But don’t be deceived. At least according to the FBI, there’s more to this bookstore than good vibes and book release events with the latest left-wing author. Beneath the cute exterior, feds insist, a group of “violent extremists” are “planning and networking.”
“That’s news to us!” said Mandy Medley, one of the owner-workers of the store, when told that the FBI believes her store to be a hotbed for terror plots and “pro-abortion extremists.”
Nearly 30 pages of FBI documents obtained by Unicorn Riot reveal a pattern of monitoring of Pilsen Community Books, a worker-owned and collectively managed bookstore in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.
In language reminiscent of the Red Scare, cubicle-lurking FBI intelligence analysts wrote in their reports that the store is used by “anarchist violent extremists,” or “AVEs,” “environmental violent extremists,” or “EVEs” and “pro-abortion extremists.” (While the reports talk about a “source,” importantly, there is no evidence included of physical surveillance.)
www.vice.com
