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