Police Surveillance of Immigration Reform Demonstration

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow
-T.S. Elliot

We set out for the day thinking we know where we’re going, but in truth we have no idea. What we have is intention – I’m going to do this and I’m going to go there, – but the reality is anything can happen between your intention and its fulfillment.

For instance, I started out last Friday morning from the east side of town to the Sonoma Market and while passing by the Plaza encountered a rather large gathering of mostly young Latino High School students along with a few graying Anglos demonstrating for fair and just immigration reform. I honked the car horn in solidarity and approval as I passed, but seeing some friends, the usual activist contingent, decided on the spur of the moment to join in their march around the perimeter of the Plaza.

I hotfooted across the park to catch up with longtime fellow political traveler, Mike Smith, brandishing his oversized American flag, and joined in the kids chanting “si se puede!” I’ve always been in favor of that positive exclamation coined by the extraordinary fighter for worker and human rights, Cesar Chavez. And around the Plaza we marched.

The kids were great – spirited, strongly vocal, disciplined and well behaved. As our long line of 100+ marchers moved around the Plaza, Mike noticed a police officer in the familiar tan uniform of the Sonoma Sheriff’s Department taking photographs of the demonstrators with a camera. I looked to see and sure enough the officer was snapping away, his camera pointed directly at us. Mike was upset by these actions, said he was going to speak with the officer when we got back to the front of the Plaza, and asked if I’d accompany him. “Sure”, I replied, and off we went to speak with officer cameraman.

“Why are you taking pictures of us,” asked Mike, “this is a peaceful and orderly demonstration. Who authorized you to take photographs of the marchers?”

“Nobody” answered Officer J. Cobert, at least that’s my recall of his name, he refused to give us his card. We did ascertain that he is the High School Safety Officer.

“C’mon,” says Mike, “who told you to do this?”

“No one,” insisted Officer Cobert, reminding me for some reason of Officer Obie from Alice’s Restaurant, “I’m doing it for myself.”

Well things sort of spiraled down from there, Mike insisting he must be doing it on orders from the Police Department or some other authority, and Obie/Cobert demurring. Mike wasn’t buying it. He told the officer that the march was a peaceful, orderly and non-violent legal demonstration, and that his taking photos of the participants was intimidating and intrusive as there was nothing untoward going on. He relayed to the cop that in all the years of protests in Sonoma the police had never taken this kind of action, and that relations between police and demonstrators had always been cordial and respectful. As one who’s participated in any number of political or social protest demonstrations I can attest to this.

But Cobert, with a frozen smile and the hard-eyed look that comes from training or is maybe just inherent in his case, was implacable. He stuck to his story about doing it on his own, and the conversation pretty much ended in a stand off.

Shortly thereafter, Dave Henderson of the Sonoma Valley Peace & Justice group, who had been among the demonstrators went over to Cobert and repeated the query as to why he was photographing the marchers. This time, Cobert told Henderson that he was doing it under orders from Police Sgt. Shubel of the Sonoma Police Department. Why Cobert decided to fess up this time around is anybody’s guess, if in fact he was telling the truth to Henderson.

Now we fast forward to the city council meeting of May 16, during which both Henderson and Smith relayed the incident to the council in no uncertain terms, demanding an investigation into who ordered the photographic surveillance, for what purpose/s, and what was being done with the photographs of the marchers.

Henderson [see his remarks in full below] emphasized that the demonstration for immigration reform participants were “exercising their Constitutionally-protected right to free speech,” that the march was “well-controlled, well-monitored, law-abiding, and non-threatening in every way,” and that there “should be no reason for photography other than to facilitate traffic control, crowd management or other safety measures, which was manifestly not necessary at this gathering.” He added that in his estimation one could easily presume that the reason for photographing would be “to create files and dossiers on us.”

Councilman Ken Brown promised to look into the matter; the only council member to respond to Henderson’s importuning.

So still there are major questions that need to be answered, and perhaps as importantly, what is going to be the relationship between the Sonoma Police Department and future political or social issue demonstrators engaging in their Constitutionally guaranteed rights?

We may think we know where we are going when we set out for the day, but really we have no idea where we’re going to wind up. Life’s a crapshoot and like all games of chance the odds are with the house. And the house is reality.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

*Dave Henderson’s remarks to Council:

City of Sonoma Council Meeting, May 16, 2007
Presentation
Re: POLICE SURVEILLANCE OF HIGH SCHOOL DEMONSTRATON IN
PLAZA, MAY 15, 2007,

My name is Dave Henderson. I reside at 765Michael Drive.
I would like to inform this Council of something extremely unsettling that happened to me and to other Sonoma residents yesterday, May 15, in the Plaza.
100 or so students from Sonoma Valley High School had marched from the high school north on Broadway and gathered in the Plaza, joined by many others, included myself, to call for reform of our national immigration policies.
While we were gathered there with our signs, we noticed that a sheriff’s deputy was photographing all of us. Upon our challenging him for the justification for this action, he stated that he had been assigned to do so by Sgt. Shubel, but he refused to divulge any more information.
I ask--no, demand-- that this Council investigate why the police of this city are photographing innocent citizens who are exercising their Constitutionally-protected right to free speech, and therefore presumably using those photographs to create files and dossiers on us.
There should be no reason for photography other than to facilitate traffic control, crowd management or other safety measures, which was manifestly not necessary at this gathering, which was well-controlled, well-monitored, law-abiding, and non-threatening in every way.

I urge the Council to ascertain:
1. Who ordered this photographic surveillance;
2. What written, official policies of the police department, and/or of City of Sonoma,
authorize such surveillance; and,
3. If such written policies are lacking, what specific reasons did lead to the surveillance
order.

I hope this issue is of as grave concern to this Council as it is to me. Such police surveillance of law-abiding citizens exercising their free speech has no place in the United States that is under the rule of the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. Our police are obviously not sensitive to those rights and need urgent instruction in how to behave in a law-abiding fashion.

I hereby submit for your urgent study a report prepared by The American Civil Liberties Union in July 2006, entitled “The State of Surveillance: Government Monitoring of Political Activity in Northern and Central California.” You will find some very pertinent sections here, such as: “Government Surveillance and Privacy Right: A Brief History,” “Surveillance Abuses by Local Agencies in Northern and Central California,” “Best Practices Guidelines for First Amendment Activities.”

I hope that this Council will speedily adopt measures suggested in this report and adopted, in fact, by other cities. I hope that we have seen the last of un-Constitutional police surveillance in this city.