Feature Archives

Immigrant rights activists gathered on July 28th at Fremont and Mowry Blvds. to counter the bi-weekly rally called by the racist East Bay Coalition for Border Security (EBCBS) which is looking to become an affiliate of the vigilante group, the Minutemen. The EBCBS, in an effort to hide the location of their demonstration from the anti-minutemen protesters, rallied a couple miles down Fremont Blvd in the Irvington neighborhood. By foot, bike and car, about 40 anti-minutemen protesters left Mowry Ave. and Fremont Blvd and went to the Irvington neighborhood (Fremont and Washington) to show solidarity with immigrants and route out fascism in Fremont.

Rico Thunder writes: Dear council members,

The new police policy on police spying is a failed product resulting from a failed process. Unfortunately, you never understood the gravity of this issue. At the heart of this is nothing less than our rights to free speech and free assembly, right to privacy, and right to due process.

Let's be very clear: The people of this community got together to create a grassroots New Year's parade to replace a defunct city-sponsored event. It was to be an act of peaceful civil disobedience with the clear political intention to challenge the Draconian event permit process. Santa Cruz police made a rash decision to infiltrate the group in order to gather information for public safety reasons. Armed undercover officers infiltrated the planning meetings in a private home, created dossiers on organizers and others involved, gathered information about other events, tipped off other agencies, and participated significantly in the meetings.

Apparently, in Santa Cruz the right to free speech, free assembly, and right to privacy are worth protecting at the national level, but when these rights are threatened in our own community, the Council has shown that it has neither the interest nor the will to protect citizen's civil liberties.

It is clear that the city is not willing to negotiate this process in good faith. From the beginning it was clear that the Council had little interest but stilling the embarrassing public relations nightmare this has become. This city has delivered nothing more than adamant dismissals, empty assurances, broken promises of a remedy, a closed-door process, and a useless policy. Read the full letter to City Council

SC-IMC coverage of Santa Cruz police spying: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

see also: ACLU Report Details Government Monitoring of Protest Groups

On July 27th, the ACLU Northern California released a new report, called State of Surveillance: Government Monitoring of Political Activity in Northern and Central California. It exposes the fact that federal, state and local agencies have infiltrated or monitored political activities of people all over Central and Northern California, supposedly due to threats of "terrorism." From the stories of grandmothers opposing the war in Iraq to anti-war protestors at the Port of Oakland, the 35-page report tells the stories of individuals and groups that were targets of government surveillance because of their political activity.

On Saturday, June 24th, Oliver ("Big O") Lefiti was fatally shot by San Francisco police on Capp Street, between 15th and 16th Streets. He was 37 years old, worked as a nightclub bouncer, and lived in South San Francisco. Big O's family is trying to find people who witnessed this incident. They want to know what happened on the night when he was killed. They are asking for any witnesses to contact them. His family was handing out flyers about him at the site of his death on Friday evening, July 21st. Photos Big O has been demonized in the corporate press, portrayed as a "suspected drug dealer", although no weapons or drugs were found at the scene of the fatal shooting.

Zachary Jenson, arrested along with Lauren Weiner and Eric McDavid on January 13, 2006 in Auburn, CA, agreed on July 18th to cooperate with investigators and plead guilty to USC 18 371 "conspiracy to commit an offense or defraud the United States," in exchange for a lesser sentence. Lauren signed a similar plea agreement on May 30th. Zach, along with Eric and Lauren was originally charged with USC 18 844(n) "conspiracy to destroy property by means of fire or explosives", which held a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. Sacramento Prisoner Support, the group that was providing the bulk of the support to the trio, has published Zach's plea bargain and issued a statement which calls for the withdrawal of all support for Zachary as he is now joining Lauren in the ranks of those who will testify at the expense of others for their own personal benefit.

The Federal Department of Homeland Security provided the Pentagon with information on anti-war protests at UC campuses last year, according to the most recent government documents released to the ACLU of Northern California. This disclosure includes two previously redacted reports on student protests at UC Berkeley and Santa Cruz. Following an administrative appeal, that information was released. Both bulletins indicate that the source of the information was "a special agent of the federal protective service, U.S. Department of Homeland Security."

Advisory writes: Over 4,500 copies of the following handbill were distributed on July 3rd and 4th in tourist areas of Santa Cruz. They were placed under windshield wipers of cars in city lots, hotels, and resturants, on light poles, change machines, and distributed by hand. Areas covered included Beach Boardwalk, Wharf, Depot Park, Downtown, West Cliff, Seabright areas, Mission Street, and Ocean Street. The handbills were created to bring to the surface the simering tensions between the business interests and the rest of the citizens of this town.