January 13, 1997

For immediate Release

Protest Police Violence and political Repression
Wednesday, January 15, 1997
5 PM (PST)

Before the Police Commission Meeting 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco
Between 6th Street and 7th Street

Please attend the protest or call San Francisco Police Commissioner John Kecker at 415-553-1667

The City and County of San Francisco and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are violating the rights of many political activist, the homeless, immigrants, disabled elderly, children and other low income people. I am outraged that the government would cut food stamps and welfare and at the same time announce an increase in spying and police repression against human rights activists. It appears the authorities are attempting to provoke the community so that they can suspend civil liberties.

I urge the San Francisco Police Commission reject the FBI-s invitation to the - Bay Area Counterterrorism Task Force. Past events indicate that the taskforce will be used against my organization even though Food Not Bombs practices nonviolence and feeds the hungry.

I am also requesting that the United Nations Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International investigate the possibility that my human rights are continuing to be violated by the FBI and the San Francisco Police Department.

A front page article in Sunday, January 12, 1997 S.F. Examiner four star edition reports that the FBI, INS and the San Francisco Police are going to start a inter government taskforce that will have new powers to spy on nonviolent human rights groups. The article claims that the San Francisco Police Commission admits to spying illegally on First Amendment groups in 1996. One group was identified as the Bay Area Alliance to Free Leonard Peltier which organized a demonstration held on March 20, 1996. I was one of the people who supported the protest along with other Food Not Bombs volunteers, people with Earth First! and the American Indian Movement.

There is a protest planned at the Police Commission on Wednesdays, January 15 and 22, 1997 at 5.00 PM. The Police Commission is scheduled to hear testimony about the issue of the FBI, INS San Francisco Police Department taskforce at the January 15th Police Commission meeting.

The protest was called to demand justice for Aaron Williams who was killed by 12 San Francisco Police officers in June of 1995. So far the Commission has refused to discipline any officers involved in the murder. The San Francisco Police attacked a crowd celebrating New Years Eve 1997 and citizens freed a young prisoner from under cover cops during the first week of January 1997. A number of unarmed people have been killed by the San Francisco Police in recent years. Most protests are broken up or disrupted by the police.

Here are several paragraphs of the article.

FBI wants S.F. Cops to Join spy squad

Bureau urges City participation on anti-terrorism group without civilian oversight

by Seth Rosenfeld of the Examiner Staff

The F.B.I. has proposed a task force to combat possible terrorism throughout Northern California that would violate San Francisco policies aimed at stopping excessive police spying, according to internal law enforcement documents

The Bay Area Counterterrorism Task Force- would investigate individuals and groups suspected of domestic or international terrorism, according to the FBI-s proposal.

But the San Francisco Police Department could be drawn into preliminary investigations of lawful political and religious activity under broad federal guidelines allowing probes even if there is no reasonable indication of a crime.

SFPD memos note that the FBI plan presents several serious issues which need to be addressed. But the department plans to seek exemption from San Francisco's policy so it can join the task force, said Lt. Kevin Dillon, who oversees the intelligence unit.

Police records released in a lawsuit showed the department, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies collected intelligence on more than 100 political groups ranging from the Ku Klux Klan and the Revolutionary Communist Party to the ACLU, Gay Groups, Labor Coalitions, and the general public, political groupies and free-lance media.

And the civilian Police Commission each year must audit police files to determine whether the department is complying with the policy.

The 1996 audit found the department had violated its policy once by making unauthorized videotaped a March 20 demonstration by the Bay Area Alliance to Free Leonard Peltier, an imprisoned Indian rights activist.

Not reported in the article was that American Indian Movement, Earth First! and Food Not Bombs were among the groups who made up the Alliance.

During the time me and the other First Amendment activists were being investigated, my truck was ticketed when arriving to three separate protests with food and literature. My truck was towed twice by the city and returned with out a fee the next day. A traffic judge denied my motion for discovery in the cases of alleged parking and traffic violations. The court ruled against me after denying my motion for all documents, audio and video or other electronic transmissions during the time surrounding the events where I was issued the tickets. The Examiner article indicates that I was correct in believing that I was the subject of a San Francisco Police Intelligence investigation at the time I was being ticketed. I believe I was ticketed and towed as a way to disrupt my effort to support the rights of the homeless.

During the same period of time many pieces of my mail has been delivered opened including a envelope from Amnesty International in Switzerland. The police have not returned about 40 tables, cases of literature, books, banners, three sixty quart stainless steal pots, fifteen vans, and hundreds of cups and spoons. We have been arrested over 1,000 times for sharing food with the hungry in protest to war and poverty.

Although the food servers are not now being arrested the homeless are being arrested at twice the rate as last year. San Francisco's anti-homeless program has been adopted by New York City, Moscow, Russia and most recently by London, England. Stopping the human rights violations in San Francisco could have world wide consequences.

Please investigate and protest these violations of our human rights. Request the District Attorneys office prosecute killer cops and officers engaged in anti-democratic disruption of human rights groups. Remove the Police Commission and reduce the Police Department's budget.

Keith McHenry
Food Not Bombs
3145 Geary Blvd. #12
San Francisco, CA 94118 USA
415-386-9209