Eugene residents protest growing police state

Presenter: Eugene residents spoke out June 24 against surveillance cameras, Avelo Airlines, and the City Council’s inaction in the face of a rapidly growing police state. Stan Taylor:

Stan Taylor (Indivisible Eugene Springfield): My name is Stan Taylor, and I’m here tonight to speak to you about getting Avelo Airlines out of Eugene.

I want to want you to know I’m also here as the leader of Indivisible Eugene Springfield, one of 18 organizations that is the Activist Coalition of Eugene Springfield that brought the ‘No Kings’ protests to Eugene on (June) 14.

I want you to know that Indivisible National and Indivisible Eugene Springfield, as well as many organizations in the 18-member Activist Coalition of Eugene Springfield oppose the continued contract of the city of Eugene with Avelo Airlines.

[00:00:59] I thought it was interesting to hear the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights this evening, particularly the portions that dealt with individual liberty and life and the portions that deal with due process of law.

[00:01:15] I thought it was also interesting to hear award given to the Trans Alliance of Lane County for the work to make this county reaffirm its sanctuary status. And I would suggest to you that the city of Eugene, by continuing to have a contract with Avelo, is violating that principle of solidarity, of sanctuary with immigrants in this state.

[00:01:42] And you may have heard just recently, a wine manager from the Newberg area was picked up by ICE, taken to Portland and then to the Tacoma area, with all potential for him to be sent down to Texas, where Avelo may ship him out of the country, either to his country of origin or to a country that is somewhere else.

[00:02:08] This is not due process of law. This is not protecting life & liberty here in Eugene, and this is a violation of the principle of sanctuary to which the city is committed. We need to protect immigrants that are part of our community.

[00:02:27] Sue Pileggi: My name is Sue Pileggi. let me put my remarks into the following context. The public pressure that’s on all of us and you as the city council are feeling—that you’re feeling now—is pressures of old systems and it’s felt worldwide around the issues of migration and can be directly linked to climate crisis, and it’s only going to get worse.

[00:02:53] With that said, I urge the City Council to pass a resolution that reads something like the following:

[00:02:59] ‘Seeing that the city of Eugene is a sanctuary city in the state of Oregon, that is a sanctuary state, the city of Eugene resolves to oppose the deportation of our migrant community members without due process of law, including the separation of parents from their children, husbands from their wives, individuals seeking asylum in the legal process to legalize their immigration, and deporting them under unsafe conditions.

[00:03:31] ‘The city of Eugene thereby resolves to oppose the aforementioned treatment as much as with is within their power to do so.’

[00:03:42] In conclusion: As the city council, I don’t know all you can do to stop detentions and deportations and those who profit off them like Avelo, but I know you can do something. Take some action to address the cruel and inhumane treatment of internationals here.

[00:04:02] A recent example is when Dodger Stadium refused to allow ICE to process people they had detained in the stadium parking lot. Similarly, the City Council of Eugene, for example, might refuse to allow ICE to use city property if requested.

[00:04:19] I urge you to act at your every opportunity.

[00:04:24] Kris Topaz: Hi, my name’s Kris Topaz. I appeal to you on moral grounds to take action for justice against Avelo Airlines.

[00:04:35] Grasp the situation: People who have not received due process are flown in airplanes in shackles. This has been verified by the flight attendants.

[00:04:48] We must remove Avelo Airlines from our city. It’s a commercial company that takes our tax dollars via ICE to deport people. It’s wrong. And to accept this means to condone this.

[00:05:07] Jacob Trewe: Hello there. Jacob Trewe here again. I did want to touch briefly on my support for the efforts of the folks trying to stop Avelo Airlines and Eugene’s support and condoning of their actions.

[00:05:18] But I also want to touch on a little bit, the Flock camera issue.

[00:05:21] Recently the city of Eugene installed a whole bunch of Flock cameras around here, and the way that that private company is set up where it collects the data from those cameras, the license plate reading cameras, that information is then sold to whoever pays a fee to that service.

[00:05:38] So, while EPD got a grant to install those cameras, that grant does not cover ongoing fees. And, like they say with a lot of software, if you’re not paying for it, you’re the (product). In this case, those license cameras are used to track the movements of folks for the benefit of ICE to then deport them.

