[AGL] Scoop on Sixties Surveillance!

[michelemason]

I know there were some "dirty tricks"—like my phone was tapped and 
family members arrested when I worked with CISPES in the late '70s, 
early 80's, during Reagan's regime, but I must have played innocently 
along during the '60's. How freakin scary—then and now.  mm

On Oct 23, 2006, at 1:19 PM, Gerry wrote:

> Thorne,
> A high school buddy of mine became an officer in the Texas National 
> Guard. He was not a radical, a rather straight family man who worked 
> as a bureaucrat for the federal government (not in law enforcement). 
> We met again in the mid-80's and over a few beers recalled our 
> respective pasts. When he learned that I had been an Austin hippy in 
> the '60's he told me the following:
>  
> The Texas National Guard had a plan in place to swoop into the Austin 
> hippy neighborhoods and arrest everyone in sight. The victims were to 
> be bussed to an abandoned air force base in West Texas which had been 
> fixed up for the occasion. My friend was with a planning group that 
> drove to Austin several times and patrolled the neighborhoods, putting 
> details onto a master map. "You guys don't know how close you came to 
> being residents of West Texas," he told me. "Why didn't the deal go 
> down?" I asked him. "Don't know," he said, "Guess it was tabled when 
> LBJ decided not to run again."
>  
> I immediately recalled all the rumors of "The Big Bust" we used to 
> joke about in the '60's. Turns out it was not a joke and presumably 
> came pretty close to being a fact. The rumors were strong enough to 
> serve as a major factor in the decisions of many of us to move to San 
> Francisco and also to Berkeley where some of us lived during the 
> People's Park episodes in which the California National Guard did, in 
> fact, invade the town and conduct mass sweeps in which hundreds of 
> people were arrested and bussed to a former air force base where they 
> were held in legal limbo for a time.
> G
>  
>  
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: thorne dreyer
>> To: austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net ; GHETTO2 at LISTS.WHATHELPS.COM
>> Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 11:36 AM
>> Subject: [AGL] Scoop on Sixties Surveillance!
>>
>> Friends,
>>  
>> I am working on an article for the Texas Observer and I'd appreciate 
>> input from you guys.
>> When Allen Hamilton died (he was UT campus police chief in the 
>> sixties), his son discovered boxes of papers and sold them to Half 
>> Price Books who in turn donated them to the UT library.  Most of the 
>> stuff was about Whitman and it was delivered immediately; the 
>> remainder was records of surveillance by campus police: of sds and 
>> other activists, of dopers, lots of mentions of the Ghetto ("a haven 
>> for campus Jews"), etc.  Anyway, the good folks at Half Price, 
>> fearing that this stuff would be buried by UT, contacted Alice Embree 
>> and offered us access to the materials before turning them over. So 
>> we went to Dallas and scanned and copied the whole kit 'n caboodle.  
>> There are lists and memos and photos.  Janis Joplin shows up lots! 
>> Billy Lee Brammer.  Shelton.  Jerry Jeff Walker. Richard Friedman. As 
>> do a number of people on the ghetto list.
>>  
>> I'm doing a story on these materials, but also tying them into the 
>> larger picture of harassment and surveillance in the sixties, 
>> including the Cointelpro activities of the FBI. 
>> I'm interested in any memories, stories, inside poop any of you may 
>> have regarding the campus police, Bert Gerding and the Austin red 
>> squad, other law enforcement agencies and so on. Any direct 
>> harassment, provocateur actions, dirty tricks. Anything about the 
>> murder of George Vizard (Hamilton was a suspect at first!); I may be 
>> doing a sidebar looking back at that.  Also, if anybody knew a guy 
>> named Jeff Gardner.  He was apparently Austin SDS treasurer for a 
>> while, and was an informant.
>>  
>> And, of course, I need stuff right away!  This week.  My deadline's 
>> the 30th.
>>  
>> Respond onlist or to my rr. email site below.
>>  
>> Thanks for your help,
>>  
>> Thorne
>>  
>> tdreyer at austin.rr.com
>> 512-436-9968
>> 713-210-9608 (cell)
>>  
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