University police used an undercover officer to investigate a student activist group that was not charged with any crime, a top department official admitted in response to inquiries by The State News.
Members of Students for Economic Justice, an officially registered campus group, said MSU police Officer Jamie Gonzales posed as elementary education junior Samantha Volare to take part in group meetings and activities for months beginning on Feb. 19, 2000. Group members uncovered the officer after she was seen on campus in uniform.
In its response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The State News, the Department of Police and Public Safety denied having records or other documentation regarding investigations of the student group.
But MSU police Assistant Chief Jim Dunlap said in a written statement that an investigation was ordered because officials were concerned a scheduled visit by World Bank President James Wolfensohn to speak at commencement could spur violence from protesters.
A December 1999 protest at a World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle and April 2000 protest of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington led to thousands of arrests.
Several students involved with Students for Economic Justice took part in those protests.
“Concerns were alleviated, and no further need for the approach has been required,” Dunlap said in his statement. “Undercover investigations into student groups are seldom conducted here. Indeed, no others have been similarly done in decades.”
But history senior Michael Krueger, a member of Students for Economic Justice, said police have no reason to fear the group or its members, although some were arrested for civil disobedience during the Seattle and Washington protests.
Students for Economic Justice, formerly known as United Students Against Sweatshops, has focused much of its attention on protesting labor practices of university apparel-makers. The group has not had a significant run-in with police during its existence.
“This is happening to a group really trying to do a good thing,” Krueger said. “I wouldn’t consider USAS radical - we work for workers’ rights, like a union.”
Gonzales, a five-year veteran of the force who now serves as the Brody Complex community policing officer, was pictured in the March 15, 2000, edition of The State News protesting with the group. She identified herself as Volare.
Gonzales declined to comment about her role in the investigation.
Police have a sordid history of targeting political activist groups with undercover officers and other surveillance, said Henry Silverman, president of the Lansing chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and a retired MSU history professor.
Silverman said he found something “creepy and reprehensible” about the recent behavior of MSU police.
“I remember going to meetings of faculty to protest the war in Vietnam and university police took photographs of faculty,” he said. “This was one of the lowest points of police action to sort out ‘radicalism.’
“This is another incident of when police crossed the line,” he said of the recent tactic.
The retired professor, who spent 37 years as a university employee, said students should have an unrestricted right to form groups and have protests.
“These aren’t criminals,” Silverman said. “If they do something to break they law, they certainly should be arrested.
“It sends a terrible message to students about their right to protest. Students ought to be outraged by this type of behavior by police.”
MSU President M. Peter McPherson, who spent most of the weekend in Minneapolis at the Final Four, urged members of Students for Economic Justice to take their concerns to the university’s Police and Public Safety Oversight Committee. The committee of students, faculty and staff members addresses complaints issued against the police department or its employees.
“In the context of the particular issues raised, it is crucial that we be mindful that at a university, especially at a university, the marketplace of ideas must be free and open,” McPherson said in a written statement. “I personally have a commitment to ensuring the rights of our students to assemble and to discuss, without impediment, issues and matters of concern.”
The president has met with members of Students for Economic Justice several times since the group was formed to discuss university apparel labor issues. He most recently met with the group March 27.
But despite the protests of members of Students for Economic Justice, the use of undercover - or “plain clothes” - officers is common practice for many police agencies and sometimes the best way to combat crime, said Chief Deputy Vicki Harrison of the Ingham County Sheriff’s Department.
The county police force often uses such tactics to investigate stores or restaurants accused of selling alcohol to minors, although Harrison didn’t recall any recent cases similar to MSU’s.
She said undercover investigations are a proactive approach to prevent crime, rather than simply investigating after a crime has occurred.
“I’ve always been of the mindset that if you’re ashamed to have somebody know what you’re doing, don’t do it,” she said. “Clearly it’s not an abuse of power and it’s not a setup. That’s not their role and there are laws against that. They’re not encouraging or enticing anyone to do something illegal.”
