Court hearing held in SF surveillance lawsuit
A court hearing in a lawsuit alleging that the San Francisco Police Department illegally spied on protesters in Union Square comes as Mayor London Breed and a number of city supervisors spar on whether to expand the use of surveillance technology.
Judge Richard Ulmer of San Francisco County Superior Court heard a virtual hearing in the case of Williams v. San Francisco January 21.
In the case, lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union allege that police conducted mass surveillance on the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted in late spring 2020 by commandeering private security cameras in the Union Square area.
The plaintiffs in the suit were protesting the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. They are lead plaintiff Hope Williams, a member of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, and Nathan Sheard and Nestor Reyes. "Our lawsuit defends our right to organize protests against police violence without fear of illegal police surveillance," the trio wrote in a recent post on the website of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is also representing the plaintiffs.