[00:05:58] We currently have a request in to find out the location of all 57 of those paid for under the contract. But I encourage anybody to go to deflock.me and report the locations of these cameras so we can figure out where they’re at and how they’re monitoring and decreasing the safety of folks living in our community.

[00:06:16] That’s deflock.me, deflock.me. Thank you very much. Cheers.

[00:06:23] Sue Craig: Hello, my name is Sue Craig, and I am here as a representative of Interfaith EarthKeepers Eugene Springfield, and also a state organization, Oregon Unitarian Universal Voices for Justice, and I am asking you, because of Avelo, to do something really wonderful to discourage us from supporting them in any way, shape, or form. As you know, they are doing ICE’s work. My tax dollars are paying for it, which I find appalling and they are really evil people, I’m sorry, but they are.

[00:07:10] This is evil work pushed by Mr. (Stephen) Miller, who is—I never believed in evilness until I came on this person and what he is doing to other human beings. It is wrong. And I ask you to find a very moral way to deal with this and to make some statements and maybe even think about suing them for not following the law, which they are not doing. They are helping ICE not follow the law. Thank you so much and thanks for listening to us.

[00:07:48] Sarah Boom: My name is Sarah Boom. If you ask me what the telltale sign of authoritarianism was, I would say the state watching your every move. EPD has installed cameras all over town, including new Flock AI cameras: cameras in parks, cameras in parking lots, cameras downtown, even a camera over the railroad tracks where no one goes but the train operators.

[00:08:09] There are cameras on drones that can fly anywhere around town, even over people’s private homes, even over your private home.

[00:08:17] I would like to ask you to try to see what’s in the massive databases that EPD is gathering on all of us. Will they show you what they’ve recorded over your own house? They won’t show me. If this data were to get into the hands of a bad actor like a hacker, it could be used to very dangerous ends.

[00:08:33] Please implement policy that will restrict EPD’s power to use drones and cameras against innocent people if you can’t cut their budget for such devices. At least make laws as to where they can use them.

[00:08:44] Nick Bohl: Hi, I’m Nick Bohl. I want to show my support for Willamette Valley Crisis Care, and I want to reflect on what I’ve seen from this chamber on the topic. I do believe many of you have been working hard to find funding for our crisis workers who were unfairly lost after they unionized.

[00:08:58] I want to thank those of you who have been working hard. I have to say that, even if this (budget) passes, I don’t think that it’s been enough. The lack of transparency early on and the slow business-as-usual approach that you’ve taken has probably already cost lives, and it’s been many months and an essential service, emergency service, has had the phone off the hook.

[00:09:19] But this council has not behaved as if it was an emergency on May 28. You heard directly from crisis workers. They provided you a pamphlet of data, which provided their massive impact on the community.

[00:09:30] (Councilor) Matt (Keating), you ran on support of their program, but at that meeting you stated you didn’t have enough information about what they provide, and instead, you called up the police chief to give an anecdote in the defense of their plan to expand a drone program for half a million dollars, which they have the audacity to brand as ‘alternative response.’

[00:09:50] He guessed that their current drone program had led to something like 30 arrests so far that year, and that was enough for you to dis dismiss out of hand the motion that takes less than 1% of their enormous budget to fund a group that responded to 18% of their emergency calls.

[00:10:02] That was enough for you. And as a supporter, I just want to know why you didn’t make the comparison with the data that was provided that CAHOOTS respondent to over 40 emergencies a day. It’s such a clear data point. What is more important? Responding to 40 emergencies in a day or aiding to 30 arrests over six months?

[00:10:25] I think that was a clear demonstration of the values and I’d like that to be recorded.

[00:10:30] The loss between CAHOOTS and the Front Rooms workers (who are now working out of a parking lot without pay because they didn’t have the heart to quit cold turkey on their community), is 980 cases of basic needs that were provided every week.

[00:10:45] And that amounts to thousands of individual needs, basic needs going unmet every month. Eugene residents have already paid for those services. Reportedly 90% of us support their programs and they’re proven effective. But there’s been a casual pace and reluctance to fully fund what’s needed and deserved.

[00:11:03] And it’s been a very big disappointment to witness.

[00:11:07] Mark Fremuth: I’m Mark Fremuth. I’m here to voice my opposition to Avelo Airlines operating out of Eugene Airport and Avelo’s active participation in the deportation of immigrants.

