Salt Lake City Human Rights Commission City Hall, 451 South State, Room 335 SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES Thursday, November 29, :30 p.m.

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1 Salt Lake City Human Rights Commission City Hall, 451 South State, Room 335 SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES Thursday, November 29, :30 p.m. Conducted by: Chair Chris Wharton and Vice Chair Curtis Haring Invited Guests: Jesse Fruhwirth, Deb Henry, John Netto Attended: Yolanda Francisco-Nez, Curtis Haring, Jon Jepsen, Keri Jones, Walter Jones, Curtis Linton 1. Welcome from Chair Chris Wharton. Reminded attendees of HRC s roles and authority. (City Ordinance 25_05 sec. 1) General purpose of Commission is to provide resources for educating citizens on discrimination and equal treatment of all. Commission gives advice and recommendations to address specific complaints of discrimination involving Salt Lake City corporation departments and services. 2. Chair Chris Wharton gave recent background of Occupy Salt Lake City. Christopher introduced special meeting agenda to hear from Occupy SLC vocal members and local law enforcement in order to discuss issues involving civil rights/freedom of speech abuse allegations. 3. Seth, a vocal Occupy SLC member, explained background information on the Occupy SLC movement and stated Occupy concerns. Overall the Occupy participants feel they were used as a scapegoat for the public health/safety and death of an individual in their camp. Seth has been a member of Occupy SLC since the formation of the group. Occupy was aware of substance abuse and mental health problems of some Occupy participants. Occupy SLC participants came from different backgrounds including homeless members. Occupy SLC educated and encouraged homeless population to find employment, attend Alcoholics Anonymous, eat 3 meals a day and other healthy pursuits. Homeless community was showing positive results. After the death of Michael, Occupy SLC community was told to leave the park. Occupy participants asked Mayor Becker and SLC police for more time to relocate stating issues of property storage and transportation issues as well as fear of conditions in homeless shelters and missions. Occupy SLC camps were relieving the stress associated with an overflow at homeless shelters and missions. Occupy SLC worked well with city officials. SLC Police department responded quickly but not always effectively relieving issues. Occupy asked for police help with a violent individual but were told there was nothing the police could do. Seth could not recall the officer involved with this situation.

2 Negotiations with the Mayor on disbanding the Occupy camp were unsuccessful. Police promised help to participants in relocating but did not give help. Salt Lake City s police department was helpful but some individual officers showed lack of compassion to Occupy participants. 4. Jesse Fruhwirth also a vocal member of Occupy SLC expressed Occupy s grievances with the SLC administration and police department. Occupy does not deny the substance abuse and mental health issues of some participants in the Occupy camp. Jesse asked Lt. Jen Detrick, from the SLC s police department, for support with non-occupy participants that become disorderly. Jesse said he felt the SLC police departments response to public issues was, There is a public safety problem, we won t help, you can t help. Jesse explained that the police force was not violent but were definitely threatening. o Police cars lined an entire city block o Police had tear gas launchers on their belts o Two dump trucks and a front loader were present to remove tents o No violence used Jesse addressed specific Human Right violations that occurred due to disbandment of the Occupy camp. o Right to assembly o Right to equal protection o Right to a fair tribunal o Presumption of innocence o Right to privacy It seemed to Occupy SLC that the SLC administration s view of the right to assembly could be curtailed in issues of public health/safety. Occupy SLC feels that individuals causing public health issues or public safety issues should be punished as individuals and without collective punishment of the community. The right to be secure in property was taken away from all Occupy SLC s members. The right to a tribunal is unreachable for Occupy SLC due to insufficient funds. Moving forward Occupy SLC would like constitutional rights restored. 5. Jesse addressed four requests Occupy SLC has of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) Occupy SLC wants the HRC to express to the community that the ways in which SLC s administration conducted themselves was inappropriate and not respectful of human rights. Occupy SLC wants the HRC to inform the community that criminal prosecutions of the Occupy 19 are inappropriate and charges should be dropped. Occupy SLC wants the HRC to inform the community that human rights are being respected in Salt Lake City. Occupy SLC wants the HRC to recommend and educate the community that the violations of Human Rights deserve a fair investigation. o Occupy SLC has requested all records pertaining to Occupy SLC, from the SLC administration and police department, to determine how/why there was a human rights violation. 6. John Netto is an advocate for mental illness in the Salt Lake community. He was invited to the disbandment of the Occupy camp by Mayor Becker. John shared his opinions and view of the disbandment. Mayor Becker called John and was concerned for the welfare of homeless individuals that may get caught in the crossfire between Occupy participants and SLC s police department. There were officers that used more force than John would like to see but overall the police were there to protect SLC community members. Police Chief Burbank had a job to do and under the circumstances did a fine job. John thought there was an overreaction. The style may not have been appreciated but it was done in a peaceful manner.

