The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchists and communists, and deport them from the United States. The raids particularly targeted Italian immigrants and Eastern European Jewish immigrants with alleged leftist ties, with particular focus on Italian anarchists and immigrant leftist labor activists. The raids and arrests occurred under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, with 6,000 people arrested across 36 cities. Though 556 foreign citizens were deported, including a number of prominent leftist leaders, Palmer’s efforts were largely frustrated by officials at the U.S. Department of Labor, which had authority for deportations and objected to Palmer’s methods.

The Palmer Raids occurred in the larger context of the First Red Scare, a period of fear of and reaction against communists in the U.S. in the years immediately following World War I and the Russian Revolution. There were strikes that garnered national attention, and prompted race riots in more than 30 cities, as well as two sets of bombings in April and June 1919, including one bomb mailed to Palmer’s home.

Between November 1919 and January 2020, Palmer’s agents deported nearly 250 people, including notable anarchist Emma Goldman, and arrested nearly 10,000 people in seventy cities.

100 Years Ago, the First Red Scare Tried to Destroy the Left meow-anarchist

“For a World Without Oppressors:” U.S. Anarchism from the Palmer Raids to the Sixties - Andrew Cornell anarchy

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  • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.netMEnglish
    34·
    11 months ago

    Posted in the other mega right before this one was made:

    Stopped a fight in front of a bar on NYE and got a taser and guns drawn on me by the cops.

    Dude literally slammed this kid against the wall and started choking him and I happened to be in the exact right place at the exact right time and got him in a bear hug from behind managing to say into his ear “If you don’t stop right now the cops are gonna beat the shit out of both of us probably.” And then managed to slip back into the bar I imagine because the cops saw that I was just trying to restrain this guy in the middle of assaulting some 20 something year old college kid.

    Lesson of the story is that in many cases community policing is safer and more effective than the existing policing in America.