1988, Des Moines, IA - Racist and sexist incidents of harassment
within the P.D. provoke a series of lawsuits. In one case, two
white cops tried to terrorize a Black officer by donning white
robes over their uniforms.
1988, Ogden, UT. - The Ogden police hire Richard Masker, a
spokesman for the racist League of Pace Amendment Advocates and the
Aryan Nations, to lecture them about the far-right movement. In
1983, Masker was fired from a job with the city of Corvallis, OR
for sending Hitler birthday cards to local Jews.
1989, San Bernandino, CA. - Black officers seeking promotion,
become the target of harassment They find thteatening racist
letters, signed by the Brotherhood of the Aryan Police Officers
Association, in their lockers inside a secured area of their police
station.
1989, Exter, NH - part-time officer with the local cops is fired
for alleged involvement the KKK. Thomas Herman was exposed when
he ran for a seat on the local Board of Selectmen. (He was
!defeated).
1989, Los Angeles, CA. - Two white sheriffs deputies are suspended
after burning a cross inside the County Jail with a home-made
blowtorch to intimidate Sheriff Sherman Block, one of them, Deputy
Brian Kazmienki, later shoots and kills a Mexican national.
In1989-90, allegations surface of organized white supremacist
groupings in the Sheriffs Department at the Lynwood station (the
Vikings), the Peter Pitchess Jail facility (the Wayside Whities)
and possibly East L.A. (the Cavemen).
1990, Boisie, ID. - Two Army Rangers from Ft Lewis are called to
testify at the trial of their associate Bob Winslow, an ex-Ranger
discharged in February from Fort Lewis, who then joined the Aryan
Nations. Winslow and two others are convicted of plotting to bomb
a gay bar, jewish temple, and Korean businesses in Seattle, WA.
1990, Oak Harbor, WA. -Three Navy men are arrested for burning a
cross in the wake of the civil trial of racist Tom Metzger for the
death of an Ethiopian refugee. The three are attached to the Whibey
Island Naval Air Station, (Whidbey Island is where racist leader
Bob Mathews was killed in a shootout, and has been a site of a
pilgrimage by neo-nazis who support Mathews' strategy for
exterminationist race war).
1990, Fort Worth, TX. - Sgt Tim Hall is dismissed from the Tarrant
County sheriffs department after it is revealed that he is secretly
"J. D, Calhoun," the kleagle or chief recruiter of the local Klan,
Hall's exposure leads to the firing of two other sheriffs
department employees and 6 of his fellow military police at
Carswell AF base. Hall later tries to get a job with a department
in Century, Flofida, but is forced out after Dallas papers report
on his background. Hall had previously been with the police in
Santa Rosa, CA.
1990, Cambridge, MA. - Tech Sgt Hank Stram of the Air National
Guard is arrested with a cache of more than 500 weapons, 50,000
rounds of ammunition, a mortar, an anti-tank gun, a rocket
launcher, a swastika poster and nazi and survivalist propaganda.
1991: In Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA and in Blakely,
Georgia, Klan activity is uncovered inside the fire department.
In S.F. there is harassment of Black firefighters; in LA., a fire
captain dons a Klan type hood to intimidate a Black woman employee,
and most of the Black firefighters quit the union when it supports
the captain; in Georgia, local Black residents win a Settlement in
a law suit brought after the fire chiefs affiliation with the Klan
is disclosed by anti-klan organizers.
1991, Los Angeles, CA. - In the wake of the beating of Rodney King
by police from the L.A.P.D.'s Foothill Division, it is disclosed
that an organized Klan faction was operating at the Foothill
station. At least two Black officers, a man and a woman, had been
harassed and received Klan calling cards in locked areas of the
station. Following disclosures that a para?military Klan faction
with cioso ties to Tom Metzger has been attempting to recruit L.A.
cops, Chief Daryl Gates assigns the Anti-Terrorist Division to
investigate, but as of this writing, no results have been made
public
1991, FT. Bragg, NC. - Mike Tubbs, Warrant Officer Jeff Jennett and
two civilians are arrested for stealing and stockpiling military
weapons. Tubbs was brought back from Saudi Arabia to face charges.
The four were part of a group called Knights of the New Order with
plans to attack Blacks and Jews.
1991, Indianapolis, IN. - Officer Wayne Sharp, a member of the Nazi
party who had attended Nazi meetings in Illinois and Virginia, and
rounded a party cell in his home town, shot and killed a Black
shoplifting suspect. In 1981, Sharp had killed a Black burglary
suspect and had been briefly suspended. He has been involved in
other shooting incidents as well during his 18-year career on the
force. It was disclosed that as local leader of the Nazis, he had
sent harassing letters to Jewish organizations.
