the policeman spies
while the council does nothing
a winter leaf falls in the breeze

There was a motion before the city council proposed by councilmember Tony Madrigal to request an independent investigation into police spying. The council perhaps signalled it's intentions by placing the motion on the afternoon agenda of their regularly scheduled Tuesday meeting, rather than the more well-attended evening agenda.

There were a good many public speakers raising issues with the police internal audit and calling for the independent investigation. Additionally, people called for full disclosure of any past spying and for a strong binding ordinance limiting police powers to monitor political and community groups.

The public records contain emails that show that most everyone in the police department management from Chief Howard Skerry to Deputy Chief Kevin Vogel on down to Lt. Rudy Escalante knew about the undercover officers. Additionally, there were communications to and from high-level police from the city manager's office, the downtown development association, and even Mayor Cynthia Mathews herself.

In short, the council voted again to do nothing and trust the police to police themselves. But we will not let up pressure until citizens can express their free speech and free assembly rights without fear that a cop is lurking in their midst.

Audio: FSRN: SCPD Spying Update

Photos: Santa Cruzans Speak Out Against Police Infiltration and for an Independent Investigation

previous coverage: "Just Us" Action Against SCPD Spying || Police Infiltrate Peaceful Parade Organizers

01/10/06 - Around 100 Santa Cruzans showed up at the City Council today to demand a denouncement and investigation into the Santa Cruz Police Department's infiltration of a local group's organizing meetings.

Far from being limited to the individuals that were spied on, protesters included former mayors, the ACLU, artists, peaceniks, high school students, UCSC Students Against War members that were recently spied on by the Pentagon, and a local man who fled fascist Czechoslovakia.

Audio: Mayor Cynthia Matthews on SCPD Spying || FSRN: Irate Citizens Denounce SCPD Surveillance of Last Night Meetings

From the "Just Us" Campaign and Rally announcement:

"The Santa Cruz Police Department was discovered infiltrating and conducting undercover surveillance of two of the meetings of the organizers of the Last Night DIY Parade, which was a totally peaceful, positive, and creative event in downtown Santa Cruz on New Years Eve!!..."

"This event was organized by 'just us' - 'just us' the people who live here, work here, and try to create positive and peaceful change - if this group can be spied on, so can any of the rest of our groups."

California is speeding up executions. Clarence Ray Allen is next.

Clarence Allen is currently 75 years old and will turn 76 one day before his scheduled execution. He is very infirm, has suffered from a heart attack and diabetes and uses a wheelchair. He will be forced to walk the final few feet to the death chamber at San Quentin.

The prosecution's case rests primarily on the testimony of some of the accomplices involved in the second crime. They have all since stated at one time or another that they lied at Mr. Allen's 2nd trial. That, plus the fact that Mr. Allen is an American Indian has some very concerned that his execution is unjust. Others simply say that while there is no excuse for how the victims died, the death penalty is wrong and Mr. Allen should be given Clemency. Governor Schwarzenegger has refused to hold any kind of Clemency hearing for Mr. Allen. [ Who is Clarence Ray Allen? (.pdf) ]

There is a rally planned in San Francisco for Thursday, January 12. There is also going to be a rally at San Quentin on Monday, January 16, night of the execution. [ Fyler (.pdf) ] It is also quite likely that there will be a Death Penalty Focus vigil at the town clock in downtown Santa Cruz on the night of the execution.

Audio: Rockin' the Boat: CA Revs Up Death Chamber as Support for Capital Punishment Declines || FSRN: California Considering Death Penalty Moratorium

Indybay Coverage: Governor Says No Clemency Hearing for Clarence Ray Allen

Undercover Officers Spying on Grassroots Santa Cruz New Year's Parade Meetings

Santa Cruz, CA, December 31st, 2005: As the nation reels from fresh revelations about domestic spying, local law enforcement agencies are caught infiltrating local groups. Undercover officers from the Santa Cruz Police Department have been spying on peaceful parade organizers since September of this year. Two plainclothes officers attended small organizing meetings held in private homes, giving false names, phone numbers, and email addresses to hide their identity while they monitored meetings and profiled organizers.

The officers participated in meetings, asked questions and even made suggestions. "In no way did they indicate that they were police. They came off as just a couple of local surfer dudes," said Rico Thunder, one of the people who came together to help plan the parade.

