Downloaded from AMNET (312) 436-3062 Chicago's Civil Liberties BBS PROOF OF NATIONWIDE POLICE POLITICAL SPYING NETWORK REVEALED IN CHICAGO LITIGATION
by Chip Berlet
The belated production of a set of correspondence files from the Chicago Police Department Intelligence Unit (CPD/ID) has confirmed suspicions that an informal nationwide network for sharing political dossiers among police and private intelligence agencies existed for several decades prior to 1975.
The documents were assumed to have been destroyed as part of an attempt by the Chicago Police Department to sanitize their intelligence files after a police informant warned superiors in 1974 that a lawsuit against political spying was planned by a Chicago coalition group called the Alliance to End Repression and other activist groups.
"All of the agencies received from, or sent to, the Chicago Police Department Intelligence Division information regarding the lawful political activity of citizens," said plaintiff's attorney Richard Gutman.
The existence of the "Transmittal Files" was inadvertantly discovered in September of 1984 - seven years after a Federal Judge had ordered their production in pre-trial discovery proceedings. The files show that 159 agencies in 33 states throughout the nation received political spying files from, or sent such files to, the Chicago Police Department Intelligence Division.
The agencies include 100 municipal police departments, 26 state law enforcement agencies, 16 county sheriffs offices, and 17 other public and private agencies.
"While many concerned civil libertarians have been convinced of the existence of politically-motivated activity by their local police, they have frequently been frustrated by the need for concrete proof." said Frank Donner. Donner, author of The Age of Surveillance (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1980), the definitive work on political surveillance in the United States, called for a "remedial campaign to abolish such abuses."
Gutman, has been providing the police reports to lawyers pursuing litigation against local police agencies for illegal political surveillance. He says he is willing to discuss the terms of a court protective order covering the material with legitimate legal representatives of individuals or groups contemplating such litigation. So far eleven attorneys or representatives of legal groups have contacted Gutman for copies of relevant documents. Numerous named individuals have asked for and received copies of their files as well.
According to Gutman, the following examples are typical of the material discussed in the Transmittal Files:
*The Texas Department of Public Safety ("Texas Rangers") sought "any pertinent information related to subversive activities or affiliations" regarding Chicago attorney Terry Yale Feiertag. The Chicago police responded that attorney Feiertag was employed by an organization whic provided legal aid to low income groups and in civil rights cases;
*The Indianapolis Police Department sought "any data" regarding Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam. The Chicago police in response sent information about the group's lawful anti-war activities;
*The Detroit Police Department sought information regarding Lucy Montgomery. in response the Chicago police sent Detroit a four-page report detailing Mrs. Montgomery's lawful political activities.
Although the federal district court on May 4, 1977, ordered the Chicago Police Department to produce all such transmittal files, the files were not produced for inspection until September 25, 1984, seven years after the order. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed a motion to have the Chicago Police Department held in contempt for failing to obey the court order. Federal Judge Susan Getzendanner denied the motion.
It is almost certain the files originally were intentionally withheld to prevent discovery by the plaintiffs. However it is unclear at what point in the lengthy litigation, which saw defendants take several different legal postures regarding what documents were covered by the discovery order, that the fact of the files existence became lost in the mountains of paperwork.
The Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago sought to block Gutman from providing the documents to plaintiffs litigators in other cities. This is ironic because the current Mayor, Harold Washington, was for many years an outspoken critic of the CPD Intelligence Unit and its civil liberties violations. While still a Congressional Representative and while running for the Mayoral post, he described himself publicly as a victim of illegal police spying.
Now, in a recent court proceeding, attorneys representing the City of Chicago tried unsuccessfully to block paralegals working on an ACLU spying case in California from having access to CPD/ID materials already provided to the ACLU attorneys in that case.
The City of Chicago attorneys successfully blocked release of files relating to Michigan to Michigan state representative Perry Bullard. Bullard, Chairperson of the Michigan House Judiciary Committee, had requested access to the files to evaluate "the necessity for new state legislation regulating surveillance by Michigan state and local law enforcement agencies." Judge Getzendanner, who has expressed thinly-veiled displeasure from the bench that the case remains on the docket, ruled that a subpoena from the Michigan legislative body would be required.
Electronic Osmosis by New York On-Line 718-852-2662
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