[AGL] Scoop on Sixties Surveillance!

michelemason coltrane at ev1.net
Tue Oct 24 12:02:39 EDT 2006 

WOW! It brings to mind a time I worked for Ma Bell in Los Angeles  
(69?). I was in a "chosen" group who happened to score very high on a  
certain test. Ma Bell wanted to keep us and beside promises of more $  
and higher "placement" one of the bosses took us on a little tour to a  
blank floor. In one room there was a phone on a pedestal. We were each  
invited to give the name of some relative—no matter how distant—into  
the receiver. In a few seconds, the computer came back with their home  
address, combined incomes, make, model and plates of their car(s),  
schools attended, state of health and any other question we might think  
of. I just wanted to run from the bldg. I did resign. There have been  
times I've had 2nd thoughts. More often I wish I had someplace to run.  
Oh well—mm

On Oct 24, 2006, at 8:51 AM, Igor Loving wrote:

> What G says is true. I too was in 1st LT Military Police in the Tex  
> Guard and we had a plan to make IH35 the main line of defense against  
> the rioting East Austinites and the looters. We had an MP Company that  
> would block all the roads from the river north to MLK before the other  
> units would move into the bario.
>
> It was to me unworkable but then I was really stupid in those days and  
> never believed a word of any of it. We had some really gungho racists  
> in the upper officer corps and strangely there were no people of color  
> in the headquarters unit I was in. I was a meteorologist in the Air  
> Force in NAM and somehow ended up an MP when I came back and went from  
> the AF to the Army. The idea was that at some point I was going to the  
> helicopter force but that never happened and I blew the whole thing  
> off after six months and went to work for Ken Jehn at KTBC and Jimmy  
> Fiddler.
>
>
>
> Charlie Loving
>
>
>
>
>> From: michelemason <coltrane at ev1.net>
>> Reply-To: survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the  
>> 60s<austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
>> To: survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the  
>> 60s<austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
>> CC: michelemason <coltrane at ev1.net>
>> Subject: Re: [AGL] Scoop on Sixties Surveillance!
>> Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 07:16:07 -0500
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>> 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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