SANTA CRUZ — Oakland-based activist organizations and more than two dozen citizens have included the Santa Cruz Police Department in a far-reaching liability claim alleging improper law enforcement action last year during days of Oakland protests shortly after the death of George Floyd.
The Santa Cruz City Council on Tuesday will consider an agenda item recommending the city reject a liability claim from the Anti Police-Terror Project, Community Ready Corps and others seeking an unspecified amount of damages. Such liability claim rejections are typically pro forma actions by the city, required ahead of a claimant filing a formal lawsuit. As described by the agenda item, the claim regards “damages resulting from an alleged violation of civil rights related to law enforcement action.”
The 11-page claim itself, served to the city Jan. 28, alleges the “use of violent, unlawful, and unconstitutional crowd control tactics against peaceful demonstrators” by some 28 primarily San Francisco Bay Area law enforcement agencies and including the Santa Cruz police department and county sheriff’s office. None of the numerous claims provide allegations specific to the Santa Cruz Police Department.
Santa Cruz Police Chief Andy Mills addressed community concerns about his department’s response to the Oakland protests, a form of inter-jurisdictional mutual aid service, during the “Changing the Culture of Policing in our Community and Beyond” community forum June 3. Mills said he sent six officers, a sergeant and lieutenant to Oakland on two nights “to restore order when there’s a riot, not to manage a protest.” One of his officers’ arms was injured by a flying object during the event and department vehicles from both his department and the Sheriff’s Office were vandalized, he said at the time.
At around the same time as officers were assisting Oakland police during the demonstrations, Mills was kneeling in solidarity with a peaceful downtown Santa Cruz community demonstration organized in response to police involvement in Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The May 3 Sentinel photograph, showing Mills side-by-side with then-Santa Cruz Mayor Justin Cummings, later went viral on social media.
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March 09, 2021 at 07:22AM
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Wide-ranging police misconduct claim names Santa Cruz Police Department - Santa Cruz Sentinel
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