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Indybay Feature

Timeline of San Jose, CA killings by law enforcement, 2008 - present

by Center for Convivial Research and Autonomy (ccra [at] mitotedigital.org)
This timeline mapping state violence in San Jose, CA was collectively generated as part of a larger ongoing convivial research effort to expose low intensity war across the Bay Area and state. The timeline was produced through a collaboration between the Center for Convivial Research and Autonomy (CCRA) and the efforts of families and grassroots groups in San Jose and beyond. This timeline represents a decade of state violence in greater San Jose.
san_jose_2008-2018_timeline.pdf_600_.jpg
The timeline is a tool that remembers, counts, mourns and honors our dead. It is a collaborative effort of documentation over time that makes visible the many resistances that have refused erasure. This refusal itself is a confrontation against state violence. The timeline reflects our insurgent and organized community in San Jose and across the Bay Area and in its detail is reflected the work and tears and blood of many over time. Each vertical line represents a year in the history and present of greater San Jose and those whose lives were lost in that year, and counted. Based on what we know, we know that there are more lives that have been taken that are still missing here. We invite any names that we have missed and humbly invite corrections to any possible errors.

The San Jose Police Department (SJPD) has maintained a focused effort on “gang” activity over several decades that has insured significant police activity is aimed at Latinx, Black, and Asian communities, particularly at Brown and Black youth. In 1991, the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force (MGPTF) was established. An interagency force bringing together city officials, SJPD officers, and a range of faith, community, and school groups, MGPTF coordinates with SJPD units like the Violent Crimes Enforcement Team (VCET) (1994) and the Metro Unit, a special operations rapid response team operating with overt and covert tactics focused on “gang” activity and targeting youth.

In June 2013, SJPD introduced its Violent Crime Reduction Plan (VCRP) allocating 1.2 million to direct Special Operations units at “gang” suppression through increased presence in the community, particularly during peak school hours. The Plan emphasizes high visibility patrols, community policing, and “hot spot” policing that targets “gang” identified neighborhoods as well as “quality of life policing.” In the heart of Silicon Valley, VCRP is a data-driven, information-sharing deployment plan focused on communities of color. In addition to VCET and other “gang” investigation and “suppression” units, the Mobile Emergency Response Group and Equipment (MERGE) (SJPD’s version of SWAT) and the Covert Response Unit (CRU) rely on undercover methods focused on “gang” activity and violent suspects.

In recent years, SJPD has launched several operations targeting “gangs,” including Operation William Street (2015) between San Jose State University Police, Santa Clara County Juvenile Probation, and SJPD’s gang units; and Operations Omni and Gang of Thrones, both multi-agency, including federal, efforts directed at the Vietnamese community and vice-related activity.

The timeline relies on local knowledges and the circuits of struggle where details and critical information are exchanged and circulated among us. It reflects our ongoing commitment to each other to continue to gather in streets, parks, community centers, taquerias, barbecues, bars and cafes to share what we know and elaborate the strategies and practices of policing, violence, and control that are aimed at us, department by department, program by program, across the state. In this way, we hope to collectively map for ourselves across communities the war that is organized against us as low intensity conflict in service of capital's racial regime. As a project of militant and convivial research this is a collaboration across our many rebellions, insurgencies, and networked moments of care to confront militarization and organize around our own community safety.

Center for Convivial Research and Autonomy



San Jose timeline for download:
https://ggg.vostan.net/ccra/#759

San Francisco timeline for download:
https://ggg.vostan.net/ccra/#757

Stockton timeline for download:
https://ggg.vostan.net/ccra/#758

BART timeline for download:
https://ggg.vostan.net/ccra/#762

Hayward timeline for download:
https://ggg.vostan.net/ccra/#760

Community safety timelines and justice campaign tri-folds:
https://ggg.vostan.net/ccra/#747
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