As the world braces for the verdict in the shooting by police officer Darren Wilson of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in August, the hacker group Anonymous has promised a bombshell by the end of the day. Anon Cop Watch, one of many Anonymous Twitter accounts, has said that it will release evidence before the close of business today that Darren Wilson has ties to the KKK.
The August 9 shooting of 18-year-old Brown has led to months of protests, vastly peaceful. Though things have been quiet in recent weeks, on Wednesday night police and protesters clashed in front of the Ferguson police station again. Reuters reported that of about four dozen protesters who tried to block the street, six were arrested.
Anonymous, which has been hacking KKK member accounts and publicizing their personal information for almost a week, according to If You Only News , the group now says that it has evidence Wilson is connected to the extremist group. No part of the alleged data and information that Anonymous says will link Wilson to to the KKK has been released — instead, it will be released in full to later on Thursday.
Operating under the hashtag #opkkk on Twitter, the Anon Cop Watch has been promising for two days that there is a wealth of evidence and information linking Wilson to the KKK. On November 18, an Anonymous member on Twitter under the handle of @AnonCopWatch posted the following to eager followers who were asking for the partial release of information.
I could post what we have now on #DarrenWilson and his KKK ties, but we want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes first. Stay tuned #opkkk
— Anon Cop Watch (@AnonCopWatch) November 18, 2014
Earlier, a post had gone up claiming that Wilson has ties to the Ancona family.
After studying our leaked documents I am confident I can link #DarrenWilson directly to the Ancona family #HoodsOff #OppKKK #Ferguson
— Anon Cop Watch (@AnonCopWatch) November 18, 2014
Frank Ancona is a local KKK leader who has been vocal in his comments to the media about the Ferguson case. However, Ancona, whose formal KKK title is Imperial Wizard of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, has disagreed with what he called “fringe group” fundraising efforts for Wilson, but hasn’t stopped short of promising support.
Earlier, Anonymous had posted a photo of three men identified as KKK members in the St. Louis area who had been photographed at a rally in support of Darren Wilson. The photo was later removed from the Facebook page where it had been found.
As tensions rise in Ferguson and St. Louis ahead of the grand jury decision on whether or not to indict Wilson, Anonymous has made a point of teasing the alleged connection between the KKK and Wilson.
We will make a statement within 12 hours regarding the information we have obtained on Darren Wilson.
— Anon Cop Watch (@AnonCopWatch) November 20, 2014
Members of the KKK have been known in recent months to generally be present at rallies in support of Wilson. They have also been working hard to promote the KKK in the region, including passing out flyers to warn protesters that lethal force will be used in self-defense if necessary.