NYC Police Raid Anti-Fascist Newspaper’s Office – ACLU Protests
The ACLU on this day protested a raid by the New York City Police on the office of an Italian-language daily newspaper La Stampa Libera. The raid was conducted by the NYPD’s Alien and Radical Squad.
The ACLU charged that the raid was made “without warrant and without probable cause.” A police spokesperson claimed that the raid was in response to plans by the paper to publish “articles inciting hostile demonstrations” against the Italian Foreign Minister when he visited the city.
“Anti-red” actions by local police increased in 1930-31 because of both the Great Depression and an aggressive campaign by the Communist Party to organize protest rallies of the unemployed and non-union organizers. See the clashes between the police and protesters on Wall Street, on February 26, 1930, and in Cleveland, on October 2, 1930.
Read: Samuel Walker, In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU (1990)
Read the ACLU FBI File (not the complete file): http://vault.fbi.gov/ACLU
Learn about the ACLU today: www.aclu.org