Damien Patton, founder of surveillance startup Banjo, has a secret racist past

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Author: Bijan Stephen

Banjo Founder Damien Patton
Wally Skalij/Los Angles Times
On June 9th, 1990, a young Damien Patton took part in a drive-by shooting against the West End Synagogue in Nashville, Tennessee, alongside a leading member of the Klu Klux Klan. Nobody was injured, but the event sent Patton on the run from the authorities. A year later he enlisted in the Navy, later becoming a NASCAR mechanic, a crime scene investigator, and finally, a Silicon Valley founder.

Today, the Medium publication OneZero published an exposé of the full history of Patton’s racist past. Due to an FBI agent’s spelling error, Patton’s youthful history with the Dixie Knights of the Ku Klux Klan went unreported for a decade.

Patton started the social media surveillance company Banjo a decade ago. The company has since received $100...

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