Challenge: An American secret police

Your challenge is to create an organization in the US, or otherwise modify one of its internal security departments, into something resembling the likes of the Gestapo or the KGB, and keep this consistent throughout the 20th century with a POD of 1900. Bonus points if you can keep America at least vaguely democratic.
 
the nsa and cia fill a role very similar to the kgb and gestapo... the only thing missing is the murdering of regular citizens and large political prisons

most likely people to start such a program would be woodrow wilson, fdr, or hoover

the supreme court in wilson's day wasn't particularly pro first amendment or bill of rights so he could tie something into the espionage act that allows an agency (maybe forerunner to nsa) to make arrests without warrants and to have secret trials as long as the accused is a national security threat in the governments eyes
 
My idea would be to work in an early 9/11 comparison, say around that time. Possibly something dealing with disgruntled sons of Confederate Soldiers bombing a major government building. I'm guessing an internal attack would be a good reason to establish an American gestapo.

Edit: Communists might be a convienent enemy.
 
Ah, you mean like COINTELPRO? Or G. Gordon Liddy's plan to kidnap antiwar leaders and dump them over the border in Mexico? Or the secret Chicago and LA police units that assassinated Black Panther leaders? Secret files and illegal bugging and wiretapping, like they did to me in 1970? Go talk to J. Edgar, that hypocritical SOB. Been there. Done that.
 
Want a secretive, agency engaged in law enforcement activities without reporting to government agencies per se? Try the American Protective League- it originally had the approval of the DoJ, but got disbanded around the time of Palmer and Hoover. (Of course, if the two hadn't seen the APL as a threat to their authority but as a potential ally....)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Protective_League
 

The Vulture

Banned
Easy- have an A. Mitchell Palmer presidency. IIRC, he advocated some sort of national police force with jurisdiction against communists and stuff.

What would be a good name for such a secret police? The United States Police Force (USPF), to rip one from Escape from New York, sounds alright to me.
 
Does the Federal Bureau of Investigation count?

They don't really have the same evil aura that "secret police" have, but they could be used as a basis.

The Secret Service might be a basis as well.
 
the nsa and cia fill a role very similar to the kgb and gestapo... the only thing missing is the murdering of regular citizens and large political prisons

Not really. KGB had a muh broader roll. They covered external espionage like CIA (including some signint like NSA) but also ivestigated domestic national security crimes (like FBI) guarded borders (Coast Guard, Customs now part of DHS) and acted as a counterweight against the military.
 
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