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Indybay Feature

San Jose City Council Members Take Police to Task for Targeting Activists

by Cop Watcher
The San Jose Police Officers Association's attempts at intimidating police critics have not gone unnoticed in the South Bay. Two San Jose city council members wrote to the police union calling for a halt to the "rhetorical posturing and name-calling" on the association's website. A recent video that makes fun of one of the department's most vocal critics, plus official statements referring to activists as "thugs" are just a couple of the ways police are targeting community members who dare to speak out.
The San Jose Mercury News reports that city council members Sam Liccardo and Ash Kalra wrote a letter to the San Jose Police Officers Association (SJPOA) reprimanding them for recent attempts to intimidate outspoken critics of racial profiling. Their letter was written in response to recent police attacks in the form of a sarcastic police produced video as well as statements referring to activists critical of the police as “thugs”. Those comments, wrote the Council Members, "fall below the very high standard that members of our San Jose Police Department have long set..." The council members call for “a more civil tone in the dialogue on these issues,'' referring to the SJPOA website as including “rhetorical posturing and name-calling.''

According to the Mercury, San Jose police union head Bobby Lopez said that he was planning to take the video off the union's newly launched Web site, "Protect San Jose", but for reasons unrelated to the council members' criticism.

See Related indybay post for video links and more of the story:http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/06/05/18600692.php
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