MLK and the Government

So in class today, I argued that most people should fear private intrusions on their privacy more than government intrusions. The exception, I said, is that political, religious, and other minorities are often the targets of government surveillance. As an example, I said that Martin Luther King, Jr.'s privacy was under greater threat from the government than from private citizens (initially I just said that he was under greater threat from the government, but I meant his privacy, not his physical safety).

I got the feeling that most people disagreed with me, so here is my reasoning.

1. The government was extremely suspicious of MLK. He was black and his politics were dangerous to the status quo. He opposed the war in Vietnam.

2. The government had the means to invade his privacy in ways that private groups did not. The only exception would be where private groups like the KKK had infiltrated government offices, including law enforcement. In those cases, I suppose you could argue that it wasn't really the government violating his rights (although of course the mechanisms of government would be used).

3. In any case, the most severe intrusions that we know about were perpetrated by the federal government, which at the time was very antagonistic toward the KKK. The government taped King's sexual infidelities and shared the tapes with King's friends and family, as well as the media. I know of no evidence that anything similar was perpetrated by private groups.

If the question is who hated MLK more, the contest might go the other way (although plenty of people in the government hated him). Still, I think it's pretty clear that as far as privacy, the government was a much bigger threat to MLK than private citizens.