Ed Helms

Yeah.

That guy.

Speaking of Roy Cohn.

Yeah.

This new division's mandate was to gather intelligence on radical organizations and their members, which, of course, was a perfect fit for Hoover, who basically fetishized the accumulation of secrets and data on people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He already had a growing reputation as a meticulous bureaucrat with a strong anti-radical ideology.

Now, with Hoover at the helm, things really spiraled quickly.

That fall, the Justice Department began arresting suspected radicals, citing, of course, the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act.

But...

On November 7th, 1919, the second anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, which was no coincidence, Hoover and Palmer took things to a whole new level, launching a coordinated blitz across a dozen American cities, including Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, and many others.

And these raids were brutal.

In New York City, agents stormed a building on East 15th Street known as the Russian People's House, a modest community hub that doubled as a union office, cafeteria and school for recent immigrants.

Inside, workers, teachers and young students were finishing their day as federal agents laid siege to the building in a storm of violence.

One journalist described it as, quote,

One of the most brutal raids ever witnessed in the city.

Men, women and children were beaten and dragged out into the cold.

The feds took 200 immigrants from the Russian people's house that night nationwide.

The tally varies depending on your source, but it's safe to say many hundreds and likely over a thousand people were arrested that night.