Kristian Williams - Our Enemies in Blue - Police and Power in America

dissenting group, representing relatively powerless people, that will berepressed and the interests upheld will be those of the powerful. X bTwo natural outgrowths of this bias are the criminalization of ideologies (ratherthan behavior) , and the judgment of guilt based on association. These, in turn,are each bound up with police efforts to prevent unrest, rather than simplyresponding to it. For example, Detective Sergeant John Ungvary, the head ofthe Cleveland red squad, told a Senate committee, "[I] f we had a law wherebywe can charge all of them [Black nationalists] as participants or conspirators... it would be far better than waiting for an overt act."X7 As the police attemptto prevent unrest, assumptions about dissenting organizations' aims come tostand in for evidence of any individual guilt. xx This attitude, and the activity itinspires, creates a chilling effect that harms not only those groups actuallyunder attack, but any group that fears similar treatment.THE DEATH O"F THE RED SQUADS?Paradoxically, the silencing of dissent may itself undercut the public's faithin the government's benevolence. 'lbe 1970s were characterized by massivepublic distrust of governing bodies, especially the federal intelligence agencies,but also their local counterparts. Along with the Watergate scandals, otherstartling revelations shook public confidence in the government. A researcherfor the Pentagon, Daniel Ellsberg, leaked the Defense Department's secrethistory of the Vietnam War, revealing that the public had been deceived aboutthe aims and methods of the war and, specifically, about American atrocities.X"Anonymous persons similarly released a series of documents stolen from theFBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, detailing the operations grouped under theheading COINTELPRO.'JU It is quite ironic that the best tool for proving officialmisconduct by federal agenie;" tU! Heu UUl LU be their own cherished tiles.In an effort to salvage credibility, Congressional committees and specialprosecutors tried to "come clean." Even the intelligence agencies themselvestried to rehabilitate their public image; COINTELPRO arld similar programswere quickly discontinued. And on the local level, opponents of police spyingtook the opportunity to move against the red squads.So what kills a red squad? In Washington, D.C., it was a combination of lawsuitsand pressure from city council. In Birmingham, it was the success of civilrights efforts, and the shift of power that accompanied it. Official investigationsand a change in local statutes did in the Baltimore unit. A series of court rulings,a change in political climate, the election of a liberal mayor, attacks in the media,and a sudden loss of allies conspired against the red squad in Detroit. A seriesof scandals finally cost the Los Angeles unit the last of its credibility, leading toits break-up. In Philadelphia, it was the combination of a Federal Civil RightsCommission investigation, lawsuits, judicial rulings, and a loss of public supportstemming from widespread corruption. In Seattle, a city ordinance outlawedthe red squad's activities. In Memphis and Chicago, lawsuits produced consentdecrees limiting political investigations. A change in political climate broughtNew York City a liberal mayor and police commissioner; combined with lawsuits,court rulings, and an overall loss of credibility, the change of administra-164