Editing Martin Luther King Jr. (section)

=== Police surveillance ===
King was also the subject of extensive surveillance by local police agencies throughout the United States. At the March on Washington, where King declared, "We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality", undercover police from both the Birmingham Police Department and the Philadelphia Police Department were on hand to monitor the day's proceedings. Additional documented instances of local police that monitored King include the New York Police Department and the Chicago Police Department.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Joshua Clark |url= |title=Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2025 |location=Princeton, N.J. |isbn=9780691238838}}</ref>

The Memphis Police Department also spied on King in the spring of 1968, as the civil rights leader was taking part in a campaign to support striking sanitation workers in the Tennessee city. A fire station was located across from the Lorraine Motel, next to the boarding house in which James Earl Ray was staying. Police officers were stationed in the fire station to keep King under surveillance.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Polk |first1=Jim |date=December 29, 2008 |title=Black In America&nbsp;– Behind the Scenes: 'Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination' |url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/13/bts.king.assasssination/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419060639/http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/13/bts.king.assasssination/ |archive-date=April 19, 2016 |access-date=April 14, 2016 |work=CNN}}</ref> Agents were watching King at the time he was shot.<ref>{{cite book |last=McKnight |first=Gerald |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780813333847/page/76 |title=The Last Crusade: Martin Luther King Jr., the FBI, and the Poor People's Crusade |publisher=Westview Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-8133-3384-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780813333847/page/76 76]}}</ref> Immediately following the shooting, officers rushed to the motel. Marrell McCollough, an undercover police officer, was the first person to administer first aid to King.<ref>{{cite book |title=Martin Luther King Jr.: The FBI Files |publisher=Filiquarian Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-59986-253-8 |pages=40–42}} See also: {{cite news |last=Polk |first=James |date=April 7, 2008 |title=King conspiracy theories still thrive 40 years later |url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/28/conspiracy.theories/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110080900/http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/28/conspiracy.theories/ |archive-date=November 10, 2012 |access-date=June 16, 2008 |publisher=CNN}} and {{cite web |title=King's FBI file Part 1 of 2 |url=http://vault.fbi.gov/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr./Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._Part_1_of_2/view |access-date=January 16, 2012 |publisher=FBI |format=PDF}}{{dead link|date=June 2022|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} and {{cite web |title=King's FBI file Part 2 of 2 |url=http://vault.fbi.gov/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr./Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._Part_2_of_2/view |access-date=January 16, 2012 |publisher=FBI |format=PDF}}{{dead link|date=June 2022|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> The antagonism between King and the FBI, the lack of an [[all points bulletin]] to find the killer, and the police presence nearby led to speculation that the FBI was involved in the assassination.<ref>{{cite book |last=Knight |first=Peter |url=https://archive.org/details/conspiracytheori00knig_851 |title=Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2003 |isbn=1-57607-812-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/conspiracytheori00knig_851/page/n425 408]–409 |url-access=limited}}</ref>