Community members and local activists mets in the ARTS market lot next to Bodega 420 on Roosevelt Street Monday night to discuss interactions with law enforcement after a report stated undercover officers infiltrated Occupy Phoenix meetings.
The meeting took place across the street from MADE art boutique whose owner was one of the focal points of the discussion.
The meeting was called after a report caused concern among community members about “counter-terrorism” methods used against Occupy Phoenix in 2011. The report was released by Center for Media and Democracy, a non-profit reporting group focusing on exposing corporate spin in government, and DBA Press, an online news publication focusing on private and public sector corruption.
The event, titled the Community Forum to Discuss Repression in Phoenix, was spurred by an email sent by MADE owner Cindy Dach to Phoenix police Sgt. Chas Clements that stated the location and time of an Occupy Phoenix meeting on Fifth Street at the same time as a First Friday event, according to the report.
Monday’s meeting aimed to discuss “Working with the police, future solidarity, (and) infiltration and collaboration,” according to the Facebook event page. All community members were invited to come, including those who, according to the report, had sent information to the Phoenix police about the Occupy movement. Greg Esser, Dach’s husband and co-founder of Roosevelt Row CDC, arrived about an hour and a half into the meeting. Besides Esser, all attendees were self-identified activists, most of them former Occupy members.
“We feel less safe with the police around,” said the meeting’s facilitator, who goes by Ting and would not give her last name.
The sentiment may seem paradoxical to some community members, but to this group a police presence means the opposite of security. Besides various negative personal encounters with law enforcement, many of those at the meeting were a part of the Occupy Phoenix movement when an undercover officer joined the activist group, posing as a homeless, Mexican national.
There was noticeable backlash from the activist community last week when Dach’s email was discovered, which culminated in an apology from Dach and a statement on the report from Occupy Phoenix, although Occupy has not taken an official stance on Dach’s email.
“(Occupy Phoenix) does not officially call for any boycott and instead encourages all community members to make the decision as individuals about their own comfort level with Cindy Dach’s response,” according to the Occupy Phoenix website.
Robert Poe, an activist at Monday’s meeting, said outrage is not always the appropriate reaction to information sharing.
“If we just read everyone who talked with the police as crazy or right-wing, we’ll fall flat on our face,” Poe said. “A lot of the time it’s just somebody who was well-intentioned.”
Still, the group reached a consensus that they do not want police officers in their community, especially not during community events such as First Friday. Most attendees at the meeting agreed they no longer attend First Friday because they do not feel safe.
“We don’t feel empowered to take care of our own problems and have a community free of those functions that dehumanize us,” Ting said.
To give context, Esser explained why a police presence has developed during First Fridays.
“Before 2004 there was no police presence,” he said. “But they (the Phoenix police) couldn’t figure out why so many people were coming downtown when it wasn’t a game night.”
The Phoenix police opted for “over-enforcement,” Esser said, sending officers on foot, in vehicles and on horseback to First Friday. This was an unnecessary number of officers, Esser said, so Roosevelt Row CDC and Artlink have worked with the Phoenix police since then to ensure safety on First Friday while also preserving a light-hearted atmosphere.
When asked what was the most dangerous event that has occurred during a First Friday, Esser responded, “A stabbing.”
“I think having the police there saved a life,” Esser said. He also said the officers’ purpose during First Friday is to help with the increased flow of traffic during the event.
The group at Monday’s meeting still wishes to find alternatives to government law enforcement in the downtown Phoenix community, and will hold future meetings to further discuss such options.
“The government treats safety as a commodity, charging to close the street and charging to provide government workers to police it,” Phoenix activist Beth Payne said. “We can create safety within our community for free.”
Contact the reporter at ascline1@asu.edu
