Santa Ana police and city executives publicly said they accepted federal calls for assistance at last June’s ICE protests, shedding some light on police officers’ response to demonstrations that have long faced community scrutiny.
It’s a request leaders said they couldn’t ignore for fear of federal officers bringing out their own reinforcements to deal with protesters in Orange County’s only sanctuary city.
Yet the response has faced ongoing criticism from some residents, a handful of council members and one OC Supervisor – calling the police officers’ actions excessive.
[Read: Santana: Were Santa Ana Police Justified in Firing On Peaceful Protesters?]
City Attorney Sonia Carvalho said at Tuesday’s city council meeting she received two phone calls from a federal attorney on the first day of protests requesting assistance and coordinated with Police Chief Robert Rodriguez and City Manager Alvaro Nuñez to respond.
“It wasn’t in a threatening manner – but it was basically, ‘if your department cannot provide the security that we need, then we’re going to bring in federal resources,’” she said in response to a question from Councilwoman Jessie Lopez.
“We had a discussion about what that might look like in terms of safety for our community, and what that would mean to people in our community and so a decision was made at that point.”
Still, National Guardsmen were deployed in Downtown Santa Ana around the federal buildings and courthouse on the first day of the protests.
[Read: Are Orange County’s Streets About to Get Militarized?]
Looming Legal Threats
Tuesday was city council members’ first chance in 10 months to publicly question why police officials fired hundreds of rounds of bean bags, rubber bullets and threw tear gas at ICE demonstrators last June over four days – a response that cost the city nearly $400,000.
[Read: Santa Ana’s Upcoming Report on Police Firing on ICE Protesters Lacks Details]
Still, a lot of questions about what led to that type of response remain unanswered by city officials in an effort to protect a town projected to face a $19 million deficit going into the summer from further liability.
Rodriguez and Carvalho said they couldn’t answer many questions because the city’s facing a lawsuit and four tort claims stemming from injuries by residents sustained at the protests.
“We’re just going to caution that we’re not going to have a conversation about the liability, because that shouldn’t be done here in open session,” Carvalho said. “What we wanted to do is make sure that we did not open up the forum and cause any of this information to be used in the litigation.”
She added that officials could discuss the lawsuit in closed session and that some information could be accessed through a public records request or would come out during discovery for the case. Carvalho said officials could release more information after the lawsuit.
The lawsuit stems from a tort claim filed last year against the City of Santa Ana and the County of Orange by Tony Olson, a Huntington Beach man, for allegedly being shot in the head with projectiles by police forces during the June protests.
Carvalho said her job was to defend the city and hinted that it wasn’t Santa Ana officers that hit Olson.
“The investigator from the Santa Ana Police Department, when responding and doing the review, clearly said that the people involved were wearing green uniforms, not blue and so we will use that in our defenses,” she said.
Rodriguez said beyond the legal concerns, there are also internal investigations taking place about their response to the protests.
“We do also have some internal affairs complaints from those incidents so I understand the community’s request for transparency on that but there’s still ongoing civil litigation, and once the civil litigation is completed and the internal investigations, there will be more transparency on that,” he said.
Councilwoman Thai Viet Phan said she understands why some people in the federal building were scared and she hopes they do get a fuller debrief on the protests once the lawsuits are over.
“We can see where we failed, where we could do better and how we can adjust our policies,” she said.
Police union-backed Councilmembers Phil Bacerra and David Penaloza, who is also running for state assembly, did not ask any questions during the discussion.
To Aid or Not to Aid?
Councilmembers Ben Vazquez, Jonathan Hernandez and Lopez questioned Rodriguez about federal officers at the federal building downtown calling for his department to aid them.
Lopez questioned why local police officers formed a line of control against protestors.
“I’m trying to understand what was the level of threat that you perceived from people like myself that were there that day in order for them to move forward towards us,” she said.
Rodriguez said they were trying to create distance between residents and federal officers.
“We have an obligation to respond. If we don’t respond, they will send another agency to take over our city, not just another federal agency it could be another local agency, such as the Orange County Sheriff’s Department,” he responded
“It’s also for the safety of our community, because if they’re in the middle of an engagement with Federal officers, the best thing is to create some distance,” Rodriguez added.