The infiltrated group was organizing the Last Night Santa Cruz Parade and Celebration, a people’s parade, a do-it-yourself celebration that goes beyond the city-sponsored First Night event, canceled this year due to money problems. The Last Night website (lastnightdiy.org) states: “Last Night is a completely organic event, organized and put on at a grassroots-level. No city-sponsorship. No corporate donors. It’s a do-it-yourself parade and celebration. We make it happen together.�

"Since 9/11, we've created a culture in which security is more important than liberty." said Thunder. "The NSA is tapping your phone calls and email. The Pentagon is infiltrating your peace march. Actions at the federal level have a trickle down effect that has emboldened local law enforcement. When the president says 'Safety at any cost,' local cops take that to heart." [Read more]

see also: An open letter to the Santa Cruz City Council in protest of police infiltration: || Police Infiltration of Parade Politically Motivated

LastNight comments: Our sources within the department say City Manager Richard Wilson and Deputy Chief of Police Kevin Vogel are the persons most responsible. The city council has little say in day to day operations of this kind. Make your demands to the city council that the city manager and the police chief be held accountable.

We need to go to law school. Seriously. As activists, we are absolutely dependent on an industry of law that we know very little about and have very little influence in. Prison is serious stuff and to have so little available help within our own ranks is not acceptable or safe. Our friends and lovers are shuffled around in a system that leaves them wondering what they were actually charged with and/or convicted of and what exactly the evidence against them was. Our family are left in utter darkness about procedures and are reduced to begging for legal information from attorneys paid $200 an hour. I seriously believe we need more activist attorneys. NOW. [read more]

see also: The Environmentalist Witch Hunt 2005 || Support for Political Prisoners

No one is free when others are oppressed...

A movement that doesn't support it's political internees is a movement destined to fail.

SANTA CRUZ, CA – According to a document obtained by NBC News, the Pentagon has been spying on 1,500 “suspicious incidents,� including anti-war and counter-recruitment meetings and actions throughout the nation over the past 10-month period. Among the first pages of more than 400 released, 10 college anti-war protests were listed, including UC Santa Cruz Students Against War (SAW)’s counter-recruitment protest of April 5, 2005, which was the only one to be labeled both credible and a “threat.�

Despite having dealt with both undercover police and university agents involved in the acts of surveillance and repression, the news came as a little shock to many SAW members, reaffirming long-held beliefs about the nature of the U.S. military. 3rd year student Jen Low noted the hypocrisy of the government’s messaging, reminding us that, "the notion of the Pentagon spying on peaceful protesters is a major threat to the freedoms that they claim to protect."

While the Department of Defense has not commented on the allegations, student activists assert that the rising unpopularity of the Iraq War and the inability of military recruiters to meet their quotas make the counter-recruitment movement a strong candidate for repression by a “homeland security� apparatus run amok.

[ Original MSNBC story ] [ DoD Database of domestic 'threats' (.pdf) ]

Audio: Rockin' the Boat: DoD Spying on Counter-Recruitment Organizers

see also: Pentagon spying at UCSC: Standards for our Country, Standards for Ourselves

from Pittsburgh IMC: POG returns to Oakland Recruiting Station

previous coverage: Wanted - information about under-cop || Rally, Queer Kiss-in Greet Military Recruiters at UCSC || UCSC Students Kick Military Recruiters Off Campus

Last month CODEPINK, South Bay Mobilization, ANSWER, De Anza College students, faculty and others participated in a three day protest against former Secretary of State Colin Powell at De Anza College Flint Center in Cupertino. On November 11, 2005, eight students were arrested at the event; one student was arrested inside the hall for disrupting Powell's speech. The seven youth arrested outside were all youth of color. They were singled out and brutally arrested though they had not broken any law. Santa Clara County Sheriffs claim two of the students committed felonies though there were numerous witnesses who have stated the law enforcements claims are false.

The arrests seem to have been motivated by religious and racial profiling as six were visibly dressed Muslim students and one was an African American graduate student. A police officer present at the protest interviewed by a reporter said, "Many officers associate such garb to terrorists because of the training videos they see in which 'terrorists prepare themselves for Jihad and martyrdom.'"

