February 7, 2001
Leif Utne
Police Spying 101
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A recent federal court ruling that eases limits on police surveillance of political groups has activists up in arms, writes Jim Redden, on Utne Reader Online. The ruling, handed down January 11 by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, weakens restrictions that were put in place in the 1970s to curtail the activities of the Chicago police department's infamous 'Red Squad,' which was notorious for its infiltration of leftist groups.
Redden quotes the court ruling: 'The era in which the Red Squad flourished is history... Fear of communist subversion, so strong a motivator of constitutional infringement in those days, has disappeared.'
'Today,' the ruling continues, 'the concern ... is with ideologically motivated terrorism ... The city does not want to resurrect the Red Squad. It wants to be able to keep tabs on incipient terrorist groups.'
According to Redden, author of the recent book SNITCH CULTURE: How Citizens are Turned Into the Eyes and Ears of the State (Feral House, 2000), there are two problems with this ruling. First, it rests on the 'faulty reasoning' that there is a discernible distinction under the First Amendment between 'communist subversion' and 'ideologically motivated terrorism.' Redden cites First Amendment lawyer Douglas Lee, who criticized the ruling in a recent Freedom Forum article, writing: 'As long as First Amendment conduct does not directly incite imminent illegal action, it is protected, whether it advocates communism or some other anti-democratic message.'
Second, police spying is already quite legal, and alarmingly widespread. Redden has documented numerous cases of police snooping on peaceful citizens' groups. In one 1995 case in Portland, Oregon, Redden says police argued that spying on several local activist groups was justified under law because 'all their protests involve criminal activity ... including such minor offenses as jaywalking.'
If the revelations of rampant police spying on the protesters at the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, or last year's Republican and Democratic conventions, came as any shock, then brace yourself. There's more to come.
--Leif Utne
Related Reading:
21st Century Police State? A new wave of protests incites extreme measures
by Craig Cox, Utne Reader (Nov/Dec 2000)