Local ACLU accuses Fresno Police of only monitoring certain rallies and protests

Thursday, August 24, 2017
Fresno, Calif. (KFSN) -- From January's Women's March to the downtown May Day Rally --Fresno police have tracked more than 47 events, from January to May of this year.

And the ACLU says almost all of them have to do with they call "the progressive agenda."

"It does seem strange they have left off rallies that seem to be the exact opposite of the rallies that did make it onto that list," said Abre Conner, ACLU staff attorney.

The Criminal Intelligence Unit Demonstration Log compiles the name, location, and contact information of event organizers.

Chief Jerry Dyer says it helps officers predict the size of crowds and how to respond--nothing else.

"We are not in the business of trying to spy on people, we are in the business of trying to keep people safe that attend those events and that was the intent of this log," said Dyer.

But ACLU attorneys say the log speaks otherwise --pointing out that most of the events criticize policies of the Trump Administration and local law enforcement. Conner believes the information is a dangerous step towards unconstitutionally restraining those viewpoints. She is asking for the police department to explain how they decide to track certain events.

"Any rallies that were not my president those were listed but the ones that were in support of the president or in support of the tea party, that was not listed," said Conner.

Chief Dyer says the department did not cherry pick events and learned of the rallies from flyers and intelligence.

Most of the protests and rallies and gathering across the nation, were put on by anti-trump...they were also drawing people supportive of trump and that's why we had a lot of people, so we could prevent the two from clashing," said Dyer.

The department says the log is not filed or kept --just used as a resource that they say has kept the community safe.
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