Debate Focusing on Privacy, Safety
By Dana Hull and Jessica Portner, The San Jose Mercury News
Digital video cameras are as visible as placards and plastic handcuffs at anti-war demonstrations these days.
San Francisco police -- and departments around the country -- have been videotaping anti-war demonstrations, raising new concerns about civil liberties and questions about whether “Support the Troops” events are also being captured on camera.
But protesters are turning the lens back on police, whipping out their own video cameras to document allegations of police brutality -- or simply to monitor how the police are monitoring them. “Urgent video/photo documentation needed to refute felony charges,” read one recent post on www.indybay.org, an activist Web site.
“Everyone has their own slant, and it’s really hard to know who to believe unless you get out there and see it yourself,” said Ben Carson, 22, a junior at the University of California-Berkeley who recorded last week’s demonstrations in San Francisco with his digital Sony Handycam. “This is history, and I think it’s cool to get it all on tape. I want to be able to show this footage to my children and my grandchildren one day.”
Police say the videotaping is necessary so they have evidence of criminal activity, from vandalism to Molotov cocktails. They often use the video footage in training films so rookie officers can learn to handle large crowds that use increasingly sophisticated protest tactics.
At the same time, independent documentation is everything for tech-savvy protesters -- many of whom came of age during the 1991 police beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, which was captured on videotape by a bystander and broadcast across the globe. Many protesters communicate by radio and cell phone, often instant-messaging demonstration updates and photos to Web sites for real-time viewing by activists around the world.
But the culture of surveillance comes at a time when citizens -- particularly those who actively express dissent about the U.S.-led war in Iraq -- are increasingly worried about their privacy rights. Some anarchists wear dark ski masks or bandannas to conceal their identities.
Leaders of the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center say they were outraged when Palo Alto police in plainclothes videotaped their March 8 peace rally. Police had never used such a tactic in the 21 years the center had been working with the department to organize rallies.
“I think it’s police spying, and it has a very chilling effect on our First Amendment rights,” said Paul George, who called the department to complain but received no answer. “They are treating everyone as potential criminals, and it’s outrageous.”
Palo Alto police said Tuesday that only officers in uniform would videotape future events. The tapes are discarded if no illegal activity is discovered.
“We are not keeping secret videos,” said Lynn Johnson, the assistant police chief of the Palo Alto Police Department. “But I totally understand their perspective. We won’t have officers doing that in the future.”
Assistant Chief Thomas Wheatley of the San Jose Police Department said everybody -- from protesters to the media -- has the right to videotape public events.
“It would be ludicrous not to have police officers do it,” Wheatley said. “We have always provided officers to videotape on demand, so that later on it doesn’t become a `he said, she said’ situation.”
The San Francisco police have a special video unit within their public-affairs office.
“We’re really videotaping ourselves, so that we can ensure later on that we followed proper procedures,” said the SFPD’s Bob Mammone. “In a demonstration situation, we’re only authorized to videotape suspected crimes. The idea that we are trying to put together dossiers on specific people is absolute nonsense.”
Tuesday, with demonstrations quiet, San Francisco police showed off items confiscated at last week’s demonstrations, from slingshots to a stun gun to a cast-iron skillet. In turn, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California sent a letter to San Francisco’s Assistant Police Chief Alex Fagan expressing concerns about some police tactics, including arrests of designated legal observers in the mass arrests of nearly 2,300 anti-war demonstrators in recent days. The ACLU also says people could be discouraged from attending protests.
“It definitely bothers me,” said Leda Dederich, an activist with Direct Action to Stop the War. “It’s a systematic attempt to subvert social justice. But in an age of `Total Information Awareness,’ it’s hard to stop.”