1991, Beverly Hills, CA. - Scott Dafoe, an off-duty white cop and
three body-building buddies from NY are charged with the brutal
gay-bashing of a Latino man outside a West Hollywood restaurant.
1991, Alameda, CA. - Four white police officers are suspended after
a check of mobile data transmissions turns Up "jokes" about killing
a nigger and wearing Klan robes. They are eventually let off with
a slap on the wrist. It is later disclosed that the city destroyed
the tapes rather than turn them over in a lawsuit by two bars
charging the cops with bias.
1991, San Francisco, CA. - The chaplain of the S.F.P.D. is exposed
as an activist in the anti-?abortion movement who has led prayer
revivals for Operation Rescue.
1991, Northridge, CA. - Then LA. Police Chief Daryl Gates agrees
to attend a rally sponsored by Students for America, the youth
group of Pat Robertson's Christian. crusade. The chapter had also
been involved in local Populist Party organizing. (The Populists
are a nazi-front group which ran David Duke for president).
1992, Los Angeles, CA. - Garland Hatrdeman, a Black cop who had
been ostracized and verbally abused by fellow officers since
testifying about racism in the LAPD to the Cllristoper Commission,
finds a chalk outline in front of his locker like those at homicide
scenes, with the indication of two bullets to the head. A police
spokesman says "it is too early to characterize it as a threat."
1992, Merriville, IN. - The chief of police and a deputy are
suspended after making racist slurs.
1992, Savannah, GA. - Three soldiers from Ft Stewart are arrested
for the racially motivated killing of a Black man. Residents
believe that a white supremacist ring may be operating on the base.
1992, Chicago, IL. - A firefighter and his brother are arrested for
shooting at their Puerto Rican neighbor. Nazi paraphenaiia and
massive quantities of weapons, ammo andexplosives are found in
their home
1992, Iannet, AL. - A review board upholds the city's dismissal of
two officers who taunted a prisoner with racial Slurs and made him
wear a Klan hood.
1992, Denver, CO. - Two sheriffs deputies. one white and one
Latino, dress up in Klan robes in an attempt to intimidate Black
inmates at the jail. In another incident, a cop flashes a KKK hand
sign at Chicanas on their way to protest a Klan rally. Meanwhile,
the army issues a ban to prevent active duty personnel from
attending the rally.
1992, Grovetown, GA. - Scott Lowe, the former fire chief, who had
been exposed as the grand titan of the Christian Knights Klan, is
arrested for having burned a cross in 1987 outside a Black
famlly's. home.
1992, Boynton Beach, FL. - Officer Dave Demarest, fired from the
force for flaunting a swastika tattoo at a Jewish woman officer and
several other cops, seeks reinstatement by claiming that racism
and' nazism were widespread and accepted in the department He
presents a pnoto ot two officers dressed as Nazis which had been
posted in the deputy chiefs office.
1992, Ft. Benning, GA. - Police arrest Klan leader Bill Riccio and
several Confederate Hammer Skins and Aryan National Front members
for possession of military weapons and explosives at an Aryan Fest
racist rock concert. Further arrests of military personnel are
expected at the base.
1993, Dallas, TX. - The Christian fundamentalist sheriff opens a
special, plush section of the jail reserved for born-again
Christian inmates, and off-limits to the press and lawyers for
other inmates. Even after the sheriff is removed for other
illegalities, his successor, also a fundamentalist Christian,
continues the practice,
1993, Washington, D.C. - In separate incidents, gangs of sailors
are involved in a gay bashing and the murder of a gay sailor,
apparently in response to efforts to lift the ban on openly gay or
lesbian service-members.
1993, Paterson, NJ. - A cop is busted for dealing in illegal
weapons with a undercover officer in a sting Operation. An
extensive weapons cache, nazi paraphenalia and white supremacist
material is found in his home.
This string of incidents makes it clear that organized,
violence-prone white supremactsts, who make up a small fringe
element of society at large, are much better represen!eu in tne
ranks of law enforcement and the military. This is no accident The
ideology of law enforcement, the "us against them" mentality which
guides their daily lives and contacts with the public, makes police
susceptible to white racist preachings. The police - even if
polite, respectful and individually not personal racists -. carry
out a commitment.to suppress tnreats to the hierarchy of the state
and society which leaves Black people and other people of color on
the bottom. Organized white supremacists within police forces find
fertile soil for the argument that democratic and egalitarian
values and concern for human civil rights hem them in needlessly
and are only so much hypocrisy that interferes with cops' ability
to protect themselves and get tough on crime.
