bad-jacketing

A form of bad-jacket — To create suspicion around (a person) through the spreading of rumors, manufacture of evidence and disinformation, etc.

Meanings

verb
  1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of bad-jacket
    2 more examples

    Against the Panthers, the bureau used eavesdropping, harassment, the dissemination of misinformation, infiltration, "bad-jacketing," and, in a worst-case scenario, outright murder. [...] Given the black protest movement's propensity to essentialize Black Power and Black Power proponents into rigid racial, ideological, and increasingly gendered constructs, the FBI's practice of bad-jacketing was particularly effective

    1999, Mark Anthony Neal, “From Protest to Climax”, in What the music said: Black popular music and Black public culture, 1st edition, New York, NY; London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 59

    [...] this approach can also go horrifyingly wrong very quickly, especially if COINTELPRO agents use bad-jacketing to turn activists against each other. The murder of Anna Mae Aquash is a heartbreaking example. [...] Aquash worked with the American Indian Movement for years. Probably because she was so effective, she was targeted for bad-jacketing by infiltrators in AIM.

    2019, Aric McBay, “Counterintelligence & Repression” (chapter 9), in Full Spectrum Resistance, volume 2, Seven Stories Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, Infiltration and Informers (section 3), pages 75-76
Cite this entry
APA

bad-jacketing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bad-jacketing

MLA

“bad-jacketing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bad-jacketing. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bad-jacketing,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bad-jacketing.

Source: bad-jacketing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.