Excerpt #29

In December of 1985, a group of former officers met at the house of Sy Casady, former publisher of the Arizona Republic newspaper and current publisher of the Daily Californian newspaper, published four days a week with a circulation of over 30,000. He was a close friend of former Congressman Lionel Van Deerlin who wrote a column for the San Diego Tribune. Van Deerlin was interested in sending sworn statements from these officers to Congress, asking for an investigation into repeated reports of cover-ups and corruption within the San Diego Police department. It became apparent while meeting at Casady’s house that we were under surveillance by the department’s Criminal Intelligence unit. When reported to the F.B.I. they told us they were aware of the department’s activity and explained it in this way, “Imagine you are being watched from a hill looking down on you. Now imagine us on a higher hill looking at them watching you.” What was the department’s reasoning behind this? What did they have to worry about if they were so squeaky clean? #PoliceSurveillance

Author: Larry Avrech