S.J. asks to get mayor’s home address off posts

Social justice groups named in city attorney letters contend that such action violates their freedoms

SAN JOSE >> A rift between Mayor Sam Liccardo and a small group of social justice activists that hase been some of his harshest online critics escalated this week with a city demand to social media companies to prevent those groups from posting the mayor’s home address.

The City Attorney’s Office sent the letters Tuesday to Twitter and Facebook, the parent company of Instagram, citing a demonstration planned for today at City Hall as an imminent gathering that could lead to another march to Liccardo’s neighborhood. The letter states that two protests there in August and November, the first in which Liccardo’s home was vandalized, blocked street access and involved threats and assaults against the mayor’s neighbors.

The Twitter accounts mentioned belong to the group HERO Tent — formed in the wake of the George Floyd protests in San Jose — B.L. A.C.K. Outreach SJ and the latter group’s president, Lou Dimes. The Instagram accounts targeted by the city belong to the same two groups and a third called Solidarity Means Attack. The city’s letters to the companies cite one instance of Dimes posting the mayor’s address in a critical tweet posted Dec. 6.

“The real issue is we simply want them to take down my address, not simply for my benefit or for my family’s, but for the community members who have been assaulted and threatened and had their property damaged by individuals in these groups,” Liccardo said Wednesday. “I’m not concerned about my own safety, but my neighbors didn’t ask for this when I ran for mayor.”

Kiana Simmons, founder of HERO Tent, objected to the legitimacy of the requests, contending that her group has not posted the mayor’s home address, nor did she receive any takedown request. Dimes said the same for his group’s accounts.

“This is impeding on our free speech, and our right to protest,” Simmons said. “The 10th-largest city in the country going to private companies like this really seems like an abuse of power.”

The city’s letters cite a state government code that requires someone remove online posts publicizing the home address of an elected or appointed official within 48 hours of receiving a takedown request.

T he c it y a c k nowle d g e d Wednesday that Dimes’ post Dec. 6 is the only documented instance

of the mayor’s address being posted, and that the other groups’ participation in demonstrations Aug. 28 and Nov. 7 — when the vandalism and alleged assaults occurred — prompted their inclusion.

This news organization also learned that no written requests were sent out to the subjects before Wednesday.

Dimes said he sees the moves as setting a path to eventually bar the groups’ social media presence.

“Our organizations haven’t done anything illegal, so that’s why they’re resorting to get our social media accounts,” he said. “That’s the first step to getting these accounts banned.”

There is also some question on whether the code the city cites, 6254.21(c), is enforceable, said Eric Goldman, co- director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University. But though Goldman said believes the code is an unconstitutional “restriction on truthful factual information,” he said the social media companies still could honor the takedown request based on their own policies.

Two marches to the mayor’s home cited in the letters — Aug. 28 and Nov. 7 — were fueled in part by the summer’s George Floyd demonstrations in downtown San Jose and violent encounters between police and protesters, and subsequent high-profile police shootings elsewhere in the country.

The protesters also focused on Liccardo’s decision not to back the “defund the police” movement and instead support reforms like moving misconduct investigations into the oversight of the city’s civilian police auditor. Liccardo has cast the groups named in the letter as operating outside the spirit and mission of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Simmons and Dimes dispute the violent characterizations of the demonstrations and argued that had they occurred as portrayed, arrests would have been made. Instead, Simmons says, a HERO Tent member arrested in the vandalism was cleared of charges after she was held on an exorbitant $500,000 bail, and she is worried about the longterm effect of such portrayals.

“As soon as we’re labeled as violent, it’ll become justifiable to do whatever they want to the activists,” she said.

In the letters, the city cites police reports — that are not public record — in alleging numerous violent threats being made against Liccardo’s neighbors during the August and November demonstrations outside his home. That included a report of a neighbor who, while trying to extinguish a burning f lag out front with her garden hose, was assaulted Nov. 7. Another neighbor who came to that resident’s aid said he was kicked and suffered a scar on his leg.

The neighbor, who asked that his name not be used for safety and privacy concerns, said he continues to be concerned about protests coming to their street. He said that besides social justice activists, people protesting COVID-19 lockdown and mask-wearing orders also have descended on the mayor’s home.

“They’re not just affecting Sam; they’re disrupting our entire block. People are getting fed up with it,” he said. “We’re all dreading the next thing. Are they going to cross the line again? Are people going to be hurt? It’s caused a lot of tension in our neighborhood.”

The city’s letters to the social media companies also cite inf lammatory messages by Dimes, some of which they contend were aimed at bullying Black staff members in the mayor’s office and otherwise used violent imagery or rhetoric. That includes Dimes stating in a post, “It’s time to stop being unarmed black people. SHOOT BACK. Or at this point, shoot first and ask questions later. Just like they do. Every Black person needs to own at least 2 firearms now. Whether it’s legal or not.” The letter also includes a flyer for today’s protest that has a collage with imagery of Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini being hanged, juxtaposed with a headshot of Liccardo with red “X” markings over his eyes.

Dimes said a literal reading of those posts are a willful misinterpretation of fantastical imagery used to make a point against oppression. He said the gun remarks were a literary expression against unchecked violence against Black people — he mentioned Ahmaud Arbery’s killing by two White vigilantes in Georgia — and to highlight the hypocrisy of right-wing and White supremacist activists being allowed to openly carry firearms with relative impunity.

The Liccardo image, he said, was about alleging fascist behavior, not calling for harm.

“We’re not saying these things literally. We want them to pay attention,” Dimes said. “This is a continuation of a history of fear of Black uprising, and the fear Black people will want vengeance instead of Black equality.”