Dallas cops today and in 1963

[Douglas Caddy]

Reading this article of Dallas cops today being suspended for making extremist comments on Facebook reminds me of the large number of cops in the Dallas Police Department who were KKK members when JFK was assassinated.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/07/dallas-suspends-4-of-25-cops-busted-for-extremist-facebook-comments-report/

 

 

[Stephanie Goldberg]

I have now read more history of the late 50's/60's in the US than I had previously read.  And it still shocks me when I find quotes or read about situations then that seem to be the same as what we see now...just change a few names and dates. 

I realize this is a naive perspective.  History does repeat itself.  I guess I just hoped that we - as a people - had learned more between then and now.  And we DO have some improvements, but it still feels like two tiny steps forward, one giant step backward...

[Darrell Curtis]

"History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake."

From time to time there are local items that show up in the news and elsewhere, that make claims about how much progress Dallas has made from the way it was in the early 60's. It wasn't all that long ago you could be pulled over by the DPD for having long hair, and a Grateful Dead sticker on the back window of your car. I've known people, and known of others who have been pulled over for DWB (driving while black)

[Joseph McBride]

When I interviewed retired Dallas DP Detective Morris Brumley and

he started boasting about his KKK activities (see my book INTO THE NIGHTMARE), he claimed he

had "infiltrated" the Klan for the DPD. I asked another researcher

from the Dallas area who was knowledgeable, and he laughed

at the word "infiltrated," since he said the Dallas area KKK was 75%

Dallas policemen in those days.

[Joe Bauer]

Joe McBride, how would you describe Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade as far as his racial sentiments? 

Was Wade KKK supportive and if so to what degree in your opinion?

Same with Will Fritz, Chief Curry and even Jim Leavelle and Sergeant Patrick Dean?

Do you think the KKK members of the DPD hated JFK for his liberal stand on race to the point of celebrating his murder?

Do you think this KKK involvement played any part in JFK'S assassination and/or Oswald's in the hands of the DPD?

 

Edited July 7, 2019 by Joe Bauer

[Joseph McBride]

I don't have any direct knowledge about those others and the KKK. There was

certainly a lot of racism on the DPD and in the DA's office. Wade's office

convicted many innocent people. Later DA Craig Watkins (who was

African American) freed some of them. Racism in the South then

tended to translate into hatred of JFK and RFK.

Edited July 8, 2019 by Joseph McBride

[Paul Brancato]

As Joseph McBride says, we know generally who the DPD officers and Detectives were. Unless I’m missing something, 56 years later we still know very little about individuals in the DPD. Who was a member of what Reserve military unit, KKK, Minutemen outfit? Given the known level of detail about so much minutiae, it’s incredible that this is so. Dallas Police and detectives were everywhere, yet our knowledge is nowhere. I can’t even get a straight answer from anyone, including prominent researchers and authors, about the intersection of Army reserve units and active duty DP Detectives. 

[Stephanie Goldberg]

To those who have studied the DPD in the early 60's, how many of them might have also been members of the John Birch Society?   

[Michael Clark]

4 hours ago, Stephanie Goldberg said:

To those who have studied the DPD in the early 60's, how many of them might have also been members of the John Birch Society?   

Hi Stephanie, I have heard numbers offered for KKK, JBS and minutemen memberships for the DPD, but the sources here seemed unreliable, or at least not well researched. An exception is @Ernie Lazar, who has shared tons of his own research and documents..

 

On 3/1/2019 at 4:19 PM, Ernie Lazar said:

Thanks Robert.  One of the reasons why JBS members and supporters often seem to win online debates is because very few people have detailed FACTUAL knowledge about JBS history.  As a result, cartoon caricatures about the JBS and its positions often are substituted for rational and factual debate.

Because much of their actual history is opaque, Birchers often get away with the most incredible falsehoods about their own history as well as denying the numerous associations or links between the JBS and very toxic and disreputable individuals and organizations. 

My chapter on "Racism and the John Birch Society" is a 3-part discussion (totaling 189 pages) which includes a very detailed chronology of those links and associations.  That appears in the third (and final) section of that chapter -- and I don't think anybody has ever been able to compile such an extensive database.  And I only scratched the surface!

I hope that my FBI files collection which has now been accessed by over one million people will help future scholars, students, researchers, and journalists document our history. 

I am currently working on a new Report which is entitled "Trumpism is NOT New" -- which will summarize the arguments used by the extreme right and white nationalists and assorted bigots during the 1940's thru 1980's which mimic the current statements and themes associated with Donald Trump.  Thanks again for your support!  [BTW--the next batch of FBI files to be uploaded into my Internet Archive webpage should be available in late in March or early April.]

 

[Andrew Prutsok]

Municipal police departments in the US were set up to be corrupt, unaccountable and brutal entities. Law enforcement in the US was initially the responsibility of elected sheriffs. But it turned out they were reluctant to smash the skulls of labor agitators whose votes, and those of their family members, they might need to stay in office. The first municipal police departments in the US were set up with private funding,

[Joe Bauer]

I think most police force members tend to be much more supportive of authoritarian type governance and policy than average people.

This includes a military order type mentality versus a democratic/constitutional equal rights under the law one.

There is an inherent occupational inclination for this sentiment in their ranks borne out their often stated law enforcement experience of seeing and dealing with the worst and most dangerous elements of our society on a daily basis.

How often have I heard people I know who are police officers or prison guards say ... if you saw what I see on a daily basis, you wouldn't be so liberal and defending of these people rights.

If these criminals had the power, they wouldn't be liberal in their consideration and treatment of you...they would destroy you.

This is an important debate.

The greater problem of this dark group cynicism is that the police and prison guards and their  unions have powerful lobbies that help keep our growing military type police forces intact and they are becoming more so like this every year.

It seems more and more our police forces have become like military forces in dress, equipment, tactics and mentality.

And their perceived enemies are more and more civilians who dare break the law.

 

[Stephanie Goldberg]

Thanks, Michael!