Censored 2014
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In terms of the legacy of the current civil rights movement, I have no doubt that our brothers and sisters in Arizona will be victorious. The Librotraficante movement believes it would be a powerful example of poetic justice in democracy if the only Latina Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor could sign the majority opinion overturning Arizona HB 2811 signed into law by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, and used as the legal trigger to prohibit Mexican American studies in Arizona.5
These tactics are straight out of the Arizona Republican Playbook. The far right’s anti-immigrant movement is well known, and even addressed in the Republican Party’s Growth and Opportunity Project.6 However, they have not openly discussed, admitted to, or renounced the far right attack on ethnic studies. Here is an overview of some of the strategies used to attack ethnic studies indirectly.
Vague Laws
Code Words
Micromanaging Classrooms
Doughnut Hole Legislation
Bogus Reports
Denial
Vague Laws
The anti-ethnic studies bill is vague, successfully hiding that the target is Mexican American studies. Even as the Arizona Supreme Court condoned HB 2281, it was pointed out by one of the judges on the case, A. Wallace Tashima, that the part of the law was so vague that it was unconstitutional. HB 2281 never even mentions Mexican American studies. Of course, once we are out of the way and our programs are terminated, the other ethnic studies shall fall, too, for the rules will be set to eliminate all other ethnic and women’s studies, or to never implement them. This is also part of an attack on “critical thinking,” which the Texas 2012 Republican platform is very honest about.7
Code Words
Here are some direct quotations taken from the 2012 Texas Republican platform that appear again and again and again in anti-ethnic studies legislation or are used to justify such bills.
“We believe the current teaching of a multicultural curriculum is divisive. We favor strengthening our common American identity and loyalty instead of political correctness that nurtures alienation among racial and ethnic groups. . . .
“We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs . . .” (Emphasis added.)8
Micromanaging Classrooms
Anti-ethnic studies policies strive to legislate the books we can put into students’ hands. This was the case in Arizona and in Texas.
An editorial against HB 1938 and SB 1128 by the San Antonio Express-News put it best:
The Legislature should leave the content of Texas college courses alone. Micromanaging education from the peanut gallery is hazardous. Repeated attempts over the years by some members of the State Board of Education to impose their ideologies into the textbooks being used in Texas classrooms made the state a laughingstock of the nation on more than one occasion.9
Doughnut Hole Legislation
Arizona Republicans fine-tuned the tactic of creating “doughnut hole legislation” to attack ethnic studies.10 Teachers are the targets of the attack; rather than attacking them directly, though, laws are enacted to surround them and pressure them into compliance. Dan Patrick’s SB 1128 is doughnut hole legislation, and the National Association of Scholars (NAS) report, Recasting History: Are Race, Class, and Gender Dominating American History?, revealed that professors are, indeed, the target.
The report stated: “We looked at the assigned readings for each course and the research interests of the forty-six faculty members who taught them. We also compared faculty members’ research interests with the readings they chose to assign. . . . We classified faculty members assigning primarily high RCG [race, class, and gender] readings as ‘high assigners’ of RCG materials.”11
Bogus Reports
House Bill 2811 was created to prohibit courses that promote the overthrow of the government? Who even worries about that? Besides, we already have a Sedition Act that prevents individuals from promoting the overthrow of the government. Why do we need a Sedition Act for academic courses? How do you even put a school course on trial? Oh, I guess you can’t. Thus, the US Supreme Court will throw out that law, even though it might take another three to five years, and half a million to a million dollars.
Just as illogical, Texas’s HB 1938 and SB 1128 were based on the aforementioned National Association of Scholars Recasting History report, which slammed professors for talking too much about race, class, and gender when discussing the following American classics like Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and César Chávez and La Causa among others.12
Denial
To this day, the far right Republican regime denies that books have been banned in Arizona. It will be up to the Supreme Court to convince them of that. A press release from the Tucson Unified School District, posted on their website on January 17, 2012, denied that it had banned books, though it does admit that enforcers walked into classrooms during class time and, in front of our young, boxed up books by our most beloved authors.13
And here is just one quote that is a testament to the doublespeak that George Orwell warned us about: “NONE of the above books have been banned by TUSD. Each book has been boxed and stored as part of the process of suspending the classes. The books listed above were cited in the ruling that found the classes out of compliance with state law.”14
Likewise, in Texas, the Republican legislators who proposed HB 1938 and SB 1128 deny that they wanted to attack ethnic studies. I can’t tell you what is in these legislators’ hearts, but I can tell you what was in their bills. These bills would have led to the demise of ethnic studies. We must nip these oppressive laws in the bud, for it’s much harder for them to be taken off the books once they’re in place.
