In her past experiences with activism, Tucson council member Lane Santa Cruz said she’s always viewed her role as a de-escalator or peacekeeper, trying to be the person mediating interactions, like those between protesters and police.
That’s partly why Santa Cruz headed downtown late Friday night after receiving a barrage of texts expressing concern about a protest of the police killing of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, adding it was “important for me to see what’s going on in our community.”
“I’m committed to upholding the sacredness of life and, that when it’s threatened, the freedom of speech to respond,” she told the Arizona Daily Star on Wednesday. “What I encountered when I was there was a lot of pain and frustration. It was chaotic. It was mostly young people, many of who were being pulled from the crowd. As a mother and from my days of activism as a peacekeeper, I sought to de-escalate the situation as best as I could.”
Santa Cruz made her comments to the Star after a reporter viewed body camera footage of the late-night portion of the protest, which showed the council member demanding to speak with Tucson Police Capt. Christopher Dennison, who oversees the downtown district, after a tense moment between protesters and police.
That portion of the three hours of footage showed police physically pushing a line of protesters back. It’s not shown in the video what precipitated the action, but officers are heard mentioning that rocks were thrown toward them. Santa Cruz calmly approaches the officers after tensions calmed and officers formed a line in front of the station.
Santa Cruz is seen in a 1ƒ-minute stretch of video walking up to officers and repeatedly demanding to speak to Dennison, saying that Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus told her he was in charge. Officers responded that they don’t know where he is.
“I am your (expletive) city council member that represents this area. Where is Capt. Dennison?” she said. “That’s who you all are taking orders from at this moment. I need to talk to Capt. Dennison.”
In the interview with the Star, Santa Cruz acknowledged that “tensions were really high” at that moment, which was about 10 p.m. She said that she wanted to stand up for protesters in the crowd who said they were not feeling safe and were being pulled out of the crowd by police.
Magnus told the Star this week that Santa Cruz did call him and express that exact concern but that he and Dennison, who were both at the scene, were occupied at that moment.
He said his only concern with the situation was that Santa Cruz was there after “an order to disperse” had been given by police.
“That is a concern,” Magnus said. “I appreciate that she called me to get more information, but I wasn’t really in a position to be able to talk to her at that time. There was a lot happening.”
Similar sentiments were echoed by Jason Winsky, government affairs director for the Tucson Police Officers Association, who said that “the better the communications we have during this time, the better outcomes we’re going to have.”
“We absolutely support the right of everyone to demonstrate and have their voice heard,” he said. “We hope that everyone does so peacefully. We also encourage people to listen to our instructions during these events, which are not just the law but designed to keep everyone safe.”
For Santa Cruz, she said that she spoke to one of the assistant chiefs in the days after the protest and gained more perspective about the situation, including the fact that the order to disperse had been issued. She said she had left very quickly following the interaction after deeming the scene unsafe.
“There was a lot going on. … I saw that other people in the crowd had weapons,” she said. “I realized it was not a safe place to be and just backed away then later realized that there had been the police orders to disperse. I was very concerned about the young people who were there and not leaving.”
She understands the perception from some who were concerned about an elected official being down at the protest, where at the end of the night more than $200,000 worth of damage was caused to downtown businesses and several people were arrested, but stressed that she didn’t want to stray away from the issue, which is the public outcry for police accountability at all levels from around the country.
The following day, she, along with many others, including Mayor Regina Romero and Councilman Steve Kozachik, whose ward includes the downtown area where businesses were destroyed, were there cleaning up.
“It’s painful to see that but at the end of the day, those structures can be rebuilt. We can fix them up. But human life? There’s no taking that back,” Santa Cruz said. “The issue at hand, which is you know the murder of another black man at the hands of police, is being overshadowed by the destruction of property.”
Reactions from council members spread across the spectrum.
Councilwoman Nikki Lee said she supports “everyone’s First Amendment to peacefully protest,” but that she wants to make sure “we remember why people are protesting and the role of George Floyd in all of this.”
Councilman Paul Durham said his staff was also there to see what was going on.
“As elected officials, it’s important to know what’s going on in moments when hundreds of Tucsonans are taking to the streets out of anguish,” he said. “My colleagues and I need to ensure that both city employees and residents are safe.”
Kozachik said “there were a lot of pretty pissed off people over the destruction.”
“Here’s my bottom line; local business is not the enemy and while it’s certainly not illegal to participate in a demonstration, given that the police were already having trouble controlling crowd behavior, I think the responsible thing to do was to stay away and encourage people through social media to protest peacefully,” he said.
For Santa Cruz, she said that she’s been getting comments from constituents about how they want more police accountability at all levels and that she wants to be a leader with that.
She expressed support for Magnus, calling him “great” and “professional” but that “we can always be doing things better,” such as being more transparent in policies and systems in place.
“It is a call for policymakers and also the police department that we need to do better because this is only going to continue to get worse if we don’t address it,” she said.
