Dispatch: 'We Don't Want to Be Necessary' — An Anonymous Interview with Someone Who Claims REA Membership

SOURCE: The Rights Enforcement Agency. Though "agency" is probably too formal a word. We're a network. Decentralized. Cells in most major metros and a lot of mid-size cities you wouldn't expect. Each cell is autonomous — they know their community, they know their problems, they decide their actions.

SOURCE: I genuinely don't know. That's by design. I know my cell. I know some people at the state coordination level. I know a few national contacts. The whole point is that no one person can compromise the whole network.

SOURCE: [Long pause.] It sounds like any effective organization that operates in an environment where the people who are supposed to enforce the law are the ones breaking it. The ACLU has chapters. We have cells. The framing is a choice.

SOURCE: It depends on the cell and the situation. Some of us do what you saw in Portland — show up, be visible, be a physical reminder that someone is watching. We call those "shield actions." They're completely legal. We stand there. We don't engage. We don't carry weapons at shield actions, ever.

SOURCE: We call them "lamp actions." As in, shining a light. Maricopa was a lamp action. Milwaukee was a lamp action. You find the information, you verify it seven ways to Sunday, and then you make sure the right people have it. Sometimes "the right people" is the victim. Sometimes it's the press. Sometimes it's the person who did the wrong thing, because you'd be amazed how quickly people correct course when they realize their secrets aren't secret anymore.

SOURCE: No. And we won't. That's a line, not a guideline. Any cell that uses violence is out. Period. We're not a militia. We're not an insurrection. We're the accountability mechanism that's supposed to already exist but doesn't.

SOURCE: I can't tell you that. But I'll say this — a lot of people in a lot of institutions are very tired of watching bad actors face no consequences. We don't have to break into anything. People come to us. They bring us things because they've exhausted every legitimate channel and nothing happened.

SOURCE: Among other things. Yes.

SOURCE: Honestly? To not be necessary. We exist because the system fails. If the system worked — if internal affairs actually investigated, if prosecutors actually charged, if oversight boards actually had teeth — we'd have nothing to do. We'd love to have nothing to do.

SOURCE: [Slight laugh.] Because letters on a vest shouldn't only mean "step back, we have authority." Authority doesn't belong to any one institution. When people see FBI on a jacket, they understand: this is an agency, and it has jurisdiction. We wanted people — and especially the people we're watching — to understand the same thing. REA is three letters that mean: someone is paying attention, and we have the standing to be here. The amber is ours. The balance scales on the shoulder patch — that's the whole philosophy in one image. Justice is supposed to be balanced. When one side gets heavier — more power, less accountability — someone has to put weight on the other side. That's us.

SOURCE: We're not impersonating anyone. The FBI wears navy with yellow letters. DEA is black with white letters. ATF does olive with yellow. We wear olive with amber. Nobody's getting confused at a checkpoint. But if a dirty cop sees amber "REA" in a crowd and his stomach drops? Good. That's the point.

SOURCE: [Another pause.] Because we're ready now. It took a long time to build something this careful. And honestly... because people are running out of options. When every legitimate avenue is closed, people don't just accept it. They find another way. We're trying to make sure that other way is thoughtful and disciplined rather than... the alternative.

SOURCE: Thank you for listening. Tell people to pay attention. Not to us — to what we're pointing at.