[00:11:18] This inhumane deportation makes Avelo Airlines deeply ingrained in a system that criminalizes and dehumanizes immigrants. These deportations specifically go against Eugene City Council 2.495, which states city resources, including money, equipment, or personnel shall not be used to detect or apprehend individuals whose only violation is being present in the U.S. without authorization.

[00:11:47] TRAC, an organization that follows ICE, posted ICE’s own finding is that the only violation of 67% of deported immigrants in 23-24 as being in the U.S. without authorization. Avelo Airlines does not yet operate deportation flights out of Eugene. Not yet, but they do in other cities, and they are a significant part of the corporation that does.

[00:12:13] I respectfully call on the mayor and the city council to condemn this practice and to call on Avelo to stop deportations, immediately. We as Eugenians, Oregonians, and citizens are better than this. Let’s all take a stand and get on the right side of history.

[00:12:31] I have just one thought on how this might be done instead of just putting it out there: Let’s create and pass a resolution, which uses existing city code language and it states that forced deportation of individuals whose only ‘violation is being present in the U.S. without authorization’ by any corporation that does business with the city of Eugene is a violation of the city code and may result in loss of their contract to do business with the city.

[00:12:59] This type of violation and action is included in the city’s agreement with Avelo Airlines in the compliance section. Further, if the company is not in compliance, their agreement can be terminated. This too is written out in the non-discrimination section of the Avelo agreement.

[00:13:16] Presenter: From Third Act Eugene, Neil Penn:

[00:13:18] Neil Penn: I was deeply moved by the starting of a land acknowledgement, recognizing that the No Kings Day event was a patriotic, nonviolent response to the discrepancy between what our government is supposed to be about as discussed in the Bill of Rights and Constitution and some of the blatant infractions.

[00:13:43] I am relatively new to Eugene. I’m a family therapist. I’m trauma-informed, and I spent most of my career working in community mental health where I have witnessed and worked with individuals who due to social stresses, sense of unlevel playing fields, and mistreatment experienced a wide range of psychiatric responses, which include trauma, sleep disturbances, panic disorders, and various symptoms of clinical depression.

[00:14:19] It’s doesn’t require elaboration on the insidious things that the ICE is doing with our tax dollars and the impact it has on individuals.

[00:14:32] In response to that, Avelo Airlines is simply, with dollar signs in their eyes, willing transporters of these individuals apprehended by ICE.

[00:14:45] If they had lived a few centuries earlier, they probably would’ve sent ships across the Middle Passage of enslaved individuals without regard for the lack of humanity that their actions are taking.

[00:15:00] I don’t know how strong this legal argument is, but it’s been well documented that on these planes, the people are shackled. I think that’s in violation of some kind of airline safety laws. And while my main point is it’s immoral and cruel, perhaps the legal argument is they’re in violation. 

[00:15:24] Kamryn Stringfield: Hi, my name is Kamryn Stringfield. I’m with the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

[00:15:27] Last meeting, I came to you in the midst of the still ongoing, by the way, federal siege of Los Angeles by the Trump administration to raise concerns about the new Flock ALPR cameras and their vulnerability to ICE and other state and federal agencies.

[00:15:41] I asked you to answer a few questions about not allowing the city’s resources to go to ICE efforts and about using your platforms to speak out against the Trump administration and companies like Avelo Airlines. I heard silence.

[00:15:55] I asked again and the Eugene Weekly right here. Silence. Since we are in Pride Month, it’s important to remember the phrase from the AIDS crisis: ‘Silence Equals Death.’ That phrase really applies to silence on any injustices.

[00:16:13] Your complicity aids the federal government and its atrocities. The only way to correct this error is to speak up. Some folks here tonight are here tonight to talk about Avelo Airlines. The mayor of New Haven, Connecticut spoke up against Avelo.

[00:16:27] He said, Avelo Airline’s decision to charter deportation flights from Mesa Gateway Airport in Arizona is deeply disappointing and disturbing for a company that champions themselves as New Haven’s hometown airline. This business decision is antithetical to New Haven’s values. Travel should be about bringing families together and not tearing families apart.

[00:16:48] Madam Mayor, will you speak up clearly against the Avelo Airlines and the illegal and unconstitutional actions we are seeing from ICE in the Trump administration? Or will you be remembered as having been silent? Remember: ‘Silence Equals Death.’