Police union-backed Mayor Valerie Amezcua said it could’ve been worse if other agencies showed up.
“If the sheriffs would have responded and not our agency, things would have been very different,” she said, visibly emotional.
“When the federal government says, ‘If you don’t respond, we will send in resources.’ That’s a scary comment to me, because I know what that means.”
Earlier this year, Santa Ana police officers refused calls for help from Department of Homeland Security officials at the federal plaza in the downtown civic center where they shot projectiles at protesters, allegedly hitting one of them in the eye.
Rodriguez said his department showed up last year to keep everyone safe and wondered if they should have showed up to the protest earlier this year.
“If you recall the most recent incident at the federal building, we did not respond and I continuously reassess our non response. But what happened there? Someone lost an eye. And I always think maybe, if I would have created that barrier, that person would never have lost an eye,” he said.
Conflicting Accounts Linger Amid Legal Threats
The ICE demonstrations last summer prompted hundreds of residents to show up to a city council meeting after the protests to lambast how the police department handled the demonstrations, calling it excessive and demanding Amezcua’s resignation.
“Many protesters reported indiscriminate firing into the crowds, and I’m worried that we were doing indiscriminate firing into the crowds,” said Vazquez, who requested Tuesday’s discussion.
Police officials, however, continued to contend Tuesday they followed their own policy, state law and guidelines on use of force during their protests – adding that protestors were being violent and officers tried de-escalating the situation.
They also say protestors threw water bottles and bricks at the police.
“Enforcement action became necessary due to both unlawful and unsafe behavior within the crowd,” Police Commander Jorge Lopez said. “All enforcement actions and use of force were conducted in accordance with department policy, applicable legal standards and under consistent supervisory oversight.”
Rodriguez said Santa Ana police officers didn’t shoot bean bags, rubber bullets and throw tear gas at protestors until night time on the first day of protests
“We did not deploy any munitions until later at night. Those were all federal officers who deployed those munitions, so that was not triggered by the Santa Ana Police Department,” he said.
Yet even City Council members who were present at the protests like Hernandez, Vazquez and Lopez have also raised concerns about department’s response with some of them noting they were fired at as well despite it being a peaceful assembly
“Many of us didn’t have water bottles. We weren’t throwing that. We didn’t condone it. You guys had a drone. I’m sure you guys have body cams. You probably saw people like myself telling people to stop. But yet, people like myself were still shot with the bean bags. I was tear gassed,” said Hernandez, later adding an elderly woman was also tear gassed.
“When I saw violence begin to escalate, I saw people being shot at with pepper balls, tear gas, chemical agents, and at that point, that’s when I saw the public throwing water bottles in response.”
At the beginning of their presentation, police officials shared two videos of the protest – one of a young man doing donuts on a mini-bike and another climbing a traffic light on a slide titled “Freedom of Speech?” as evidence of unlawful behavior.
Hernandez, who is running for state assembly, said while no one condoned the behavior exhibited in the two videos, they weren’t acts of violence.
“I don’t see a single piece of evidence that was included in this presentation of a water bottle, a firework, a brick and I think that’s the type of information I want to see when my department fires over 200 – a variety of different chemical agents, bean bags, what have you at the public,” he said.
Rodriguez said they have video evidence of violent behavior but did not want to show it so they could have a dialogue about what happened.
“Our intent tonight was not to create an adversarial presentation – us against the public, but we have plenty of videos of actual law violations that we also didn’t include, also because of this ongoing civil litigation, and they’re removed for that fact,” he said.
Vazquez questioned what effects tear gas has on children and if officers used it when there are children present which he said he saw at the protest.
Rodriguez said before they use tear gas or bean bags they give a dispersal order and give time for people to leave but if there is “continued criminal activity,” they try not to harm innocent bystanders and children.
Amezcua and Phan both questioned where the parents were.
“There were children out there,” Amezcua said. “I guess my question too is where were the parents?”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.