SFPD spied on peace marches

San Francisco -- San Francisco police conducted undercover surveillance of radical splinter groups at three anti-war demonstrations without proper authorization by the chief of police, according to an independent city agency that monitors the department.

The Office of Citizen Complaints asked Wednesday that the Police Commission investigate whether the surveillance violated police guidelines designed to ensure demonstrators' First Amendment rights to free speech. It also called on the panel to retrain all police commanders on the policy and to destroy any videotapes that aren't being used in a criminal case.

Commission President Connie Perry said Wednesday night that Deputy Chief Heather Fong would lead an investigation into the watchdog agency's findings.

Commissioner Victor Makras urged the department to destroy the tapes. But acting Deputy Chief James Dudley and other officers said the tapes were still needed for criminal investigations.

"It would be wholly inappropriate to destroy the tapes," Capt. Paul Chignell said. The tapes might exonerate demonstrators of alleged crimes and officers of possible misconduct, police said.

Activists worry that the surveillance will scare some people away from anti- war events. "In this present climate of homeland security, it gives law enforcement agencies the green light to do whatever they want to do to collect information on people," said Bill Hackwell of International Answer, a co- organizer of three anti-war demonstrations held in San Francisco since fall.

Police said videotaping major demonstrations in San Francisco is commonplace, especially if there is a possibility of violence.

The videotaped surveillance conducted at the anti-war demonstrations Oct. 26, Jan. 18 and Feb. 16 was done by five plainclothes officers -- including one wearing a pin of the Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara in his hat.

Their target was breakaway marches -- unaffiliated protests that have split off from each event. Police say vandalism associated with the breakaway marches has caused $50,000 worth of damage downtown.

The main march is "a guise for these groups to disrupt and conduct their contemptuous acts against corporate and government structures," according to an internal memo written by Lt. Kitt Crenshaw, the Guevara pin-wearing officer in charge of the surveillance detail.

For months, police have been monitoring sf.indymedia.org, a left-leaning San Francisco Web site that features calls for radical "black bloc" protest tactics. Police also gathered flyers advertising breakaway marches at the anti- war events.

Police then marched alongside the splinter groups, led by what officers described as East Bay radicals. Crenshaw said police merely filmed the protests and did not infiltrate the groups.

The surveillance was ordered by Deputy Chief Greg Suhr, who is under indictment for allegedly conspiring to block the probe of a Nov. 20 street brawl involving three police officers.

But Chief Earl Sanders never signed off on the surveillance, according to the Office of Citizen Complaints. Crenshaw also flagged department leaders in a Feb. 3 memo that the deputy chief of investigations hadn't approved of it, either, as the guidelines require.

"There was no deliberate attempt on the part of my subordinates or myself to circumvent department police or procedure," Crenshaw wrote in his memo, which surfaced in the OCC's investigation.

Crenshaw said in an interview that he wants to "cut the red tape" for surveillance at future events, while still protecting protesters' First Amendment rights. Asked whether police were planning surveillance at Saturday's anti-war rally in San Francisco, Crenshaw said, "Do you think I'd tell you?"

At least four demonstrators arrested after the past two anti-war demonstrations in San Francisco are due to appear in court Friday in connection with a variety of felony and misdemeanor charges. Some legal advisers said those charges may not hold up if police gathered evidence improperly.

"If it was gathered outside the law, then it should be excluded -- but that's for a judge to determine," said John Viola, a volunteer lawyer with the National Lawyers Guild who represented many of the 45 people arrested after the Feb. 16 anti-war demonstration. Charges against most of them were dropped.

The department's surveillance guidelines were adopted a decade ago after several cases of police espionage came to light.