American Police Disappearing Citizens?
December 11, 2014 8:27 PM Subscribe
Besides during the high profile civil rights period in the South, has there ever been any suspicions as to whether police in any of America's police forces "disappeared" anyone?
Not in the way you are describing, like a South American Junta. Frankly I'm not even sure US Police ever disappeared anyone during the civil rights era. They just looked the other way.
As for the immigration option, that's not disappearing. Its all on paper and there are hearings if the immigrant disputes the deportation. The disappearing, as in"Mothers of the Disappeared" involves no paperwork, they just go missing but the police are involved. South America provides the most known examples.
posted by Ironmouth at 5:09 AM on December 12, 2014
As for the immigration option, that's not disappearing. Its all on paper and there are hearings if the immigrant disputes the deportation. The disappearing, as in"Mothers of the Disappeared" involves no paperwork, they just go missing but the police are involved. South America provides the most known examples.
posted by Ironmouth at 5:09 AM on December 12, 2014
Here is something I was told but have no proof of: that after the 1968 democratic convention protests, a guy never came back. The person who told this to me believes that he was killed, accidentally or on purpose, by the police and buried somewhere like a construction site.
My surmise is that police probably "disappear" people for just vague violent reasons all the time, but not for specific, organized political reasons. That Bakersfield journalist post linked yesterday, for example, talks about how there was a cop who murdered two women....and a third, who could have incriminated him in something earlier in his career, had "disappeared" and never been heard of since. If cops kill people and it goes unnoticed, those people are probably homeless youth, sex workers, other homeless people, etc.
I know for a fact that off-duty cops harass and beat people who annoy them, because it's happened to people I know. I also know for a fact that cops detain people and then shuffle them around in detention so that you can't find them, and that can be really scary.
It might be worth examining the 1920s and 1930s - Palmer raids, IWWs, Pinkertons, etc. If anyone was getting systematically disappeared by the cops, that's when I would expect it to have happened, as information was a lot scarcer and there was a lot of violence against union organizers and people really did get killed in the night.
posted by Frowner at 5:23 AM on December 12, 2014 [3 favorites]
My surmise is that police probably "disappear" people for just vague violent reasons all the time, but not for specific, organized political reasons. That Bakersfield journalist post linked yesterday, for example, talks about how there was a cop who murdered two women....and a third, who could have incriminated him in something earlier in his career, had "disappeared" and never been heard of since. If cops kill people and it goes unnoticed, those people are probably homeless youth, sex workers, other homeless people, etc.
I know for a fact that off-duty cops harass and beat people who annoy them, because it's happened to people I know. I also know for a fact that cops detain people and then shuffle them around in detention so that you can't find them, and that can be really scary.
It might be worth examining the 1920s and 1930s - Palmer raids, IWWs, Pinkertons, etc. If anyone was getting systematically disappeared by the cops, that's when I would expect it to have happened, as information was a lot scarcer and there was a lot of violence against union organizers and people really did get killed in the night.
posted by Frowner at 5:23 AM on December 12, 2014 [3 favorites]
Who knows what went on in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Police corruption has been going on as long as there have been police, and with it comes murder and disappearances. It just doesn't make the news.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:03 AM on December 12, 2014
Police corruption has been going on as long as there have been police, and with it comes murder and disappearances. It just doesn't make the news.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:03 AM on December 12, 2014
I don't recall many of the details, but a few years ago it was claimed in print that Chicago, in the '90s or more recently, held something like twenty-eight prisoners who were not officially recorded (and at least one of whom was literally chained to a heater in an apartment). I don't know whether they had been officially arrested to begin with or not.
posted by mr. digits at 7:58 AM on December 12, 2014
posted by mr. digits at 7:58 AM on December 12, 2014
This is not really the same thing, but LA County Sheriff's Department recently tried to hide an inmate who was working with the FBI to expose malfeasance in the Sheriff's Department.
posted by mhum at 7:18 PM on December 12, 2014
posted by mhum at 7:18 PM on December 12, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 9:19 PM on December 11, 2014 [2 favorites]