The arrestees from the protest against Colin Powell, who have come to be known as the De Anza 8, their lawyer, and community groups will hold a press conference on December 12 at 5:00pm outside the Office of Human Relations of Santa Clara County located at 1880 Prunridge in Santa Clara (map) protesting the racial profiling that occurred on November 11, 2005. They are demanding that the charges against the De Anza 8 be dropped. Over 1,500 letters have been delivered to Santa Clara County District Attorney George Kennedy demanding that the charges against the youth be dropped. (Send an on-line message via ANSWER)

More coverage and information on how you can help: Students Arrested at Powell Protest Accuse Police of Targetting Muslims || South Bay Mobilization || American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee - San Francisco || Colin Powell De Anza College Resistance Blog

[ Update on the De Anza 8 ]

Activists taking part in the Victoria's Dirty Little Secret campaign were denied entrance to the Capitola Mall on Saturday. (call to action). The U.S. Supreme Court's Pruneyard Decision in 1980 guarantees the right to free speech in privately-owned public areas such as shopping malls.

The mall security and two capitola cops denied the activists entry to the mall. The manager of security said the protesters needed a permit to even stand at the entrance to the mall. The protesters retreated to the streetside sidewalk in front of the mall.

This is directly opposed to a 1980 Supreme Court decision based on a very similar conflict that happened not far from here. The Pruneyard Shopping Center in Campbell.

In short, Capitola police and security guards violated your constitutional rights.

Photos: Activists in Capitola Expose Victoria's Dirty Secret of Boreal Forest Destruction

More info about Pruneyard: Wikipedia || Community Rights Counsel || Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins 447 U.S. 74 (1980)

More info about the Victoria's Secret demo: Victoria’s Dirty Secret || Forest Ethics

Reports from a few of the more than 300 demonstrations that took place across North America: New York City || Portland || San Francisco (.mov)

see also: Routine Corruption by Capitola Police Violates Equal Protection || Capitola Mall Sued for Restricting Free Expression || Capitola Mall Backstory - A History of Repression || Why Your Protest at the Capitola Mall is A-OK

Finally, 2 years after the murder of Rudy Cardenas, state agent Michael Walker is going to court for the charges of voluntary manslaughter. The defense claims that Walker shot in self-defense, thinking that Rudy had a gun. No weapons were found at the scene, but a mysterious knife turned up from Rudy’s pants pockets while in the custody of the state. Defense attorney, Craig Brown, works for the law firm Harry Stern, the same law firm that represented the Oakland Riders, a gang of police notorious for planting evidence and murdering innocent people in Oakland, California. Walker plans to take the stand, probably towards the end of the trial. It has come out that Walker did not follow standard procedures and basically took the law into his own hands, execution style.

Questions Still Remain: What exchanged happened between Rudy and Walker to make Walker gun down an innocent man? Why was Walker training other police and state agents at the Central Coast Gang Investigator Association conference after being indicted on voluntary manslaughter? And since Walker’s indictment, why have all the other half-dozen police-murders in San Jose had closed-grand jury hearings?

see also: Michael Walker, Killer of Rudy Cardenas, Goes to Trial (Indybay)

On Sept. 24, UCSC student Andrea Kopp was pulled out of a group of peaceful anti-war marchers and immediately arrested by S.F. Police. Kopp, who at the time of his arrest was merely dancing with friends near the rally at Jefferson Park, has been sitting in jail since Saturday afternoon. While guilty of no crime, his bail has been set at $5,000.

Kopp’s arrest came early-on in a day when S.F. Police encircled, detained, and arrested a young group of anti-war marchers as they crossed a street. Due to the color of their clothes (black) the group had been closely followed the entire day. Hundreds of police in riot gear blocked off the street for a long period of time as they pleased themselves in the arrest of the handful of kids, many of which weren’t even old enough to drive. As they walked back to their buses, the cops high-fived each other and said, “we got ‘em.� Most members of the group were released that night with charges such as jaywalking.

While Kopp's case is completely separate from the above incident, he was arrested for a similar reason: standing out in a crowd. Tonight he sits in jail - lonely after being placed in a separate cell. He's been charged on bogus claims and his bail has been set at $5,000. He will be arraigned Monday morning at 9am - Department 17 - 850 Bryant St, San Francisco. If you can make it, we're sure he'd love more supporters. Either way, call and tell the D.A's office to free Kopp so he can go back to school.

a commenter writes: Thank you to everyone who called the San Francisco District Attorney's office this morning urging them to drop the bogus charges against UCSC student Andrea Kopp. At around 9am today, the D.A. dropped all charges against Kopp! He will be back in school tomorrow. A conversation with Kopp's legal council suggested there was a complete void of any sort of incriminating evidence.