Posted in pol-abuse@igc.apc.org
I found this two-part post on the pol-abuse discussion list to be
a great interest. I believe that the incidents described here are only a
sampling of the total degree of Klan and neo-fascist inflitration of the
nation's police forces. Similiar reports of neo-fascist infiltration of
the military, particular the National Guard, have been surfacing for
years.
It can't happen here
No No it can't happen here
Everybody's safe and it can't happen here
No freaks for us, and it can't happen here
Everybody's clean and it can't happen here
No no, it can't happen here
Telling you again, it won't happen here
Plastic folks, you know it won't happen here
You're safe mamma, it won't happen here
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
Man, you guys are really safe, everything's cool...
-- Frank Zappa
Subject: Kops & Klan, Hand in Hand? Chron.
CHRONOLOGY OFF KKK AND OTHER NEO-FASCIST LINKS TO COPS
1976, Camp Pendleton, CA. - A den of David Duke's Knights of the
KKK (led in the state by Tom Metzger) is exposed at the Marine
base. The Corps disperses the members to other locations after
racial fighting erupts,
1976, Ventura, CA. - A KKK gathering in a local bar is exposed and
photographed. Several local police officers are identified among
the participants
1977-78, Napanoch, NY: A KKK klavern is exposed.among prison
guards and inmates at a NY state prison. Earl Schoonmaker, a
civilian instructor at the prison, and guard Glen Wilkinson
incorporated the Independent Northern Klans in the sate. Guard
brutality leads to a rebellion by the prisoners.
1979, Sacramento, CA. - Pistol targets depicting a fleeing Black
man are placed on the State Police firing range and on several
police Iocker's The targets award points for hitting various parts
of the Black man's anatomy.
1979, Childersburg, AL. - Police Officer William Rayfield, a Klan
member, is indicted for, but acquitted of, civil rights violations
for shots fired into Black leaders' homes.
1979, Euless, TX - Klan members from FT Hood army base; dressed in
combat fatigues, stand guard with weapons over a nearby Klan rally.
1979, U.S.S. Concord, Independence, America - Klan groups of Bill
Wilkinson's invisible Empire form on several navy vessels, holding
a cross burning on the America, wearing robes on the Independence
and provoking racial incidents on the Concord, based in Norfolk,
VA. Wilkinson, a former member of naval Intelligence, is later
exposed as a long time FBI operative.
1980, San Diego, CA. - The police department, through a reserve
officer assigned undercover to the KKK, provides funds radio
equipment, and help in gathering ballot signatures to qualify Klan
leader Tom Metzger for a run for Congress. (Metzger won the
Democratic nomination but lost the general election). Later, the
agency destroys all their files and gives the FBI a chronology
actually prepared by Metzger himself.
1980, New Britain, CT - Auxiliary cop Gary Picotanno is exposed as
the local Grand Dragon of the invisible Empire of the KKK. He
obtains a gun permit because of his police auxiliary status.
1980, Houston, TX. - White prison inmates, fighting a court
integration order detailing the racist and brutal operations of the
Texas prisons, form a group called Advocates of the Ku Klux Klan,
with the support of the local Klan and sympathetic white prison
guards and officials. Klan robes are found in a guard's locker.
1981, Frankfurt Germany -The U.S. Army hires Gene Neill, a
convicted drug smuggler and gun runner who has become an open
member of the Invisible Empire KKK, and who's writing a regular
column for its newspaper, The Klansman, after his early release
from prison. Neill, who styles himself an evangelist, is assigned
by the chaplain's office of the Army's V Corps to preach to the
troops.
1981, Fort Monroe, VA. - Five members of the 560th Military Police
Company are reassigned when their membership in the KKK becomes
public.
1982, Signal Hill, CA. - Four cops from the local agency near Long
Beach, which is under fire for the beatings and killings of Black
people, are suspended for wearing shirts showing a gallows, a
hangman s noose, and the words, "Signal Hill, Stairway to Heaven."
The officers bought the shirts at a camp-out of cops sponsored by
the Southern California Memorial Peace Officers Association. The
shirts were sold by an ex~cop from another department to more than
two dozen officers from various agencies. The Signal Hill chief
protects the identity of the other officers and departments
involved.
