The opposite happened in SanTana: one student complained to Copwatch Santa Ana activists about continual mistreatment and harassment after school let out at McFadden Intermediate.
On December 18, 2012, Ángel Juárez of CopWatch went to the school on Raitt Street to see what was going on.
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The activist happened upon a young woman who had been pulled over and began filming as a student sat on the curb. Officer Aquino asked that Juárez step back as he was conducting an investigation but the activist countered that he, at thirteen feet back, was at a reasonable distance and was not interfering with the policeman's work.
As the video goes on to show, other officers, five in total, arrived on scene. One asked for his identification. Juárez countered with the question “Am I being detained?” which if not answered affirmatively, as it wasn't, gave him the ability to walk away so as to not be subjected to a consensual encounter by law enforcement.
At another point, he asked the question once more after his presence filming outside an intermediate school in dismissal was described as kind of “odd” and “suspicious.” This came after the video shows him informing officers that he was there only to observe the police.
Afterward, Juárez tells the Weekly that with the camera turned off, he and a companion were detained and their belongings were searched. He says he hasn't been able to obtain an incident report from Santa Ana school police despite numerous requests having been already made.
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!