| Subject: MSU police spy on student groups |
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Anonymous
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Date Posted: 17:45:25 04/24/01 Tue
MSU police spy on student groups photos at http://www.msu.edu/~godwinsh/index.html
On February 19th, 2000 students at Michigan State University held an informational meeting to discuss the use of sweatshop labor in the making of collegiate apparel. Participants at the meeting decided to start a local chapter of the national group United Students Against Sweatshops. One "student" who joined the group at this first meeting was "Samantha Volare" who claimed to be an elementary education junior. We have since learned that "Samantha Volare" was
actually officer Jamie Gonzalas of the MSU police department.
"Samantha Volare" was active in United Students Against Sweatshops @ MSU (now known as Students for Economic Justice) throughout the Spring 2000 semester. She attended nearly every meeting and took part in various demonstrations including a protest on March 15th, 2000 outside of Steve and
Berry?s, in East Lansing. An article written by Tony Paul, and photo taken by Brad Etheridge, were published in the State News the following day. The photo features officer Jamie Gonzalas taking part in the protest and the caption identifies her as "elementary education junior Samantha Volare."
After about six months of steady involvement with the USAS group, "Samantha" was spotted, in full police uniform, by a member of the Brighter Days Collective while driving to work. After informing the other members of the Brighter Days Collective of this sighting, with many conversations taking place over the phone,"Samantha" suddenly stopped
attending the meetings. She also stopped attending meetings of Lansing Anti-Racist Action which she also joined during the Spring semester.
It took until January, for members of the Brighter Days Collective to come into contact with "Samantha", when she was spotted at a rally for political prisoner Leonard Peltier taking place in front of the Breslin Center on January 9th, 2001. The group ran over to greet "Samantha" with cameras in hand. Though she tried to cover up her face and call for back-up, pictures were taken and her secret identity was verified. Since this "outing" of "Samantha" as officer Jamie Gonzales, she has appeared, in full police uniform,at every demonstration held by Students For Economic Justice.
The MSU police have been involved in political surveillance in the past. "After a May 1965 open-housing rally led to the arrests of 59 MSU students, the East Lansing Police Department and the MSU Department of Public Safety formed a political surveillance unit that spied on hundreds of faculty and students. Its files were shared with the Michigan State Police "Red Squad" and the FBI. ("War on Campus,Michigan State." Vietnam, August 1995. pg 28)"
Political surveillance should have stopped in 1976 when a ruling on Benkert v. State of Michigan forced the State Police and Detroit Red Squads to disband when "the state law upon which the state police political surveillance unit was organized was declared unconstitutional and the unit was disbanded. (A Blow Against the Red Squads." The Nation, February 14, 1981. pg 68)"
It is unsurprising that various police agencies including the MSU police and the FBI are monitoring and infiltrating student groups at Michigan State University. There is a literal war being waged on activists around the country, which mimics the FBI?s COINTELPRO program, in which undercover operatives disrupt and report on the activities of groups, which the government considers a threat.
Officer Jamie Gonzalas disrupted the activities of Students for Economic Justice by agreeing to work on a poster with a member of the group and then not following through with her commitment. We believe that she reported to the MSU Administration on our strategies, plans and activities. We believe that files are being kept on members of the group due to the fact that officers are not assigned and paid to go undercover without producing paper work. "I always wondered why the Administration seemed to be one step ahead of our campaign," says Shaun Godwin anthropology junior a
member of the Brighter Days Collective and the former spokesperson Students for Economic Justice during the spring 2000 semester).
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