When asked what brought this issue to his attention, Rep. Capriglione did not refer to the NAS report, although the author and champions of the bill were sitting behind him and about to testify—authors who had so twisted their definition of censorship that they could so easily write a denial of our history into their report: “The kinds of courses that Librotraficante is concerned about will most likely, if the bill is passed, still continue to be offered at Texas public universities as electives. The only change would be that they would not count toward the state US history requirement in general education.”15
Rep. Capriglione did, however, cite Jay Leno’s “Jaywalking” segment as proof that Texas college students did not know enough about US history. If discrediting our history is not a big deal, then I suggest that Rep. Capriglione’s Jaywalking comprehensive history course be an elective. We would at least get to see the content of the course, and could then get a better idea of what is in the minds, hearts, and imagi-nations of the far right.
During this whole period, no one ever showed us the “comprehensive American history course” that the Texan bills and the Republican legislators were advocating. However, they would have gone into effect in just four months, if the law had been passed.
HB 1938 would have taken US history back to 1938, before ethnic studies existed. I’m so proud of everyone who stood up for critical thinking, ethnic studies, and intellectual freedom. We look forward to uniting with the broader community to protect intellectual freedom for all.
TONY DIAZ, “El Librotraficante,” is a novelist and holds a master of fine arts in creative writing. He brings together contemporary Latino arts, culture, and business in ways that have transformed Houston, Texas, and the nation. He made national and international news in 2012 in his role as a leader of the Librotraficante movement, championing freedom of speech. Diaz is also cofounder of Protectors of the Dream, which awards grants and free legal representation to youth of the Dream Act movement. See more at TonyDiaz.net.
THE SPIN GAME: POLICE ATTEMPT TO HIDE INFILTRATION
OF ACTIVIST GROUPS6
Beau Hodai
Infiltrate: verb [with object]
1. enter or gain access to (an organization, place, etc.) surreptitiously and
gradual
ly, especially in order to acquire secret injormation: other areas of
the establishment were infiltrated by jascists; permeate or become a part
of (something) by infiltration: computing has infiltrated most projessions
now. Medicine (of a tumor, cells, etc.) spread into or invade (a tissue or
organ).
2. (of a liquid) permeate (something) by filtration: virtually no water
infiltrates deserts such as the Sahara; introduce (a liquid) into something
by filtration: lignocaine was infiltrated into the wound.
—Oxford American English Dictionary
On May 22, 2013, Democracy Now! interviewed Matthew Rothschild, editor of the Progressive, about his cover story for the June edition entitled “Spying on Occupy Activists.” This story was based on a report I authored that was issued on May 20 by DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy, titled Dissent or Terror: How the Nation’s Counter Terrorism Apparatus, in Partnership with Corporate America, Turned on Occupy Wall Street.
The report details how counterterrorism personnel employed at many of the nation’s “fusion centers” monitored and surveilled citizens engaged in the Occupy Wall Street movement nationwide. While a number of related issues are discussed in “Dissent or Terror,” its central narrative explores the actions of counterterrorism/law enforcement personnel engaged in the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center (ACTIC, commonly known as the “Arizona Fusion Center”) directed toward members of Occupy Phoenix, as well as other Arizona activist groups. Such counterterrorism/law enforcement entities engaged in ACTIC include the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offices of Infrastructure Protection and Intelligence and Analysis, Transportation Security Administration (a DHS component agency), Federal Bureau of Investigation, Arizona Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence Bureau, and numerous “homeland defense/counterterrorism” units of Phoenix metropolitan area police departments—such as the Phoenix Police Department Homeland Defense Bureau (HDB).
Among the key findings discussed in “Dissent or Terror,” as well as the Progressive’s cover story, is the fact that the Phoenix Police Department (PPD) had dispatched an undercover officer to gather intelligence on the activities of both the Occupy Phoenix movement and activist groups planning protest actions in relation to the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) 2011 States and Nation Policy Summit, which was held in the upscale Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale in late November and early December of that year. This undercover officer, most likely a PPD detective from the Major Offender Bureau by the name of Saul Ayala, had been infiltrating activist groups as early as July 2011 (according to activist accounts) and had been asked to attend and report on activist plans for the launch of Occupy Phoenix (which officially launched over a two-day event held on October 14 and 15) as early as October 2, 2011. In order to execute this infiltration, the undercover detective presented himself to activists as a homeless Mexican national by the name of “Saul DeLara.” Saul attempted to support this false identity and his social networking throughout the Phoenix activist community be establishing a Facebook page under his false name and by gathering numerous activist Facebook “friends.”
Interestingly, according to activist accounts, toward the end of Saul’s infiltration of the Phoenix activist community, he claimed to have ties to certain “anarchist” actions in Mexico. This appears to have been an oblique reference to a group in Mexico calling themselves the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire/Informal Anarchist Federation, which, through a number of anarchist online forums, had claimed responsibility for a fire at Las Torres shopping mall in Juarez on November 2, 2011.
