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I am deeply disturbed by new reports that the California Highway Patrol conducted aerial surveillance of people protesting for racial justice. Across California, CHP used high-powered surveillance technology to track and record Californians as they marched and mourned. This incident shines a light on how California police are continuing a long and destructive legacy of anti-Black surveillance.
Our government should be listening to the calls for racial justice, not spying on activists to try to silence them. But law enforcement agencies are doing just that, spending millions of taxpayer dollars to aim surveillance at racial justice protesters.
I demand that our elected leaders protect our right to organize, rally, and speak out for racial justice without fear of police surveillance by:
- Conducting a full, independent investigation into the surveillance and recording of racial justice protests on or after May and June 2020 by CHP and other law enforcement agencies, and fully disclosing that information to the public;
- Imposing a clear and enforceable prohibition on police surveillance and recording in connection with protests and the exercise of free expression rights; and
- Supporting stronger laws to safeguard civil rights to protect Californians from invasive aerial surveillance and recording, including the expansion of the state’s current prohibition on face and biometric surveillance (AB 1215).
With your help, we can protect the critical social movements of our time, and support a world where technology is used to connect and empower us instead of controlling us.
