SFSU Undercover Cops

Why waste your time trying to find who the undercover cops are? You should spend the time you use doing that on trying to get more people to be active in the anti-war movement. The more there are of us, the less significant the cops are.

not that it even makes a difference (as the above poster notes), but I don't think that's the same guy. There's a small difference in the face and notice that the watch is different and on a different hand

sorry about any confusion, we know who the guy in the first pic is for sure. the guy who is in the following pics and the video is who we are wondering about. its not a waste of time to figure out who these people are, if somebody is surveiling people at a political demonstration and their is reason to believe that that person is not who they claim to be, people should know about it. at a uc berkeley demonstration, this person was questioned as to why he was filming demonstrators? he responded that it was merely for his personal collection. people have noticed from watching him at the inter arts center demonstration, at uc berkeley and at sf state on wednesday, that this person has a tendency to focus his efforts on filming the faces of demonstrators in ways that dont seem like hes doing it for a good news piece. this guy is definitely filming for some purpose beyond "merely his personal collection."

I understand the need to photograph suspicious individuals at protests under the suspicion that they may be cops, but I think you should take more care in your declarations. I own three dissident websites. I was at a recent protest photographing and audio recording a protest to use the materials on my websites. I'm about 40 years old and most of the protestors were younger. A guy, probably much like you, took my picture. I tracked him down and found out that he thought I was an undercover cop. How do you think I would feel if my picture were displayed under the label "Undercover Cop." After all, I already have to put up with enough harassment from the US Government for my views.

With that said, I think taking these pictures is necessary. However, I suggest doing something more like what I have done. Here's a link to my photos of that demonstration. Notice that I denote these people as "looking out of place" rather than calling them cops. I think that in absense of evidence that someone is actually a cop, it is better to remain agnostic:

http://www.rationalanarchism.org/boston_protest.htm

You guys are nuts. You go around filming some guy at a protest and them accuse HIM of acting suspiciously when he asks about your camera?!

Grow up. You wanna be adults and protest? Be adults and protest. By acting childish and being overly suspicious, you give off the impression that you have something to hide. And that only lends credence to the notion that cops are needed at your protests to protect you boneheads from yourselves.

It's time consuming, but it would work. If you sat across from 850 Bryant at shift change for a couple days, photographed all 2300 cops, and compare their pictures, then you'd know. Unless, of course, those "undercover cops" were journalists, other demonstrators or feds.

Don't expect the cops to let you do this, though.

at berkeley there is a set of police trading cards for kids like baseball cards, but you'd have to get the entire set and I bet they wouldn't give you the entire set.

While I appreciate the effort you should realize that accusing people of being undercover cops is a highly serious matter and should be approached cautiously. Otherwise it could end up hurting people and develop unnecessary paranoia instead of actually verifying whether suspicious people are actually cops or not. From looking at the pictures you posted, the second person you posted under the title 'undercover' does not really seem like a cop and you have provided no evidence at all. The even more frustrating thing is that if you're wrong about this person, it could even hurt the credibility of other people's attempt to document actual undercover cops.

Speaking of documentation of actual undercover cops in the bay area, check out this page about the Feb 16th breakaway march (as an example of showing evidence before making accusations):
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/02/1575803.php

I wasn't sure if I was even going to dignify your accusations with a response but I guess my feelings on the matter got the best of me. Let me clarify the situation for you. I’m the guy in the picture. No, not the one in the uniform, the one with the video camera. Guess what, I’m NOT a cop.

I don’t appreciate you posting my picture on the internet and accusing me of being an undercover cop or working for the anti-defamation league or just throwing out names of people I MIGHT work for ESPECIALLY if you don’t have any evidence for any of it whatsoever.

If you’re wondering who I am why don’t you come up and ask me? Strike up a conversation like I tried to do with your videographer. I didn’t assume SHE was a cop even though it would have been easy to since every time I turned around she was standing there with her video camera pointed blatantly at my face.

I’ve never been to a rally at UC Berkeley. I haven’t even been over to UC Berkeley in the past two years. I also haven’t been to any of the anti-war rallies downtown this year. The last one I made it to was LAST year at Dolores Park. If you want to prove me wrong I challenge you to find a picture of me. As for the Inter Arts Rally way back in the day, congratulations, you saw me at one of the first political events I ever photographed. Lucky you.

I’d also appreciate it if you would NOT comment on my photography and video style. I’m a photographer, not a news caster. I don’t take pictures, I tell a story. The way I choose to focus in on my subjects is my business and not yours. I would never use the term “personal collection.” It’s called a portfolio and by time I’m done with school at State I’ll have quite an extensive one.

All of that being said, my thanks go out to the people with a voice of reason that have posted comments here. At public events, especially political ones, people are going to be out taking pictures and shooting video and they have every right to do so (cops or not). You’re going to have to learn to live with that fact. Being paranoid is only going to hinder your efforts and discourage people from attending demonstrations. After the March 5th demonstration at State I was talking to someone from libergator.org. He encouraged me to publish my photos here on indymedia.org and I was going to until I came across this posting with my picture. The anti-war movements’ loss I suppose. I had some really great shots.

I welcome any comments.

And we should believe you, why?

There's nothing I can say to prove I'm not a cop. Of course, there's nothing anyone can do to prove I am one either. I guess that makes me "guilty until proven innocent" right?

my suggestion is that those of you who are so worried about whether this guy is a cop or not ought to just go talk to him at the next demonstration. you'll probably feel pretty dumb when you learn that he's probably someone you could collaborate with. sad.