In the never-ending fight against the man—whoever the man might be—it’s rare to get a victory. So I’m happy to tell you about Bob Quellos’s great achievement: he got the Chicago Police Department to admit it had been spying on him.
Investigators received permission from the police brass to engage in a range of spying techniques, including tapping phones, sifting through garbage, and infiltrating protest groups with undercover cops posing as activists.
That’s where Quellos, a south-side activist, enters the story. Cofounder of No Games Chicago, he’s long suspected police were spying on his group—and not always discreetly.
A few weeks later, the police sent him an e-mail informing him they had no files relating to investigations of either party.
I swear I didn’t get this out of a George Orwell novel.
So there would be a further delay while the department unredacted the redactions—which may be a first in the annals of FOIA requests.
