The anti-TABD demonstrations herald the return of the Red Squad. Emile Schepers comments.

The recent demonstrations against the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue meeting in Chicago showed how the government is preparing to quash public dissent, and signaled a return to the days of the “Red Squad” in Chicago.

The march on Thursday, November 7, drew several thousand people. Smaller demonstrations followed Friday and Saturday. There was no violence. Most of the marchers were organized by Chicago Jobs With Justice, unions, and anti-globalization groups. The anarchist presence was completely non-violent as well. Yet the police mobilization was stunning, lining every street. Dressed like Darth Vader’s storm troopers, the police put a discernable chill on the protests. The show of force cost taxpayers $1.6 million.

In the week before the demonstrations, Mayor Richard Daley and Police Chief Terry Hillard engaged in psychological warfare against the demonstrators. The so-called threat of violence was played up by spokespeople and the scandal sheet Chicago Sun-Times. The people of Chicago were told that hordes of violent lunatics would descend on the city, when in reality most of the marchers were local, coming from well-known social justice organizations.

The City also said the police were forming a “goon squad” of extremely large policemen and that the protestors would be videotaped so that the police could act against lawbreakers later. Any damage to property would result in prosecution, the City said. Further, the police announced that they would be placing undercover police among the demonstrators.

The City put out false information about the legal precedent for such actions. Since the Haymarket incident of 1886, the City maintained some kind of anti-subversive police squad designed to spy on and disrupt labor unions, left-wing political groups and any organization critical of the status quo. In the 1920s this unit became known colloquially as the Red Squad, one of many such units throughout the U.S.

Over time, this unit spied on thousands of individuals and organizations, including such unlikely “subversive” groups as the Methodist Church and the League of Women Voters. When Republican mayors were in power, the Red Squad spied on the Democrats; and when Democrats were in power, it spied on Republicans.

Red Squad infiltrators sometimes incited members of dissident organizations to commit illegal acts to create a pretext for suppressing the entire organization. A mostly African American community group dedicated to social justice was destroyed by the Red Squad by the simple expedient of getting a Red Squad agent into a position of leadership, and then sabotaging the organization’s administration.

The police also set up assassinations, as in the famous killing of Chicago Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in 1969.

In 1974, the Alliance to End Repression filed suit against the City of Chicago to try and shut down the Red Squad. Though the police tried to cover their tracks, the publicity following the suit created a wave of public revulsion against political police in Chicago.

In 1981, the City was forced to sign the Alliance to End Repression/ACLU Consent Decree, which forbade it from spying on or disrupting constitutionally protected activities. The City was soon found to have violated this Consent Decree and ordered to pay compensation to victims of its political cops.

For 16 years, the Alliance/ACLU Consent Decree was in force. During that time, according to police depositions obtained by Alliance attorney Richard Gutman, no criminal investigations were impeded by the Consent Decree.

Yet in March 1997, Mayor Daley went to federal court to have the Consent Decree drastically modified. Consent Decree signatories from the plaintiffs’ side, including the ACLU and the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, strongly contested. The Mayor claimed that the Consent Decree was impeding investigations of street gang crime and terrorism by preventing the Chicago police from sharing information with other police departments. The City asked for permission to return to spying and to videotape all street demonstrations.

District Court Judge Anne Williams agreed with the defenders of the Consent Decree and denied the City’s claim. But the City appealed to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, and on January 11, 2001, a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court gutted the Consent Decree. Judge Richard Posner, writing the opinion, essentially ignored not only the plaintiff’s arguments, but those of Judge Williams as well. A request for a re-hearing was denied.
On this basis, the police have rewritten the rules for dealing with political dissent. They have dropped their claim that their wish to film demonstrations was “for training purposes.” In fact, they film demonstrations with the openly stated purpose of identifying individual protesters for later action.

The police have returned to the methods of the agent provocateur. They make no secret that they’re infiltrating demonstrations with undercover officers. The fact that they do this is disturbing—but that they announce it openly reveals both their arrogance and their intention to chill dissent.

The return to heavy-handed police control of political dissent in Chicago reveals the nature of the beast—political powers that represent big-business economic interests will always try to silence those who criticize them. However, we were not adequately prepared for this clampdown in recent years.

As Program Director of the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, I contacted community groups and activists to rally opposition when Mayor Daley returned to court on the Consent Decree in 1997. But the majority of activists I contacted had no idea of what the Consent Decree was, and didn’t know the history of the Red Squad or the dangers presented by the City’s request. One community group I contacted had clearly been victimized by a violation of the Consent Decree, but preferred not to use the enforcement action of the Consent Decree to defend themselves, thereby losing a chance to expose the City for violating the decree. The historical memory had been lost, partly due to the mobility of community leaders who move from city to city.

Indeed, the battles that are really important often have to be fought over and over, year after year. It is, however, time for all to wake up to the fact that city police departments will be taking advantage of the new repressive regime in Washington. Not only must we guard against police spying and sabotage, but we must be prepared for the government to use anti-terrorism legislation such as the USA Patriot Act, civil forfeitures and the RICO statutes against legitimate dissent at all levels. And this time we must be prepared to fight back.