Informant Page #6

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that there was a likelihood

that somebody would go

to an extreme.

They asked for a group of people

in Austin to get together

and meet and form

an affinity group.

Michael:
There's no doubt in my mind

that the FBI made a terrible mistake,

sending Brandon Darby

into that situation.

They put a 33-year-old,

renowned, militant activist...

in a group with two guys

ten years younger than him

who look up to him,

but he's not supposed to be the leader.

Brandon:
At the first meeting,

there was James Clark,

David McKay

and Brad Crowder and myself.

I felt like David and Brad

both wanted to go,

I felt like they probably had good

intentions but I also felt like

there was probably

a lot of youthful anger.

David reminded me

I guess more of myself.

He was more of an action-driven

kind of person he seemed like.

With James I was always

kind of torn I guess.

He's really like

a process-oriented anarchist,

who traditionally I haven't

gotten along with too well.

It was a very

macho atmosphere.

There was definitely

a sense of like...

everybody trying to like,

toughen up.

It was the cycle of everybody's

machismo feeding on itself.

Brandon:

The group went around

and everyone

just talked about their goals.

David and Brad expressed more of

a willingness to serve some time.

My initial reaction

was to discourage that.

I don't think

prison's a good thing.

I don't think you realize

what it is.

Don't get me wrong,

like when I go I'm gonna

shut the f***er down, too.

James:
He said we needed

to like toughen up,

stop looking like we ate

a bunch of tofu.

To my knowledge none of the

three of us were vegetarian.

I mean, I've never been

a vegetarian. I'm just skinny.

And I'm sorry

that I don't measure up

to your standard

of toughness or masculinity,

but I mean don't tell me

to stop eating tofu.

Like, what does that

even mean, like?

He made comments about how

Brad specifically, and me too,

were kinda like weaklings.

We weren't men's men.

The coffee that I ordered

I remember one time

he made fun because I ordered

a latte, and not like a coffee.

We didn't want

to just be these guys

that just like showed up

without any credentials.

That's everything

that Brandon was.

He was the activist guy

from Austin.

Brandon:

Brad and David both

were from working towns

like Midland,

similar to where

I was from.

I felt a sense

of camaraderie with that.

I could see a lot

of myself in them.

I understood

some of their anger.

I really

understood it actually.

David, he had a really rough

adolescence, you know?

David:
There was always a lot

of conflict in my house.

I had a lot of fear of my dad.

He is a very

controlling individual.

I have always tried to be the

kind of a person who's a man,

or tried to prove that I have

that kind of manliness.

(camera clicks)

My first real conflict

with law enforcement

was a protest against the KKK.

- That one ended pretty bad.

- (Camera clicks)

I ended up being tased

and arrested.

I did not want to go be vulnerable

to that situation again.

If I was gonna go,

I wanted to have protection.

To start you're gonna need

to take one of these big,

orange traffic barrels,

and we're gonna be

turning it into this.

Brandon:

They had taken these shields

that had these little screws

to screw in a plexiglass window.

And they had modified them again

to have long deck screws.

That way if police pushed against

them it would puncture the police.

David:
There were no screws,

they were all bolts.

You can't be punctured

by a bolt.

It was non-threatening.

It was a way we could go

be a part of it.

So we wouldn't get

any kind of like real trouble.

Brandon:

David and Brad rented a trailer,

and put their shields

and stuff in it.

Yeah, I got in the van

and we started on a road trip.

On that trip I remember feeling

like if I had said my experiences,

starting in Austin, and finished

by the time we got to Minnesota,

I probably could have influenced

them to not be so radical.

But the role I had

embarked upon was,

I was working undercover

with the FBI.

His attitude from the point

that he got in the van,

all the way through,

was kind of like that agitated level.

Very aggressive,

and very on-edge and very demanding.

I don't think he was capable of being in

the situation that he put himself in.

(protesters chanting)

(man talks indistinctly

on megaphone)

Man:
An attorney

for the city said,

on the first day

of the convention

the city of St. Paul was on

the verge of being overthrown.

(loud crash)

- (Cheering)

We're Minnesotans,

we're not accustomed

to people being out in the streets

protesting and throwing things.

(quick explosion)

Protestors are scared,

police are scared,

everybody was scared,

you know?

(spray can spraying)

All the dumpsters along the way

were either pushed into police cars

or to other people's cars

or dumped over.

(siren blaring)

(camera snaps)

I pulled out

my video camera.

And I just did my best

to try to watch the activists.

I look over, and then Brad

and this group of others,

they have this gigantic

construction sign.

The seventy-mile-per-hour

interstate is below us.

They throw it off

the overpass.

I remember I was texting the Bureau,

like "Emergency! Emergency! Emergency!"

(glass breaking, cheering)

(siren blaring)

(quick explosions)

David and Brad came running

into my room.

And they were like,

everything's gone.

And I thought that they were joking and I

just kind of looked at them for a second.

We were pretty upset because, you know,

we'd spent a lot of time making them,

and we felt like

they were stolen from us.

David kept saying that

there must be retribution.

I thought he was probably gonna

be a real a**hole in the streets,

but I didn't think he was gonna

do anything like what he did.

Hanners:

Here are these anarchists,

buying the material

for their bombs at Wal-Mart.

It struck me as

an odd thought,

anarchists shopping

at Wal-Mart.

Gabby:

When David asked me to buy tampons,

I definitely like wasn't going to be like,

"Why do you need tampons?"

When I think of tampons,

I don't think of Molotov cocktails.

Even now.

Errr, a little bit now.

(rattling)

David:

We made them in about 15 minutes.

Gasoline in a bottle

with a little bit of oil and

then he duct-taped the top.

It was incredibly easy.

I got a text I think it was,

and it said, "Hey they bought"...

or "The whole group is

in a big fight right now."

And I was like why is the group

in a big fight?

These are the things

that Brad and David bought.

I know that those can be made

to make Molotov cocktails,

and I think that

that's why they bought them.

And they're like, "Yeah."

And I was like, "Okay."

And then I let the FBI know.

James:
There's a definite sense

of what the f***?

We came up here to protest,

make our voices heard.

Now here we are

more than just feeling

like lied to or something.

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