Richard Masato Aoki, widely considered a hero among activists and liberal political groups in the San Francisco area, was an FBI informant who filed more than 500 reports about activists with the bureau.
The Mercury News reports that newly revealed FBI documents show for the first time the extent that Aoki was a government informant.
Aoki was trusted in the activist community, especially among Black Panthers. But FBI records show that Aoki provided “top level” information the Black Panthers and their leaders, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.
What’s unclear is whether the FBI knew Aoki was providing guns to the Black Panthers.
” If the FBI knew Aoki was arming the Panthers, or was involved in that, it would raise questions about whether the bureau was attempting to foment violence that would discredit the Panthers or set them up for a police crackdown,” the Mercury News wrote.
Aoki committed suicide in his Berkeley home in 2009.
