Santa Ana residents may not get a detailed public hearing on what happened at last summer’s protests against ICE’s sweeping deportations almost a year after police officers fired hundreds of rounds of rubber bullets and threw tear gas at demonstrations in Orange County’s only sanctuary city.
According to a staff report, Santa Ana police officers fired over 300 less lethal rounds and tear gas at protestors over the span of four days last year, costing nearly $400,000 – a response that many residents, activists and a couple of city council members say was excessive.
City Councilman Ben Vazquez, who called for a hearing on the response and who was at some of the protests, said police officers escalated the situation on purpose.
“They escalated the situation by shooting rubber bullets at the crowd and hurt people. I was there when they started throwing the gas and that wasn’t necessary. We weren’t doing anything. It was a simple protest,” he said in a Friday phone interview.
The rest of the city council did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
In the report, Police Chief Robert Rodriguez argues the department followed their own policy and state law and guidelines – something department leaders also contended at a police oversight commission hearing last fall.
“SAPD implemented a coordinated, multi-day operational plan designed to protect individuals’ First Amendment rights while ensuring public safety and safeguarding critical infrastructure,” reads the report.
“All operations were conducted in accordance with Department policy, California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) guidelines, and applicable state law, with a continued emphasis on de-escalation, proportionality, and accountability.”
Rodriguez, City Manager Alvaro Nuñez and City Spokesman Paul Eakins did not respond to email questions last Friday.
The department’s response to protestors last year prompted hundreds of residents to show up to a city council meeting after the protests – lambasting how the police department handled the demonstrations, saying they responded too aggressively.
Yet, city officials never publicly questioned the department’s response in the wake of those concerns.
At their 5:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday, Santa Ana City Council members are expected to receive and file his report on what happened last summer when police officers fired rubber bullets, projectiles and tear gas at protesters.
But the report isn’t as detailed as expected and it is slated on the consent calendar portion of the agenda – a host of items usually voted on as a block without much discussion from city officials.
Vazquez said he plans to pull the item off the consent calendar and officials will be able to question Nuñez and Rodriguez while those who attended the protest can speak during the public comments portion of the meeting.
To view the staff report, click here.
“I really wanted it to be more hashed out, and that would have been more available to be done in the police oversight commission,” Vazquez said about the report.
The $400,000 police response to the protests comes after city council members adopted a budget they said would be their last big spending plan before having to make cuts this year.
Amid a looming expiring tax increase, Santa Ana leaders are now facing an expected $19 million budget deficit going into the summer.
Residents are expected to consider extending the tax increase indefinitely this November in a city where the police union is one of the largest spenders on local elections.
The Hearing That Isn’t
In February, Vazquez called on his colleagues to direct Nuñez to draft a report and have the police oversight commission hold a public hearing on the police department’s response to protestors after a column by Voice of OC Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Norberto Santana, Jr.
While a majority of the council spoke in favor of a sort of public forum on the issue, Mayor Valerie Amezcua pushed back on the need for a public hearing while Councilman Phil Bacerra criticized Vazquez for not working with the police oversight commission to host the hearing.
The ensuing debate sparked confusion on the dais and the city manager as to what staff was going to bring back exactly to the council and whether it would include a public forum or be limited to a report.
Ultimately, Bacerra suggested staff bring back a report in 60 days with Vazquez seemingly agreeing before the mayor cut off the debate, which culminated without a formal vote leaving the direction unclear.
[Read: Santana: Police Tactics Against Peaceful Protesters in Santa Ana Get a Public Hearing]
Rodriguez at the time said the report would contain limited information due to use of force complaints and a tort claim against the city stemming from the city’s response to the protests.
In his request, Vazquez called for the report to not only include the cost and the munitions used, but also body-worn camera footage from the protests last June, detailed injury reports and communications with other law enforcement agencies.
He also called for operational planning and command decisions that led to use of force and any internal policy reviews planned or conducted by the department in the wake of the protests.
Instead, the report lists the amount and type of munitions used, the cost of the police response, the other law enforcement agencies that assisted them and the amount of people arrested and injuries sustained without any detail as to why.
The report includes less detail than the state-mandated use of force disclosures for protests that police officials quietly published online last year for each of the four days.
The use of force disclosures for the four days included the same language for why officers used tear gas and rubber bullets.
“As the protest progressed Santa Ana officers encountered assaultive resistance from multiple protesters. Individuals in the crowds began throwing dangerous objects, including illegal fireworks, rocks, bricks, concrete, glass bottles, and other unidentified projectiles, directly at law enforcement personnel,” reads the reports.
“At no point were kinetic energy projectiles fired indiscriminately into the crowd.”
To view the use of force reports, click here.
Not everyone agrees with that account.
Last year, A Huntington Beach man 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.
“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 states.“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.
Officials did not respond to questions on what happened to the claim and if city leaders settled it.
According to the staff report for Tuesday’s meeting, five arrestees, three Santa Ana police officers and seven officers from assisting agencies were injured but it doesn’t say what the injuries were exactly.
That report also states 27 arrests – 23 misdemeanor and four felony – but it doesn’t disclose exactly what the arrests were for.
Vazquez said the police oversight commission should revisit the department’s use of force policies and bring recommendations before the council.
“I don’t like it that we’re undermining the police oversight commission,” he said. “We need to start using that commission as much as we use the others for the department they serve.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
