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I received more #FOIA documents on policing of the @payusmoreucsc wildcat strike, these from the Calif Office of Emergency Services (OES). Let's start with the unsurprising fact that the cops were worried about the strike's spread from UCSC to other campuses... #copsoffcampus 1/
For example, here's the UC San Diego police chief alerting UC police chiefs via a UC-wide listserv that @ColaUcsd was launching a wildcat grading strike. UC Santa Cruz' police chief then forwarded the information to a Cal OES officer. 2/
Another example (of many): As UCSC students were being violently arrested on Feb. 12th, UC Berkeley PD were "monitoring the campus" around Sproul Plaza for a possible solidarity demo that never happened. Alameda sheriffs, Oakland PD, and Berkeley PD were all preparing. 3/
The OES is charged with coordinating emergency response and "homeland security" activities in CA. It's routine for them to be involved in policing of UC campus protest, their e-mail banter shows. Here one of them reminisces about a past student building occupation at UCR. 4/
The UCSC police chief was concerned that a UCSC student was using "Antifa language" and passed on a redacted message about it to Cal OES; the ideology du jour of US police counter-insurgency is on display. 5/
At UCSC, the cops deployed a drone that was evidently piping a live feed to the Cal OES officers' monitors at a command post near campus. This is apparently what that looked like. 6/
In fact, it appears that the cops had at least six live video feeds that they were monitoring at the UCSC picket line. #copsoffcampus #surveillancestate. 7/
I previously posted re how the OES sought "intel" from CA's highest ranking intelligence officer on Bernie Sanders' campaign schedule, in case he planned to visit the UCSC picket. The OES partly redacted an e-mail chain that might shed more light on this provocative request. 8/
I'll have more to share along these lines at a later point. In the meantime, for more background on the policing and surveillance of the UCSC strike, check out @LaurenKGurley's story in Vice News from a few months ago. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7kppna/california-police-used-military-surveillance-tech-at-grad-student-strike. 9/
Also, check out this recent thread by @touchfaith for insightful analysis on the political and ideological functions of police operations targeting strikes at university campuses, such as this one. #copsoffcampus https://twitter.com/touchfaith/status/1300885251846070272 10/
*deals with more than just strikes
