended himself from being run over by organized leftist protesters who were impeding an active law enforcement operation,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a social media post, referencing the newly released video. “The reason trust in the media is at an all-time low is because they intentionally lie to the public to advance the Democrats’ narrative. That’s exactly what they did in this case in Minnesota.”
The NAACP did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Julia Bonavita and Alexic McAdams contributed to this report.
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