ACJP in the News

San Jose Police Ends Collaboration with ICE After Months of Advocacy from Immigrant Communities

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After months of advocacy from San Jose immigrant advocacy organizations, civil rights groups, and service agencies — the San Jose police is withdrawing their participation from the controversial Homeland Security/ICE program called “Operation Community Shield.” Initial news of the program drew a widespread backlash from immigrant communities who said placing two ICE agents within the SJPD would cause waves of distrust in local law enforcement. Groups such as Sacred Heart Community Services, SIREN, PACT, and De-Bug organized public community responses to share their message that community trust is an important feature of a smart public safety framework. Today, the SJPD sent out the following press release.

San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore has announced that the San Jose Police Department is concluding its partnership with Homeland Security Investigations as part of Operation Community Shield (OCS).

The San Jose Police Departments involvement in OCS began on June 24th as part of Chief Moores plan to halt an alarming increase in gang violence in the city. Other components to the plan involved redirecting the 38 member METRO Unit to focus on All gangs, all the time. The METRO Unit has since made over 315 arrests. Approximately 70% of the arrests have been gang-related. Chief Moore also directed the Patrol Division to deploy additional officers as daily gang suppression cars to further decrease gang violence. Continue reading →

ACJP Organizer Blanca Bosquez Explains Coerced Pleas on Gene Burn’s KGO Radio Show

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Blanca Bosquez

ACJP organizer Blanca Bosquez was on widely listened to 810 KGO’s Gene Burn’s Show on Friday August 19th regarding the criminal justice system. Click here and listen to Blanca respond to Burn’s statement that he would, “Never take a plea if he didn’t commit the crime.” Blanca changes Burn’s position after explaining the coercive nature of the justice system, that there are innocent people that take pleas because of the time that have been incarcerated, and the threat of excessively long sentences. She also speaks to the injustices she witnessed with her own son’s case, who was falsely charged with a crime and coerced during police interrogation as a juvenile. Listen to Blanca break it down from the 33 minute mark to the 38 minute mark. By the end of the conversation, Burn’s says such travesties in the law are “frightening”and that we all “need to be vigilant, since people are so mistreated.” Great job Blanca!

CBS News: Groups Tell San Jose Police Chief To Oust ICE Agents

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Having worked on, and won, deportation cases, De-Bug’s ACJP members have been sending powerful public messages about the need to keep local law enforcement and federal immigration separated. As De-Bug joined several immigrant rights advocacy groups at Sacred heart Services for a press conference, ACJP organizer Stephanie Flores was quoted by CBS News.

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) — A coalition of San Jose community groups Friday gathered to send a loud message of disapproval to Police Chief Chris Moore on his decision to keep a pair of recently enlisted federal immigrations investigators.

“Our message is clear: we don’t want ICE here,” Stefanie Flores, a spokeswoman for Silicon Valley DeBug, said at a news conference Friday morning. “We want to work with the police to find real solutions.”

Continue reading…

Huffington Post: San Jose Homicide Rate: Silicon Valley City Battles Surging Murders

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ACJP organizers met with ICE supervisors around the San Jose Police Department’s participation in Community Shield — which would place two ICE agents in the gang enforcement unit. In the below AP story, we, along with our friends at SIREN, comment on why ICE and local law enforcement collaborations is a public safety danger.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — San Jose has dubbed itself the “Capital of Silicon Valley” and has for years prided itself on being one of the safest big cities in America. Yet, it is on pace for more than 50 killings in 2011, a rate not seen in about 20 years.

Few in the San Francisco Bay area’s most populous city know exactly why it has had 28 murders so far this year, already surpassing 2010’s total of 20. “You can’t put your finger on one thing,” said Sgt. Jason Dwyer, a police spokesman. It could be an increase in gang crime, Dwyer said. The department is hoping that the budget-related layoffs of nearly 70 officers in June will not have a negative impact. “It’s been a trying time for us,” Dwyer said.

Continue reading…

San Jose Mercury News: San Jose bounty hunter, wrongly shot by LAPD cops, wins $1.65 million settlement

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Mercury News: San Jose bounty hunter, wrongly shot by LAPD cops, wins $1.65 million settlement
By Tracey Kaplan January 20, 2011

A San Jose bounty hunter who was gunned down without provocation by a Los Angeles police officer while trying to take a fugitive into custody has been awarded $1.165 million by a federal jury.

The officer claimed he shot bail agent E.A. Gilbert twice in self-defense at a housing project after dark on Nov. 30, 2005, after Gilbert pointed a .45-caliber gun at him and his partner. Both said they mistook Gilbert and another bounty hunter as robbers as they were subduing a bail jumper.

But the jury last week found Officer Daniel Pearce used excessive force and believed Gilbert’s claim that his gun was never aimed at the cops. Jurors based their decision on eyewitness accounts as well as physical evidence, including the trajectory of the bullets. Continue reading →

San Jose Mercury News: De-Bug Increases Role as Legal Watchdog With Soros Justice Award

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by Tracey Kaplan, April 5, 2010

Ramon Vasquez’s urban nightmare began when San Jose police surrounded him at gunpoint in a parking lot of a Coca-Cola distribution center. Instead of coaching his son’s Little League game that day, the soft-drink deliveryman wound up jailed for a gang-related murder, facing a possible life sentence.

Few outside his family and friends believed he was innocent until his fiancee heard about a free legal clinic offered every Sunday near downtown San Jose by the grass-roots group De-Bug.

With De-Bug’s help, all charges against Vasquez were dismissed and he was set free five months after being arrested.

In February, he was deemed factually innocent by a judge, erasing his record and increasing his chances of remuneration from the county.

“It was like I had a law firm behind me,” Vasquez, 29, said of De-Bug’s efforts, including urging his government-appointed attorney to mount a more aggressive defense. “I probably would have fallen through the cracks if it wasn’t for my family and De-Bug.”

Continue reading…

Mercury News: Jurist Defends Colleague While Declaring Murder Suspect Factually Innocent

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After spending 5 months in jail for a wrongful arrest, ACJP member Ramon Vasquez sought to clear his name through a legal device called a “factual finding of innocence”.  It is a rarely given judgment, but Ramon, his family, and the ACJP community was steadfast in his struggle. 

by Tracey Kaplan, February 25, 2010
Ramon Vasquez spent five months behind bars as a murder suspect. He was found factually innocent Wednesday.

A San Jose man has been deemed factually innocent of murder in a rare ruling by a judge who stressed the importance of an outspoken judiciary — even in the face of blistering criticism of a fellow judge by prosecutors.

Over the objections of the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, Judge Eugene M. Hyman found that Ramon Vasquez had nothing to do with the fatal shooting of Rogelio Silva two years ago. Continue reading →

New York Times: A Silicon Valley Group Gives Voice to Voiceless

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In the following profile featured in the New York Times, Daniel Weintraub writes about Silicon Valley De-Bug, including the work of ACJP. He writes, “It is part alternative media, part community organizer, part youth center and now is immersed in the region’s criminal justice system on behalf of the accused and their families.”
By DANIEL WEINTRAUB, May 22, 2010

Adrian Avila was a 17-year-old street graffiti artist who had a job at a local hot dog stand when he wandered into the offices of Silicon Valley De-Bug eight years ago. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for. But he found it.

Today,Mr. Avila is 25, the organization’s art director and the owner of a T-shirt design and production company.

“It changed my life,” Mr. Avila, a Mexican national who came to this country with his mother when he was 5 and remains an illegal immigrant, said of the group. “It instilled this voice in me that I knew had to get out. All of a sudden I had an outlet to communicate my struggle, my experiences.” Continue reading →