As detailed in “Dissent or Terror,” records obtained by DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy show that intelligence gathered by Saul through his infiltration of the Phoenix activist community was reported—via his superior, Career Criminal Squad Sgt. Tom Van Dorn—to Phoenix police entities, including HDB, and that this intelligence was likely used in the creation of intelligence products that were delivered via ACTIC personnel to private corporations, banks, and security personnel employed by private entities that were subject of Occupy Phoenix protests. Furthermore, records indicate that Ayala and Van Dorn attended a number of meetings at ACTIC, held for the purpose of discussing activist protest plans for the ALEC conference. Records indicate that Michael Rohme, a terrorism liaison officer with the ACTIC and a detective with the police Intelligence Unit, had invited Phil Black, director of security of the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa (the Scotts-dale resort at which the ALEC conference was held), to attend at least one of these meetings. Black was the de facto head of ALEC’s private security detail in Arizona (a security detail that was largely comprised of off-duty Phoenix police officers earning thirty-five dollars per hour). Records indicate that Rohme had been a regular recipient of intelligence provided by Saul and was the chief point of ACTIC/HDB contact with both ALEC personnel and other private entities working on behalf of ALEC—including Mark Davis, head of corporate security for then-ALEC member corporation Bayer HealthCare.
In preparation for the May 22 Rothschild interview, Democracy Now! requested comment from PPD Public Information Officer (PIO) Trent Crump on a number of the report’s findings. Crump declined to be interviewed on the show, but did respond to a number of questions submitted in writing by the show.
One question posed to Crump asked whether Phoenix “law enforcement infiltrate[d] Occupy meetings,” and if they had, why?
In response, Crump wrote: “Infiltrate? no, attend open meetings, yes.” [sic]
Democracy Now!, relaying Crump’s response, read this nonsense on television. Given the fact that earlier that day of May 22, the Face-book page utilized by “Saul DeLara” had been removed from Face-book, I thought this response on Crump’s part was very interesting, especially since Crump had been unable to discuss the specifics of Saul’s activity with me on several past occasions. On May 23, I wrote to Crump with a few follow-up questions.
First I asked how Crump would define the practice of “infiltration.” The second question was as follows:
From what I’ve gathered, a PPD Major Offender Bureau (PP-DMOB) undercover officer named Saul (most likely then-PPDMOB undercover detective Saul Ayala) posed as an activist, or person interested in becoming involved in activism, under the assumed name of “Saul DeLara.” This individual presented a false identity to activists he approached and attempted to befriend, or otherwise gain the confidence of. Specifically, according to the accounts of activists who interacted with this officer, Saul reportedly stated that he was a homeless Mexican national who had just been released from prison and who had family/friends active in activism/anarchist groups in Mexico. Some activist accounts state that this activity on the part of this undercover officer began as early as July 2011.
Evidence of the undercover officer’s deliberate use of a false identity in order to gain the confidence of activists is contained on a Facebook page made by this undercover officer to support this false identity. Further supportive of the assertion that this undercover officer used this false identity to gain the trust/friendship of activists is the fact that this Facebook page was used to gather “friends.” Interestingly enough, the page in question was removed from Facebook yesterday.
I have reconstituted the page from screenshots taken in November 2012 here (for reference: http://dbapress.com/source-materials-archive/dissent-or-terror-source-materials-archive/saul-delara-facebook-page). Furthermore, through the months of October and November 2011, this undercover officer did not merely attend open meetings held by activists, but also—utilizing his deliberately established false persona—regularly “hung out” with specific individuals in Cesar Chavez Plaza for the express purpose of intelligence gathering. Records indicate that the purpose of this undercover officer’s attendance at meetings, as well as his days spent in Cesar Chavez Plaza “hanging out” with specific individuals, was to gather intelligence. This intelligence was delivere
d to then-PPDMOB Career Criminal Squad Sgt. Tom Van Dorn. Van Dorn would then pass this intelligence along to other personnel, including those employed at PPD Bureau of Homeland Defense, PPD Community Relations Bureau, other personnel engaged at ACTIC. . . .
While other records, namely various records associated with [Occupy Phoenix protest] Incident Action Plans, do reflect the more passive use of undercover officers through the placement of such plainclothes officers in activist marches, it seems to me that there is a much greater depth to the ac-tivities carried out by this PPDMOB undercover officer. How would this above-detailed activity compare/contrast with your definition of “infiltrate”?
Rather than supporting the claim he made for a Democracy Now! national audience—that PPD had not “infiltrated” activist groups, but had simply “attended open meetings”—Crump responded to my line of questioning with the following:
Beau, I am not a dictionary so I do not need to define it. This was your choice of words not mine and maybe that is why we differ. In fact, I believe I read another version in your article, something to the effect of, “Dispatched an undercover to attend activist planning meetings.” If I were asked what we did in this case I would say, we used lawful techniques to gather information.
So there you have it: because, in one instance, I did not explicitly use the word “infiltrate” in describing the activities of this undercover detective, and because Crump is “not a dictionary,” the Phoenix Police Department public information officer thinks he has carte blanche to twist his response to a simple question, delivered to a nationwide audience, to the point of mendacity—while, on the same day, someone attempted to scrub the Internet of evidence of PPD’s infiltration of Phoenix activist groups by deleting the Facebook profile dedicated to the false persona of the undercover detective who, without a doubt, infiltrated the Phoenix activist community.