Several hundred people gathered
at Closter Park on Sunday to protest police violence and recent killings on
behalf of the Salinas Police Department, though many may have been surprised to
find out that the topic was being downplayed by the organizers. Instead, this
March Against Police Brutality was now to be a March for Respect, Dignity and
Justice- though how to attain these things was not mentioned.
Several hundred people gathered
at Closter Park on Sunday to protest police violence and recent killings on
behalf of the Salinas Police Department, though many may have been surprised to
find out that the topic was being downplayed by the organizers. Instead, this
March Against Police Brutality was now to be a March for Respect, Dignity and
Justice- though how to attain these things was not mentioned.
Pre-made signs awaited marchers
with approved slogans such as “Respect, Dignity, Justice” in English and
Spanish, and “Queremos Justicia” (We Want Justice.) In between speakers during
the rally, one of the organizers in a yellow security vest told the crowd that
people with signs deemed “negative” or “inappropriate” were going to be asked
to put their sign away or leave. Almost simultaneously, another yellow-vested
organizer approached someone who had spray painted FTP on their sign and told
them to put it away. An argument broke out when he refused, with many people in
the crowd telling the organizers to respect people’s freedom of speech. Despite
calling for backup, the group of yellow-vests that had assembled could not
convince anyone to remove their signs- in fact they had inspired others in the
crowd to write “FTP” or “ACAB” on their own signs.
During the march, the
organizers spent their time restricting the march to a single lane, as to allow
traffic to pass. Many people were upset by this and tried to explain the
purpose of civil disobedience. The default response from the yellow-vests was
that whoever questioned them was not a Salinas resident or part of their community,
which sounded like a broken record, and fell flat when the people disobeying
their orders were actually locals themselves.
In stark contrast to almost any
other protest against police brutality you can imagine, there were no police in
sight. In this 3-plus mile march, not a single officer was spotted. Some
optimistic marchers, as assured by the organizers, thought that because the
march did not get unruly the police did not need to make an appearance. More
likely, the police were relaxing knowing that their job was being done for them
with the unpaid, and perhaps unknowing, help of those dressed in yellow.
Just over five years ago, the
Salinas Police Department began coordinating with the nearby Naval Postgraduate
School to implement the tactics of counter-insurgency. The strategy was
developed in Iraq by David Petraeus, US Military General as well as former
Director of the CIA, and now has been adapted to fight gangs in the United
States. However, population control remains at the heart of counter-insurgency,
and when SPD can use certain segments of the population to police their own
actions, why create a potential confrontation by providing a visible target for
people’s anger?
And with these military
tactics, comes the military technology- Salinas PD was given access to the same
software to track crimes and potential criminals that the U.S. military uses in
the middle east. Primarily, it involves analyzing social media to target and
disrupt supposedly violent activity. Beyond it’s partnership with NPS, Salinas
had simultaneously looked into increasing surveillance camera presence,
implementing facial-recognition software, and establishing a local fusion
center. And to make way for these new tools- Monterey was given the go-ahead
last year to expand the county jail in the coming years.
Tension was palpable on the
streets of Salinas on Sunday, as the march made it’s way through the
neighborhood, many looked on, and not one needed an explanation. Despite the
best efforts at undermining the people’s rage by those donning yellow, it will
take much more than that to curb completely. Most graffiti following
Wednesday’s riot had been erased, but a few tags of “Call the cops and get
shot” and “Break the law and die – SPD” were still lingering around Chinatown,
one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. The blood on SPD’s hands will not
be forgotten any time soon.