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

evealed an extensive pattern of political surveillance, much of it in violationof Oregon law. In particular, informants had been used against groups withno criminal history, including those lobbying for a civilian board to hear complaintsagainst the police. Squirrel was acquitted, and a subsequent lawsuitproduced a ruling limiting police surveillance activities to those attached toan ongoing criminal investigation. Despite the judge's ruling, the surveillancecontinued. After a 1998 protest against the bombing of Iraq, another activist,Dan Handelman, was surprised to see his name in a police report, with a briefsynopsis of his political work:The Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group has held numerous protestsin the Portland area concerning U.S. involvement with Iraq. This groupis headed by a subject named Dan Randleman [sic] who has been very activein calling for, arranging, and sponsoring these demonstrations. 12 3Handehnan was not arrested at the event, and this political information-likelydrawn from other files--had no bearing on any criminal case.Together these examples show that the police are loath to respect any restrictionsplaced on their operations (whether by the legislature or by the courts) ,and that the agitator-subversion thesis remains alive and well. In fact, thoughnot yet apparent on the larger scale, there are indications of COINTELPRO-styleabuses and even outright atrocities during the Reagan-Bush-Clinton years.Consider, for instance, the case ofJudi Bari-bombed by persons unknown,then unsuccessfully framed by the Oakland police and the FBI. Bari was seriouslyinjured on March 24, 1990, when a pipe bomb exploded under the seat ofher car; Darryl Cherney was also in the vehicle, and was also injured, thoughnot as badly. The two were members of the radical environmental groupEarth First! and were in the midst of organizing a civil disobedience campaignagainst logging in Northern California. In the weeks before the attack, theyhad received numerous death threats, which the police declined to investigate.When the bomb exploded, the cops--under the always helpful guidance ofthe FBI-were quick to blame the victims: Barl and Cherney were arrestedfor transporting explosives and branded in the media as terrorists. But thephysical evidence did not match the official theory that Bari and Cherney wereknowingly transporting explosives. The damage to the car, and to Bari herself,indicated that the bomb was under the driver's seat, not in the back seat wherethe police said it had been. The DA declined to prosecute, the police refused tolook for other suspects, and Bari and Cherney sued.124The lawsuit brought forth evidence suggestive of possibilities far moresinister than simple incompetence-including details of an FBI-run bombschool held on lumber company property weeks before the explosion. In thecourse of the training, Special Agent Frank Doyle simulated a bombing identicalto that which injured Barl and Cherney a month later. l lj The jury becameconvinced that Bari and Cherney'S civil rights had been violated, and in June2002, awarded them $4.4 million. 1be jury explicitly recognized the politicalmotivations behind the police misconduct: violations of the plaintiffs' FirstAmendment rights represented 80 percent of the damages.126 One unnamedjuror told the Press Democrat, 'There were too many lies and manipulation ofthe evidence. And way too much guilt by association. Law enforcement isn't169