PINAC - Photgraphy Is Not A Crime

Years ago there was a website called Photography Is Not A CrimePhotography Is Not A Crime, started by Carlos Miller after getting arrested for filming the police in his town. Sadly, Miller's original PINAC website is no longer online (due to hosting costs), but he now a a Facebook pageFacebook page. Since Blogspot is free, I want to keep Miller's story - and his work -alive.

    While Carlos Miller started PINAC to tell his own story, many other people around the country had the same story to tell: their local police violated their rights while filming in public. For some, their camera or videotape was seized illegally, often forcibly. For others, their footage got deleted. And while public photography is not illegal, Destruction of Evidence is.

    (Don't just take my word for it; see what the American Civil Liberties Union says about your rights: https://www.acludc.org/en/know-your-rights/if-stopped-photographing-public)

    PINAC did more than just complain, they offered a useful solution - which often achieved results. First, people would ask the police to return their footage, or complain to the police department their footage had been destroyed, and they would get laughed at: "Well, what are you going to do about it?" Next, they'd find a local journalist to cover their story and PINAC's website republished it. Then people around the country would call that police department, reminding them their actions were illegal and letting them know the eyes of the world were watching them. 

    While police do nothing when one person complains, when their Chief of Police is getting dozens - or hundreds - of calls a day, the public humiliation shames them into "doing the right thing." Sometimes this even resulted in a financial settlement for the citizen harmed by their police department's illegal behavior. PINAC had a pretty good track record, and almost every week they posted another success story.

    My own personal story, involving the Santa Rosa Police Department, never got shared on PINAC because I never found a local journalist willing to retell my story. And, at the time, I did not have a blog to post my story on, but mostly I was trying to get a local reporter to cover it. And I still am; but that's another story: https://erikmiddlenamejorgensen.blogspot.com/2024/06/vehicular-assault-legalized-in-santa.html  

    My own story is actually two different stories, a year apart. In one the police illegally seized, duplicated, and distributed my footage (without paying me); in the other, the police illegally suppressed my footage of a Vehicular Assault, protecting the wrong-way driver from prosecution.

    While my own stories (posted at https://www.youtube.com/ApeOfThoth) were never on PINAC, I like what Carlos Miller achieved and I would like to duplicate his efforts here, on my own blog.

    Here is my video footage illegally seized, turned into a "Training film", then given without permission or payment to History Channel for their Gangland series: 

Here is my footage of a Vehicular Assault during a peaceful protest in front of Santa Rosa High School, where an angry girl, late for work. drove through a crowd of people on the wrong side of the street, hitting at least two people, then speeding off with one person stuck on the hood of her car. When police officers finally pulled her over, an SRPD officer grabbed the camera from my hand and shut it off. 

    When I filed a complaint, the officer said the driver had stopped "several times" but her "passenger" refused to get off. When I reminded the "investigator" about my videotape, and that it showed his officer was lying, he told me, "As far as I'm concerned, this investigation is over."

    I hope that bothers you as much as it bothers me. I hope you let the Santa Rosa City Council know:

• the City Council as a whole at citycouncil@srcity.org
• Mayor Natalie Rogers at nrogers@srcity.org (707)494-8378
• Vice Mayor Mark Stapp at MStapp@srcity.org (707)328-7024
• Eddie Alvarez (District 1) at ealvarez@srcity.org (707)791-5282
• Dianna MacDonald (District 3) at dmacdonald@srcity.org (707)495-7599
• Victoria Fleming (District 4) at vfleming@srcity.org
• Chris Rogers (District 5) at crogers@srcity.org (707)543-3017
• Jeff Okrepkie (District 6) at JOkrepkie@srcity.org (707)531-0056
• City Attorney Teresa Sticker at caoffice@srcity.org (707)543-3040

Also let Santa Rosa Police Department know: https://www.srcity.org/2443/File-a-Complaint - 

(From City of Santa Rosa website):

The following options are available (for Police Complaints):

• Mail or drop off a letter to the Police Department at 965 Sonoma Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA  95404.
• Call (707) 543-3559, Fax (707) 543-3557.
• Send an email to srpdinfo@srcity.org
• Pickup a commendation/complaint form, in English or Spanish, from the Police Department lobbies.
• Download a commendation/complaint form. Forms are available in either English or Spanish.
• If you prefer to communicate with someone outside of the police department, you may contact OIR Group LLC, at (310) 906-0259, or directly at this link

Vehicular Assault - “legalized” in Santa Rosa, California

     A few years ago, during a peaceful protest in front of my TV station, I filmed a car driving on the wrong side of the street. The angry wrong-way driver hit at least two people (one hit in the crosswalk inthen speeding off with somebody stuck on the hood. Two SRPD motorcycle cops repeatedly ordered her to pull over, which she finally did - about 420 feet down the road. Several eyewitnesses attempting to give their statements were, instead, ordered to leave, and there is no Police Report of the incident.