[00:17:04] City manager, council staff, you all have the ability and the platform to speak up and do what you can to stop these atrocities against immigrants from happening in Eugene. Why don’t you use it? What if your family were being tore apart? Open an investigation into whether Avelo’s ICE contract violates the city sanctuary laws. I challenge you all to say something and to say it here tonight. You don’t have to be stoic and silent. You can talk, you can speak up, you can give your own line on these things.

[00:17:37] I challenge you to be bold. If the city of Eugene is actually a sanctuary city, then actually act like one.

[00:17:44] Presenter: Rob Sheldon:

[00:17:45] Rob Sheldon: I’m here to oppose the deployment of Flock surveillance cameras in Eugene. I have been a software professional for nearly 30 years. My background includes large databases and security. I am a subject matter expert.

[00:17:59] I was already familiar with Flock before I learned recently that the EPD had contracted with them for the installation of 57 cameras in public places. The problem with Flock is not just their cameras, but the capabilities of their software and the data they collect. The software is more advanced than anything that municipal law enforcement has ever had access to.

[00:18:20] These systems are ripe for abuse and are already being abused. In fact, journalists recently revealed that data collected by Flock is currently being abused for ICE purposes. These have been published three days ago. The Cato Institute released a study finding that 65% of people abducted by ICE had no prior convictions, and 93% had no violent convictions.

[00:18:43] The collection of this data effectively forces the city of Eugene to cooperate with a program that is not being run for the purposes of keeping our communities safe, but for political intimidation.

[00:18:55] Less than a month ago, a Texas sheriff’s department was found to have abused Flock’s data collection to search their network of 83,000 cameras around the nation for a woman who had left the state to seek an abortion.

[00:19:08] Third party doctrine in U.S. law means that none of this data is private in the legal sense, despite their assurances. EPD is not, in reality, able to offer any guarantees that the data will not be abused. Data once collected cannot be uncollected.

[00:19:22] Data breaches and abuse have become so common that they now rarely get attention in tech news. EPD has neither the legal standing nor technical ability to guarantee any form of control over the data collected by Flock or its scheduled deletion.

[00:19:35] City councilors: This surveillance impacts you. It will be trivial for anyone at EPD with access to this system to follow your movements at any time without your knowledge and without legal review.

[00:19:45] Some of you will likely leap immediately to the usual that you have nothing to hide. Hopefully others of you will just quickly understand the casual surveillance of your habits and movements gives EPD and other agencies an expansive new political power.

[00:19:58] Flock is a startup that was funded by groups building frameworks for mass surveillance in the U.S. This is not a company that has its origins in public safety or law enforcement.

[00:20:07] Laurel Lisovskis: My name is Laurel Lisovskis and I’ve been sending these ‘Weekend Updates’ to our team of laid-off and working Cahootians since I worked my last Eugene van shift in early April, and I found myself on Weekend Update Number 10.

[00:20:22] And I’m just kind of amazed at where we were, which was nowhere, on the budget, to today and the shared efforts of all of us, including the community, to understand what has happened and to name a deeply critical shared value that we have as a city. And that’s just been incredibly meaningful and cool.

[00:20:45] Just an update, Willamette Valley Crisis Care or CAHOOTS 2.0 has elected our board and had our first meeting; building out organizational structure; working on finding the best fit for fiscal sponsorship (and have gotten clear on so much); reaffirmed the value of this model from our community, got to look at this investment of why it’s such a unique type of care that we hope to restore care that gives people agency over their choices and their bodies from a holistic frame and that centers being with people and for community, building and strengthening partnerships and easing burden systems.

[00:21:24] This feels more and more important with every day that passes in our current social climate.

[00:21:29] We connect community members to an ecosystem of support and accompany people through crisis towards stability, increasing resiliency for individuals and capacity for burden systems. We educate community locally and nationally around the necessity of noncoercive trauma-informed response. And through direct service consulting and national partnerships, we build collective capacity for safety and mutual care, destigmatized mental health and addiction, and tend to the wounds of structural injustice.

[00:21:58] Presenter: During public comment June 24, residents protest Eugene’s participation in the rapidly growing police state. One speaker calls out Councilor Matt Keating for funding police drones and calling it ‘alternative response,’ after pledging support for CAHOOTS during his last election campaign.