When a few thousand protesters marched through downtown Tucson streets Friday, not much bad happened.
Based on recent experience, Darrell Hussman could have predicted that. Hussman is one of the officers on TPD's rapid-response team that shows up for demonstrations that need monitoring. He's also president of the officers' bargaining unit, the Tucson Police Officers Association, and thus gets a wider view of how things are going.
One of the thousands of protesters who filled the streets of downtown Tucson Friday during the ICE OUT demonstration.
So far in this season of regular protests on Tucson streets, at parks, schools and streetcorners, things have gone pretty well, he told me Wednesday. Aside from the occasional harsh word and a blast of pepper spray that Hussman received in June, "99%" of the protesters he's encountered have been decently behaved and often appreciative of the police presence, he said.
But as ICE operations pop up in Tucson amid surging hostility toward that agency, he and other officers worry the same hostility could shift onto them. As we spoke in their police-station office he spun out a worrisome scenario.
"Big picture, they (immigration agents) come into town, create a mess, and we're sucked into it, and now we are a part of ICE in the community's eyes when our whole goal is to keep Tucsonans safe," he said. "It's going to be hard when we're called to protect federal agents as well, and it's just a mess that we would like to avoid at all costs."
These are among the issues that police and protesters are sorting through as ICE activities spread, and the movement against the federal mass-deportation effort grows larger and more passionate due especially to two killings by immigration agents in Minnesota.
My hope is that people's anger can remain focused where I think it belongs: On immigration enforcement operations. It's better for everybody, protesters and local law enforcement, if those two sides can remain at relative peace.
It helps isolate the real problem, which I believe is the sweeping immigration actions not focused on arresting criminals but on meeting quotas and punishing communities that didn't vote for Trump. And it lets police do their main jobs, which are big enough in Tucson without political flare-ups.
Mistaken protests
In the year since Pres. Trump took office, Tucson rapid-responders have been actively showing up where ICE is reported, to observe or protest. While doing good work, they have made some mistakes. The one most relevant to local police is that because the rapid-response network relies on witness reports of immigration operations, sometimes the witnesses are wrong.
By accident, they've responded to protests or observe non-immigration operations by agencies like the U.S. Marshals Service, Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Pinal County Sheriff's Department and Tucson police and others.
On Tuesday, demonstrators protested a shooting by U.S. Border Patrol agents near Arivaca before it emerged that the shooting victim was a convicted people-smuggler named Gary Schlegel, whom the FBI accused of shooting at agents, who subsequently shot him. Schlegel's sister called him a "violent person" and asked people not to pity him.
As justified as it is to observe and nonviolently protest immigration agents, in my opinion, it is undesirable to do the same with Tucson police. Part of isolating ICE for their negative impacts on our communities is to ensure that the other law enforcement agencies aren't unfairly painted with the same brush.
"My concern is that not everyone knows the difference between federal agents and local police," Hussman said. "They think law enforcement is law enforcement, and my concern is, is that people will start to impede our ability to do our day to day job, which is to keep the city of Tucson safe and hold people accountable for their actions."
Tucson Police Chief Chad Kasmar expressed much the same concern when I spoke with him Thursday.
"One of the main issues is that now my police resources can be out in tactical vests doing a search warrant on narcotics or violent crime, and we have rapid response coming there and having conflict or confrontations because they think it's immigration," he said.
Both Hussman and Kasmar noted that what they've seen from recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement deviates from their own practices and training. Tucson police are trained to be clearly identifiable, for example, in part so they're not confused with home invaders when they go to a door, Kasmar said.
"Police officers across the country and in our own community wear identifiable uniforms with name tags and badges, agency-identifiable tactical gear when necessary, and body-worn cameras so the community knows who we are," Kasmar said via a later text.
Hussman also noted Tucson is heavily trained in de-escalation.
"The federal ICE agents — I'm not trained in their stuff, I haven't been doing their training — but just seeing it, they have different tactics and different ways of doing business," he said.
When protesters seek cops' aid
Protesters and rapid-responders also have some asks of police. Alba Jaramillo, a lawyer who helps lead the rapid-response group, said she's been in close contact with Tucson Mayor Regina Romero's office.
As to Tucson police, Jaramillo said "I think we need communication before they show up. We need our protesters to understand they’re not there to arrest them or to collaborate with ICE."
"Speaking for myself, I do believe they are not collaborating (with ICE) and they are looking out for the interests of the immigrant community and the activists."
Where push may come to shove is if either immigration agents or protesters, or both, ask local police for protection from the other.
"What I’d like to see is our protesters or immigrant community or anyone who witnesses abuse by ICE is to call 911 and have the police show up and protect our own community," Jaramillo said. "And if there is any violence perpetrated by ICE, that they use state law to arrest them."
Across the country, some local agencies have been preparing to take or are taking legal action against federal agents who may have committed crimes, especially the killings in Minneapolis. In Philadelphia, a rumored future target of federal action, the sheriff and district attorney issued federal agents dire warnings. Pima County Attorney Laura Conover has joined a group of prosecutors called Fight Against Federal Overreach, "a national coalition of District Attorneys collaborating to ensure federal officials are held accountable when they exceed their lawful authority."
Still, on the ground, intervening is a big request, because it means a local agency's officers deciding they know what's going on better than a federal agency's officers who were there first, Kasmar explained to me. But it's what policies demand in certain situations.
"If we come upon a situation with any law enforcement — whether it's our own, it's a neighboring jurisdiction, or it's our federal partners — and we saw what we deemed to be inappropriate levels of force being utilized, we would we have a duty intervene," Kasmar said. "Our general orders are clear that we have a duty to intervene. And I would expect my officers to jump in and take control of the environment and take custody of an individual."
For now, the work in Tucson has been more mundane and successful. It would be great if it stays that way.