3 John donated hundreds of sleeping bags and tents to homeless individuals over the years that were trashed by the SLC s police department, And I am not happy about it! He understands that there is no camping in that area. Until the city gives homeless people a place to camp there will always be illegal camping. John feels like it was unfair to allow Occupy protesters to camp in an area where homeless individuals have never been allowed to. Occupy camp was a magnet for unsafe activities. Good intentions and compassion were prevalent but positive progression was absent. 7. John made some recommendations concerning camping for homeless individuals and Occupy participants. Recommends to the city that there should be an allocated area(s) for camping with restrictions on the number of campers. If Occupy protesters want to camp there should be management help from SLC as well as logistic support from Occupy participants. Asked SLC to reconsider the camping denial and mange camping in a conditional way so Occupy and SLC can manage public health/safety together. SLC encourages Occupy in their quest to help homelessness. Invites all to fight for and in behalf of homelessness. Feels Occupy representatives are reasonable and rational and deserve an audience with Mayor Becker to renegotiate location of Occupy camp. 8. Joe Cohn representative from the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah (ACLU) had concerns about how SLC regulated human rights. At its very core the Occupy movement is about occupying. Disbanding the camping site of the movement in itself is shutting down the movement and therefore regulating 1 st, 4 th and 5 th amendment rights. City responded to major health and public safety issues but they overreacted. Reiterated that if someone died in a shelter the shelter would not be shut down. Police department did a fine job but did show excessive force. Moving forward ACLU feels there should be a meeting with all stakeholders to go over every issue at hand and resolve them in a manner that will not impede amendments. The commission asked Joe to clarify tents being the essence of the movement. Joe stated that the medium is the message, occupy is just that occupying. 9. Commission asked Occupy SLC to clarify time frames and force of the police department. Jesse said they had anywhere from 5 to 36 hours to move. Commissioned asked what an appropriate time would be. Jesse said 72 hrs. Jesse said there were o 2 dump trucks o 1 front loader o Most police vehicles had their flashing lights on but no sirens o A few patty wagon type busses o 2 mobile command vehicles o 1 black helicopter o Police cars were often times two deep o Police force arrived like a parade o Arrived around dusk o Police had tear gas on their belts o No weapons were drawn Member of the public audience, Shannon Wade, spoke up saying there were officers with rifles that she witnessed second hand in a video. Second member of the public audience, Jesse Riddle, recorded video of police officers with rifles but no riot gear.

4 10. Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank responded to police force and events leading up to disbandment of the Occupy camp. Government has always regulated free speech to an extent. Asked to contrast their show of force to that of other Occupy camps across the country. SLC Police or any police force in the valley do not own a helicopter. No officers had tear gas on them at the disbandment. They were all dressed like Chief Burbank. Chief was at the disbandment and monitored all action. Chief feels that the response was appropriate and given circumstances needed to be what it was. Confirmed there were 2 mobile commands so jail personnel could process and transport arrested individuals. Jail deputies did have shotguns or rifles. Disbandment was not due to the death of an individual. o 163 arrests, in a 4 week time period, were made in connection to the Occupy participants. o Number of arrests comes close to all arrests made in the last year in connection with Pioneer Park. Commission asked Chief Burbank if SWAT was present, answer was no. Joe with the ACLU added that the arrests were because people and police were at the same place at the same time. Substance abuse did not start at the park. Chief Burbank said with no regulations on deviant behavior issues arise. Commission asked if weapons were drawn and the Chief answered that they were not drawn, did not get pointed at crown and officers did not enter into the crowd with weapons. Commission asked what the 163 arrest were for. Chief said they were for violence, sale of and substance abuse issues. 11. Commission opens up statements to city officials or public audience. No city officials spoke. 12. Shannon from the audience spoke in reference to her experiences as a homeless individual. Never have been to jail or abused/assaulted by police until she moved to SLC. Asked SGT Detrick to remove a drug addict with no avail. Feels that SLC police officers abuse their power with homeless individuals. 13. Commission asks Occupy representatives about numbers of homeless in the Occupy movement. 1/3 population political activist with homes. 1/3 population homeless activist. 1/3 population had mental health issues or substance abuse issues and were not part of the Occupy movement. 14. Joe with the ACLU added that the police can t take all intelligence from outside sources but should take community concerns into consideration. Occupy representatives speak on lack of support from officers. Commission asked Joe if police were not taking concerns into consideration. Joe did not have any firsthand knowledge that police were ignoring intelligence from the community. He wanted commission to know that the police did try to help where they could but did not exhaust all possibilities like they should have. Occupy representative said that police would not always act on concerns of individuals misbehaving. Occupy representative said it seemed like the police had a plan to keep riffraff at the park. Commission asked Occupy what disturbances they called the police for. Occupy said they called police about violent outsiders abusing drugs. Commission asked why Occupy SLC choose Pioneer Park.

5 Occupy choose the park because it was close to the district and it had bathroom facilities. Commissioned asked about the level of services. Occupy said they were efficient until around the end of October when Lt. Detrick (sp) left and two bathrooms were shut down. Commission asked more about officer Detrick (sp). Occupy said officer Detrick (sp) was very helpful but police officers were not qualified to help with the real issues. Shannon, a member of the public audience, spoke up saying the city shouldn t punish all for acts of a few. 15. Commission asked Joe from the ACLU on the status of referenced meetings on the issues. No real details but ACLU would be happy to facilitate. Chief Burbank has expressed interest in having the meeting to resolve issues. 16. Commission ends meeting to discuss findings.

Thank you for running for the Salt Lake City Council,

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