8/9/2019 GJ Police Caught Spying
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Housing First! No More Deaths!
[email protected]
(970) 245-3720
For Immediate Release:
Grand Junction Police Caught Spying on Homeless Organization
Members of Housing First! No More Deaths! were able to confirm
that two undercover Grand Junction
police officers had joined their organization. The two
undercover officers participated in meetings, trainings,
and had signed the membership list joining the organization. HF!
NMD! has made it public that they, as an or-
ganization, are willing to risk arrest to provide shelter for
and by the homeless this up coming winter.
Im honestly not surprised, said Connie Murillo, they stood out
since the beginning. Murillo said
that she was disappointed that the police would resort to
political surveillance. Undercover policing of public
political organizing destroys community trust of the police.
Murillo was at the police station waiting for a friend who was
doing some paperwork around noon on
ednesday. When she saw the two undercover officers escorting
themselves through a secured door into the
lobby and then out the rear secured door of the police station.
I got up to make sure they were the same guysthat were at the
meetings, and they both looked back as they were leaving. It was
definitely them. Murillo said.
Minutes before the beginning of the first HF! NMD! on July 7th
in Whitman Park, police scanner traffic
indicated that two officers were on special assignment at
Whitman Park. Indicating that the police had plant-
ed undercover officers at that meeting.
One of the officers who called himself Vic claimed to be an Iraq
War vet who had been houseless
since he discharged from the military. Vic and his fellow
officer reported to be camped at two different loca-
tions to two different people in the organization.
This is really just more of the same police intimidation and
harassment that is directed at the the house-less population in our
city on a regular basis, said HF! member Laurel Ripple. I dont see
what the city and
police find so frightening about the poor and the houseless
organizing themselves.
HF! member Jacob Richards said that three members of his
organization were harassed by the police
after the first HF! NMD! meeting on July 7th. Three different
people all said the same thing: that officer Cody
Kennedy and four other officers told a number of homeless people
in the park that they never should of had
that meeting, that they have the wrong idea, and that you dont
know what kind of trouble youve started.
Despite all this the group is still willing to work with the
police department. Deputy Chief John Zen
has made an effort to establish open lines of communication
between the police department and our organiza-tion, and though the
discovery of undercover police at our meetings sets things back a
little bit, we are still
willing to work with the GJPD. In fact they are vital partners
if our organization wants to achieve our first goal
which is No More Deaths on the Streets of Grand Junction. said
Richards.
PHOTO OF UNDERCOVER OFFICERS AT THE JULY 7th MEETING
ATTACHED
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