Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
The Rev. Jay Bergen was at the sign-in table inside the Friends Center, where No ICE Philly was holding its regular public meeting last week, when a police civil affairs officer appeared.<\/p>\n
Bergen asked what was happening, and said the officer responded, \u201cWe\u2019re just here to make sure everyone\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The activist group was preparing to serve cake, to celebrate its one-year anniversary.<\/p>\n
Bergen, who leads No ICE Philly, was concerned that the officer brought his gun into the Center City<\/a> facility, which includes a Quaker meetinghouse. The pastor said he walked the officer down the hall to the door, explaining that he could attend the public meeting if he wished \u2015 then noticed a second civil affairs officer outside.<\/p>\n The two officers stayed there, watching, for the duration of the three-hour gathering, Bergen said, their presence leaving those inside feeling confused, intimidated, and surveilled.<\/p>\n \u201cWho gave the order, and what was the goal?\u201d Bergen asked in an interview. \u201cWhy are we more of a threat than ICE agents are? \u2026 It\u2019s another instance of the Philadelphia police being interested in targeting Philadelphians instead of protecting Philadelphians.\u201d<\/p>\n The police department said in a statement last week that \u201cthe Sept. 9 event was identified as a scheduled protest.\u201d Civil affairs officers routinely attend demonstrations as part of their duty to public safety and the First Amendment, and \u201ctheir presence was not specific to No ICE Philly,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n But on Monday, Staff Inspector Frank Palumbo, who oversees the civil affairs unit, said he would open an investigation into the matter.<\/p>\n Palumbo said he did not know why an officer would have entered the Friends Center. That would be outside department policy, he said, unless there was a disturbance inside.<\/p>\n If the group had gathered outdoors, Palumbo said, the department would have sent more officers \u2015 including some in uniform. It did not do so, he said, because \u201cthere was no indication whatsoever that there would be destruction of property, violence, or anything that would even result in civil disorder.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cThis will not continue to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n Civil affairs units are specialized teams of officers designed to act as neutral liaisons between sides during what might be contentious protests, labor actions, or big public gatherings. Like other officers, they always carry their guns while on duty. <\/p>\n In Philadelphia, the police department says, civil affairs officers operate in a diplomatic and impartial capacity to ensure that constitutional rights are protected for all. The officers prioritize protection of life and property while preventing vandalism, assaults, or other illegal acts not covered by First Amendment rights, the department says.<\/p>\n Niles Wilson of the Center for Policing Equity, a California-based research and reform group, said a key question of any investigation into the matter should be why the officers were at the meeting at all.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat intelligence did the police department have that would either lead these officers to do this, or were these officers acting on their own?\u201d he asked. \u201cThat needs to be answered.\u201d<\/p>\n The stakes reach beyond any particular meeting, he said.<\/p>\n A civil affairs unit is an asset, one that can help \u201ctowards transparency and building trust between the police department and the community,\u201d Wilson said. But \u201canytime the public trust is lost in that service, then it disrupts public safety everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Philadelphia civil affairs officers are commonly present at demonstrations led by No ICE Philly, which in the last year has emerged as perhaps the boldest and most visible of the city\u2019s pro-immigrant organizations.<\/p>\n Its members and supporters have been cited or arrested by different police agencies as they carried out peaceful civil disobedience, including attempting to block federal government vehicles from exiting the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office<\/a> in Center City.<\/p>\n In one chaotic scene this year, activists were handcuffed and physically removed from the foyer area at the Philadelphia Sheriff\u2019s Office, where they staged a sit-in to demand that Sheriff Rochelle Bilal help stop ICE arrests at the Criminal Justice Center.<\/a> No ICE Philly holds a weekly \u201cnoise demonstration\u201d outside ICE headquarters at Eighth and Cherry Streets, banging drums and blowing whistles<\/a> to raise awareness and disrupt the work of agents inside.<\/p>\n The Sept. 9 gathering, however, was a regular meeting, generally held twice a month, open to all, and advertised in advance on social media. Other meetings have drawn far more people than the 60 or so present at this one, organizers said, which made the police presence puzzling.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt kind of like a threat, like, \u2018We\u2019re watching,\u2019\u201d said Em Auerbach, a group member who attended. \u201cIt made people feel on edge.\u201d<\/p>\n As the meeting was ending, she said, one of the officers approached a Friends Center employee at the front desk and asked: \u201cAre you good? Do you need anything?\u201d<\/p>\n The worker answered that she was fine, Auerbach said.<\/p>\n No ICE Philly members waited for the employee to finish her work, and then everyone left together, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was weird,\u201d she said of the officers\u2019 presence. \u201cI think they were there to intimidate us. \u2026 Unless there was a threat against our group, I don\u2019t think this was a good use of taxpayer funds.\u201d<\/p>\n Bergen described at one point asking the officers, \u201c\u2018Why are you surveilling us?\u2019 They said, \u2018We\u2019re not surveilling.\u2019 I said, \u2018That\u2019s what a body camera is for.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The pastor said that as people entered the meeting, they said the police officers had asked who they were and why they were there.<\/p>\n Palumbo said if that happened, it would fall outside department policy, that even at combative street demonstrations people generally are not asked their names \u201cunless it is necessary to determine who they are for the purposes of an investigation. This was not an investigation.\u201d <\/p>\n Palumbo said the relationship between the police and No ICE Philly has been cordial. He estimated that police have cited protesters twice in the last year, issuing citations with $100 penalties that are similar to parking tickets.<\/p>\n Those citations, he said, are \u201cthe most extreme police enforcement we\u2019ve ever done with this group.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min The Rev. 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