More than six months after police fired rubber bullets, projectiles and tear gas at peaceful protesters in downtown Santa Ana, there’s been no city council hearing or detailed debate on the dais about what happened that day.
The official silence from city hall – spurred no doubt by the fear of potential lawsuits – is prompting serious questions about how Santa Ana PD handles protesters and how effective city leaders are in engaging with the department, especially around transparency issues.
It’s also unclear whether SAPD has updated or adapted anything in response to those protests.
And this week, protests are back.
Today, across America and Orange County cities, there’s a planned “Free America Walkout,” at 2 p.m. to protest Trump administration policies like the ongoing ICE raids.
And there’s another protest scheduled in downtown Santa Ana at 6:30 p.m. to protest the first anniversary of the Trump administration taking office.
“I think that at the bare minimum we should have a presentation,” said Santa Ana City Councilwoman Jessie Lopez in a December interview about the events back in June, seconding similar concerns and directives offered earlier in the year by Councilman Jonahthan Hernandez.
Yet those directives have seemingly been ignored.
Most recently, a local news reporter – Daniel Diaz, who publishes the Santanero newspaper – publicly told council members he’s been stonewalled on public records requests for months.
As he’s trying to figure out how police responded to the protests against deportation raids over the summer, Diaz took to the public comment podium at last month’s Santa Ana City Council meeting.
I also emailed similar questions to a police Public Information Officer Natalie Garcia, Police Chief Robert Rodriguez and City Public Information Officer Paul Eakins on Jan. 5 asking similar questions about their response to ICE protests – and have yet to get any response.
“I’m trying to get information from both sides about what happened,” Diaz told council members, echoing my own desire to better understand the police department response in June.
Diaz, who along with several city council members was shot with nonlethal rounds himself, is especially curious about midnight, June 12, Fourth and Main.
“You know, the cops pulled up and the SWAT team. They just shot at the crowd that didn’t have any sort of antagonizing. They didn’t throw anything at them. They were just protesting on the sidewalk,” Diaz said, adding that he’s been denied access to body cam footage about the incident.
A Disputed Protest Response
Last November, Santa Ana police officials spoke in general about their response to First Amendment protests in front of the city’s Police Oversight Commission, generally describing the department’s response in June as textbook.
Earlier that year in June, residents were protesting ICE raids throughout Southern California amid a National Guard occupation.
[Read: Orange County Grapples With Federal Occupation]
At the police oversight commission meeting, Santa Ana Police Commander Garry Couso said the department’s approach aims to connect police with protest organizers early on, adding that police responses at protests target bad actors in the crowd as opposed to widescale responses from officers on the line.
Back in June, Santa Ana Police also released a statement along with a video featuring select shots of unruly protesters to explain their declaration of an unlawful assembly, noting they had arrested 24 people over the course of six days.
“Unlike other cities that declared unlawful assemblies early in the day, while there was still sunlight, and imposed curfews that effectively curtailed the right to assemble, the City of Santa Ana demonstrated restraint and a commitment to its community by respecting the public’s need to express frustration and allowing peaceful demonstrations to continue into the late-night hours,” read the SAPD statement.
Yet the police department’s version of events seems starkly at odds with what many Santa Ana residents saw and felt that night – including city council members.
“I was out there,” Lopez said, adding she went out to the protests to ensure the official narrative reflected what residents experienced.
Her recollection is very different from the one presented by police at the city’s oversight commission.
“It was our own residents they were attacking and brutalizing,” she said of Santa Ana police, adding “You can’t tell them (residents) it didn’t happen to them.”
“I was fired on a couple of times,” Lopez continued, referring to the first day of protests on June 9, adding that a local school board trustee also got hit along with a woman with a baby stroller.
Councilman Ben Vazquez said, “I was there and I saw one guy throwing water bottles … protesters chased him out.”
Vazquez also experienced something very different from what police officials told Santa Ana’s oversight commissioners about their response.
“I thought they overdid it,” Vazquez said. “They were shooting in my direction. But I didn’t get hit.”
Their colleague, Councilman Jonathan Hernandez, also has a contrasting recollection of events than what was presented to the oversight commission.
“I was on the ground that day,” Hernandez said. “SAPD were the agitators. They did escalate violence.”
“To this day, they have not been held accountable.”
Use of Force Claim
A Huntington Beach man recently filed a claim against the City of Santa Ana and the County of Orange after being shot in the head with projectiles by police forces during the June protests.
“Around 10:00 pm, Mr. Olson and his brother-in-law made their way to the far-right front of the crowd at the intersection of Broadway and 4th St. Across the street from the crowd were Orange County Sheriff’ s Department Deputies and the Santa Ana Police Department(” SAPD”) Officers,” reads the claim.
“It was approximately 10:15 pm when one individual on the far left of the crowd threw a firework at the law enforcement line,” the claim continues.“Instead of targeting the one individual who posed the threat, the deputies and officers responded by opening fire at everyone in the crowd with their less-lethal projectiles.”
To read a copy of the claim, click here.
According to his claim, Olson was completely peaceful but started running east on 4th St to avoid being hurt and was away from the person that threw the firecracker.
“As he was running, on information and belief, a SAPD officer shot Mr.Olson in the upper right side of his head with a 40 mm less- lethal projectile shot from a 12- gauge shotgun,” reads the claim.
Questioning The Official Narrative
You don’t have to go far to hear the same story as Olson, Lopez, Hernandez and Vazquez.
To date, there’s never really been a deep dive on this city council dais – dominated by a full slate of Democratic politicians – about what happened and why – or an opportunity to question official statements or detail follow up on arrests to see if charges were merited.
Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento – a former Santa Ana mayor – responded to my questions through a spokesman, largely backing up other eyewitness accounts.,
“I witnessed first-hand the excessive and unnecessary use of force by federal and local law enforcement on peaceful protesters” Sarmiento stated, adding that the county was in the midst of reviewing Olson’s claim so he would not comment on the details of his experience.
“We are hopeful that the use-of-force incidents in Santa Ana will be investigated,” Sarmiento added, “in order to ensure accountability and transparency and regain the public’s trust.”