1982, Pritchard, AL. - Off-duty police Sgt. Bob Morris is seen
putting up KKK placards on a city street. (He is fired from the
force for "conduct unbecoming an officer").
1982, Meridian, CT. - Joseph Hard, the public leader of the KKK in
Connectituct is identified as a prison guard just before a
"National White Christian Solidarity Day" rally he organized,
featuring Bill Wilkinson. Pressure from the anti-klan movement
forces the state to fir him for organizing white guards and
prisoners into the Klan.
1983, North Carolina - White supremacists organize among white
inmates and prison guards. Glenn Milier's Confederate Knights of
the KKK burn a cross outside the home of Bobby Person, a Black
prison guard who was trying to win a promotion and became the
target of harassment.
1983, Richmond, CA. - The Cowboys, an organized white supremacist
group in the Richmond police force, is exposed after two of its
members are involved in the killing of at least two Black man. At
one point, the Cowboys even wore cowboy hats and boots while on
patrol. The group circulates a flyer showing a white hunter
grinning over a dead deer with the caption, "choke hold, good for
killing big bucks," after a Black man is strangled to death by four
guards inside the Richmond jail.
1983, Chicago, IL - In an effort to defeat Black mayoral candidate
Harold Washington, the cops form "Police for Epton" (the white
Republican). They wear plain white buttons or buttons with a
circled watermelon with a slash through it. The white cops
circulate racist flyers, and conduct a plan for massive arrests in
Black neighborhoods on the eve of the election, which is derailed
at the last minute after being exposed by the Black press
1983, Los Angeles, CA. - An uproar develops over spying by the
Public Disorder Intelligence Unit, (the, L.A.P.D.'s "red squad",
which maintained surveillance and dossiers on many of the leading
civic and political figures in the city, including opponents of
police brutality). With the approval of superior officers, a
lieutenant in the unit takes files home that were supposed to be
destroyed under court order. He funnels materials to the domestic
espionage apparatus of the Western Goals Founadation, an extremist
right wing ontfit run by the head of the John Birch Society, with
ties to the racist, anti-semitic World anti-Communist League.
1984, Battle Creek, MI. - Larry Guy, Black leader of the Coalition
to End Police Brutality and Racism is the target of a series of
Gestapo raids by the police, and grand jury indictments. Guy, who
had earlier exposed links between the local cops and the Klan,
including a 1980 cross-burning at a Coalition member's home, is
arrested along with his son. Then another cross is burned on the
lawn of another Coalition member.
1985, Louisville, KY. - Alex Young, a 13 year veteran with the
Jefferson County police, long active with the Klan,is fired after
admitting that he had "probably" accessed the National Criminal
information Computer on behalf of the KKK on non-police business.
Young, who had widely distributed Klan propaganda to people who
knew he was a cop, is exposed when a Black family victimized by a
racist arson brought suit. Young is forced to reveal the identities
of police members of a Klan chapter he had formed in the
department, called COPS (Confederate Officers Patriot Squad) but
a court order keeps their names secret from the public,
1986, St. Pauls, NC. - Active duty Marines from Camp Lejeune and
soldiers from Fort Bragg engage in para-military training with the
KKK and the White Patriot Party, an armed racist group.
1986, Chicago, IL. - Black FBI Agent Donald Rochon sues the Burcau.
He is the target of harassment and death threats from white agents
in the field office. His wife receives KKK type material and
threats. (Rochon ultimately wins $1 million in a settlement of the
suit he brings against the agency. ironically, Rochon when with the
LA.P.D. had infiltrated, spied on and disrupted Black community
groups opposing racist police brutality such as the killing of Eula
Love).
1987, Canton, OH. - Jewish police officer Steve Silver finds a
poster of Adolph Hitler stuck on the wall of the lockerroom in the
police department.
1987, Los Angeles, CA. - Assistant Chief Robert Vernon, a
fundamentalist minister, is disclosed to be recruiting hundreds of
born again Christians from the department to his church. Vernon
earns a substantial second income selling right-wing Christian
books and tapes, and all his staff people at the police department
are born again. Vernon is later caught accessing the department's
computer to provide information abotut Michael Zinzun, a former
Black Panther running for office in Pasadena, to a right-wing
candidate. supported by his wife.
1988, Youngstown, PA. - Former Police Chief David Gardner is
indicted for providing armed security to white supremacist James
Wickstrom, head of the Posse Comitatus, as part of a scheme to
produce counterfeit U.S. currency to finance the racist movement.