    The driver told SRPD officer Brian Kohlman she was “late for work”, and that she had stopped her car, but her “passenger” on the hood had refused to get off. (Watch the video for yourself, and count how many times she stopped…)

    While a Press Democrat reporter noted, among the day’s activities, a tan station wagon speeding down Mendocino Avenue with somebody on the hood of the car, that reporter wasn’t curious enough to follow up on what happened next. In fact, I have emailed her for years without any response.

    As the 20th Anniversary of this “unsolved hit-and-run” approached, I contacted Editorial Director Jim Sweeney [(707)521-5201 - Jim.Sweeney@PressDemocrat.com]. While Editor Sweeney invited me to write an Op-Ed, he never printed it; not in time for the 20th Anniversary, not ever.

    When I asked Anne Belden (on the Board of The Press Democrat Journalism Trust) if she could find a reporter to cover this “unsolved hit-and-run”, she refused and told me, “We don’t want people thinking the newspaper is Anti-Cop.” 

    The problem isn't just that a hit-and-run got covered up, but that a Santa Rosa Police officer grabbed my camera out of my hand, and shut it off, after I identified myself as a Journalist. The Press Democrat should be covering this story for that fact alone, to protect the rights of journalists everywhere - including their own employees.

    Over the years, as I showed this video to Santa Rosa residents, many people told me, “Well, if somebody got in my way, I’d run them over, too!” Others point at the victim on my viewscreen and tell me, “He looks like somebody who deserved it!”

    Coincidentally, SPRD officer Brian Kohlman is married to Dava Kolhman, who at that time was a Legal Assistant to Jill Ravitch, the former District Attorney for Sonoma County. I detailed this is in an earlier blog, as it explains why no charges were ever pressed against this cop turning a Willfully Blind eye to Vehicular Assaults in a crosswalk.

    During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, two more Vehicular Assaults occurred, on May 30 and June 20, according to a City of Santa Rosa report. Unlike the hit-and-run I filmed in front of Santa Rosa High School (which barely got mentioned), both the May 30 and June 20 vehicular assaults got their own Press Democrat article:

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/santa-rosa-teen-arrested-on-suspicion-of-driving-pickup-into-crowd-at-georg/

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/santa-rosa-protesters-accuse-motorist-of-trying-to-hit-them-during-saturday/

    Furthermore, the multiple Human Rights Violations by Santa Rosa Police during these protests cost the city at least $2.3 million in settlements. In contrast, everybody tries to sweep my own videotape down the memory hole.

https://bohemian.com/report-santa-rosa-police-violated-human-rights-during-protests-1/

    Nationwide over a hundred Vehicular Assaults on protesters occurred between May and September 2020, with two of those listed occurring in Santa Rosa - what are the odds? In some states, legislature was introduced to legalize driving a vehicle through crowds of protesters, but Santa Rosa “legalized” it first.

    On March 23, 2021 a driver deliberately targeted a homeless encampment,  hitting at least two people leaving one injured and killing Kellie Jones, a 43-year old mother of two. 

https://www.ktvu.com/news/friends-grieve-mother-who-police-say-was-mowed-down-intentionally-at-santa-rosa-homeless-camp

    For years I have emailed Santa Rosa City Council members, and the Mayor, asking for comments about this “unsolved hit-and-run” in front of Santa Rosa High School, but not one person has responded. So, I decided to make a blog entry keeping track of all their non-responses: http://erikmiddlenamejorgensen.blogspot.com/2024/04/journalists-resources-more-emails.html

    If you, as a reader, approve of vehicles driving through crowds of protesters, you are in luck! Santa Rosa is the perfect place for you, and you can be among the trend-setters for the entire country!

    On the other hand, if you are a normal human being with a conscience, then I suggest that you contact Santa Rosa’s City Council and ask them what’s wrong with them:

• the City Council as a whole at citycouncil@srcity.org
• Mayor Natalie Rogers at nrogers@srcity.org (707)494-8378
• Vice Mayor Mark Stapp at MStapp@srcity.org (707)328-7024
• Eddie Alvarez (District 1) at ealvarez@srcity.org (707)791-5282
• Dianna MacDonald (District 3) at dmacdonald@srcity.org (707)495-7599
• Victoria Fleming (District 4) at vfleming@srcity.org
• Chris Rogers (District 5) at crogers@srcity.org (707)543-3017
• Jeff Okrepkie (District 6) at JOkrepkie@srcity.org (707)531-0056
• City Attorney Teresa Sticker at caoffice@srcity.org (707)543-3040

    Either the City Council doesn't care whether its citizens get run over in crosswalks, or they actually approve of Vehicular Assault against certain types of people. From firsthand experience, many Sonoma County residents have told me they not only support that violence but look forward to the opportunity: "If anybody got in my way I'd run them over, too!" They sound jealous they missed out on the "fun".

    And that is how Santa Rosa "legalized" Vehicular Assaults against protesters: not merely the apathy of City Council members, and Willful Blindness by police officers witnessing hit-and-runs, but the rabid eagerness of Santa Rosa residents to run over people themselves