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Sun, 30 Apr 2006

When the cops only saw red

The more things change ...

Lurking behind the effort to revitalize local police intelligence is a nasty skeleton in the closet--the legacy of the old "Red Squads." While most attention to illegal spying in the 1960s and 1970s centers on infamous federal programs like the FBI's COINTELPRO and the CIA's Operation Chaos, many of the worst abuses went on at the local level. Originally formed to surveil and root out Communists, the Red Squads were ubiquitous by the 1960s, reaching into city and state police departments nationwide: New York City had its Special Services Division, Los Angeles its Public Disorder Intelligence Division, and Chicago its Subversive Activities Unit.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

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On 5/5/2006 13:26:15
Thorolf wrote

Ayup. Out here in Denver, we just had a scandal break over the gathering of 'domestic intelligence' by the P.D. - and now that that's been quietly forgotten (except, perhaps, by most of the folks who found out that they had been under surveillance for years), we're getting back into the 'rat out your neighbors for cash' programs that I was always taught were one of the hallmarks of dictatorships... Mind you, I have no compunctions about informing police about illegal activities that I see happening - calling in suspected drunk drivers by cell phone, reporting someone downstairs being beaten so badly the bathroom pipes were shaking, etc. - but I look on that as a sort of civic duty. Identifying people in surveillance photos for a $50 payout? That makes my skin crawl for some reason.

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