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Indybay Feature

San Jose Copwatch from June 5

by danielsan
Three copwatchers set out on a Tuesday night to observe and document the San Jose Police Department and San Jose State University Police on the streets downtown. No big stories of violent brutality; just the every day, routine intimidation experienced by people of color at the hands of law enforcement.
Copy the code below to embed this movie into a web page:
2:20 Video in MP4 format showing the overwhelming police presence on the streets of San Jose, June 5th, 2007.

At around 1 AM, we came up on a young man out of his car, on the curb, being questioned. Four copcars were attending to this man. We watched him searched (by the usual rubber-gloved cop with the usual wrist lock hold), then watched as his car was searched with intensity, and I mean *searched* front to back and top to bottom, under the seats, all through the trunk, between the seats...
They made comments to the three cameras watching them, asking us if we needed extra batteries and telling the detained driver that we were "all up in his business" (this while his fellow officer searched the car).

Then they gave him his stuff back and told him to get his headlight fixed.

A little later, I came upon a crowd in front of the Mission Ale House, where a single cop in a single car was telling a young man to get back on the sidewalk and out of the street. I joined the crowd just as no fewer than five additional cars pulled up just to make sure the crowd dispursed. The bar security team herded people towards the parking garage, where additional officers awaited.

Again, no violent police blows, but the threat is always there--especially a few days after they killed a man with a taser. Especially when their own data reports a statistical tendency for racial profiling. Especially when they beat on the Custodio family earlier this year. Especially when they REGULATE on any kind of public event or gathering. Especially when they publicly state they'll shut down any celebration and break up any crowd (on Mardi Gras for example). Especially when they regulate on any Copwatchers.

After fleeing the helicopter fly-overs in Oaxaca City, the almost nightly SJPD helicopter doesn't seem like an innocuous big-city public safety measure, after all.
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