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

instructions on infiltrating and disrupting dissident groups. WI COINTELPROstyledirty tricks are similarly discussed: when a Black activist's mother overheardsomeone offer to sell her son dynamite, she accused the police of tryingto entrap the young man. Officer Mike Salmon took a report and forwarded itto the head of intelligence, lieutenant Melvin "Corky" Hulett, along with a note:"I'm sending this direct to you, bypassing records, and I'll let you decide what todo with the report. For all we know what Mrs. Anderson says is true (it soundssneaky, but a good idea) ."HI2Many of the files contain no allegations of criminal wrongdoing, but focusinstead on personal information, including financial records, job applications,speculation about the subject's sexual orientation, and family photos. 10.1 Collectingsuch information on people not suspected of crimes has been against PoliceBureau POliL), since 1975, and after 1981 it violated state law as well. But manyof Falk's reports were addressed to senior officers, indicating that policecommanders knew what he was up to.IOt, While careful to deny knowledge ofthe files' existence, former Portland police chief Penny Harrington recountedan episode in 1985, when Falk called her to report on the activities of liberalcity councilors, alleging they were out to "take over the city government."IOOHarrington wasn't surprised to hear that Falk had kept the files for his own use:'That was happening all over the country at that time .... Files were ending up inpeople's garages and basements."Hl(,File rescues have occurred as recently as November 1990, when SanFrancisco police chief Willis Casey shut down his department's red squad.Instead of destroying the squad's files, officer Tom Gerard moved them to hishome. From there he distributed the documents to the Anti-Defamation Leagueof B'nai B'rith (who passed them on to the Israeli government) , and also tothe apartheid government of South Africa. In total, Gerard maintained files onthousands of Arab Americans, thirty-six Arab gruujJ:>, tlill Ly-lllree anti-apartheidgroups, 412 "pinko" organizations, 349 right-wing groups, and thirty-five skinheadgangs, as well as the ACLU, the National Lawyer's Guild, Mother Jones magazine,the United Auto Workers, the board of directors of KQED (a public televisionstation) , the Black Studies Department at San Francisco University, Democraticpoliticians, and journalists. When Gerard's operation was discovered, it touchedoff a major scandal. But Richard Hirschhaut, executive director of the AntiDefamation League Central Pacific Region, shrugged off the controversy: "[T]herelationship we had with him ... was the same as with thousands of police officersaround the country."!07 Indeed, when the SFPD and FBI raided B'nai B'rith officesin San Francisco and Los Angeles, they discovered that the organization waskeeping computerized files on nearly 10,000 people. Approximately 75 percent ofthe data in the files had been obtained illegally from police, federal agents, or theDepartment of Motor Vehicles.!08As municipal red squads closed up shop, the burden of political repressionwas moved off of city police departments and onto county or state agencies.At the end of the 1970s, as city police were getting out of the spy business (atleast officially) , state units were formed in California, Connecticut, Maryland,Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Georgia.109A simultaneous charade was being played out at the federal level.166