News & Commentary

# # #
CalECPA was co-sponsored by the ACLU of California, California Newspaper Publishers Association, and Electronic Frontier Foundation and supported by Adobe,Airbnb, American Library Association, Apple, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Bay Area Council, California Chamber of Commerce Association, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ), California Public Defenders Association, Center for Democracy and Technology, Center for Media Justice, Centro Legal de la Raza,Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform, Civil Justice Association of California, Color of Change, Common Sense Kids Action, ConnectSafely, Consumer Action,Consumer Federation, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Dropbox, Engine,Facebook, Foursquare, Google, Internet Archive, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, LinkedIn, Media Alliance, Microsoft, Mozilla, NameCheap, National Center for Youth Law, National Center for Lesbian Rights,New America: Open Technology Institute, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, reddit, Restore the 4th,San Diego Police Officers Association, Small Business California, TechNet, Tech Freedom, The Internet Association, and dozens of legal scholars from throughout the nation. The California District Attorneys Association, California Police Chiefs Association, California Sheriffs Association, and the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association were also neutral on the bill.

&nbs

###
La Coalición Comunidades Unidas está formada por seis organizaciones que copatrocinaron la AB 953: PICO California, ACLU de California, Coalición Justicia Juvenil, Asiático Americanos Promoviendo Justicia, Reform California y Dignity and Power Now, así como otras organizaciones que también apoyan la ley.

###
The Communities United Coalition is comprised of the six AB 953 cosponsor organizations: PICO California, ACLU of California, Youth Justice Coalition, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Reform California, and Dignity and Power Now, as well as other organizations that also support the bill.

www.aclusandiego.org www.aclu.org
Position Title: Legal Intern

Position Description: Full-time summer positions. Duties may include research, writing, interviewing and fact investigation for cases involving constitutional and civil rights.

Internships are unpaid: However, the ACLU is willing to discuss cooperating with students in the grant application process.

Qualifications: Law students with a demonstrated commitment to public interest work are preferred. Given our location, Spanish language abilities are a plus.

Chief Zimmerman this week went so far as to urge a court to deny a request for release of a recent security camera video footage that captured a fatal officer-involved shooting. In her declaration to the court, the Chief argues that the community cannot be trusted with the truth. It would be too dangerous, she claims, to allow the public to view the video that captured a fatal shooting by an SDPD officer in a dark alley in the Midway District earlier this year.

What the Chief fails to realize is that SDPD secrecy will make us all less safe, not more and undermines trust in the police.

The ACLU has repeatedly urged the Department to release the video to demonstrate its commitment to transparency. Despite the Chief’s claims, the release of the video would not hamper investigation into the shooting nor would it threaten the privacy of any other party. The officer and Fridoon Rawshan Nehad, who died there, were alone in that alley. The officer inexplicably and in violation of SDPD policy failed to turn on his body camera.

In this case, the public’s interest in understanding what happened clearly outweighs the privacy interests of those involved. A man is dead; the involved officer has already been identified. The video will simply show what happened. The Department’s decision to urge the court to keep the video hidden sends a strong message that the SDPD is more interested in circling the wagons than committing to transparency with the community it serves.

David Trujillo is Advocacy Director for the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties.