Palmer+Raids

=PALMER RAIDS=

The early 1900's was a time of anxiety and suspision among U.S. citizens. In an incident known as the Red Scare, Americans feared communism and political conspiracies. This fear reached its peak during 1919 when a number of bombings were aimed at leading political figures. On June 2nd 1919, multiple bombs were detonated within an hour of each other, aiming for eight eastern cities. The newly appointed attorney general A. Mitchell Palmer's home was targeted but only partially destroyed. After this, Palmer created the General Intelligence Division (GID) at the Department of Justice which was meant to investigate the strength of radical political organizations in the United States. J. Edgar Hoover was appointed as chief of the GID and by fall of 1919 advized to take drastic action against a possible revolution.

  Mass arrests took place of anyone suspected of anarchy. An anarchist i s someone who supports the eradication of government in favor of a natural social order. Of the nearly 600 suspected anarchists only 60 of them were proven guilty and deported. The raids soon became greater, the most significant one resulting in 249 deportations on December 21 aboard a single “Red Ark”, the Buford. On January 2nd, 1920, Hoover used 579 agents from the Bureau of Investigation and others from the recently disbanded American Protective League to organize giant raids against communists within 23 states. Between 4,000 and 6,000 people were arrested from the thirty-three cities. Most were Communist Party members or suspected members, while about 300 were members of the Communist Labor Party. The American Civil Liberties Union documented the abuses used against the captive such as due process, illegal search and seizer, and indiscriminate arrests, use of agents provocateurs, and torture.   Palmer hoped that the raids would aid in his presidential ambitions, and be viewed as a savior, but instead they hurt his carrier. He was seen as a threat to the civil rights and liberties of all Americans. Hoover went on to a forty-eight-year career as director of the FBI.

    



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