Tag Archives: Solano County Sheriff Tom Ferrara

Benicia Black Lives Matter calls on Solano County Supervisors for sheriff oversight

[BenIndy editor: reaching for “balanced coverage” and controversy, this Times-Herald article allows a right-wing conspiratorialist too much latitude in framing the discussion.  Benicia Black Lives Matter members’ substantive Tuesday comments are covered only briefly in one paragraph (#10).  The article then gives 5 paragraphs to the Sheriff’s defenders, including an outrageous and unsubstantiated attack on BBLM.  The article then concludes with 4 paragraphs highlighting two BBLM members’ responses to the wild and crazy off-topic charges.  The discussion at Solano BOS is a serious one, and our coverage should focus primarily if not exclusively on real issues.  – R.S.] 

Solano County Supervisors hear opposition, support for sheriff oversight

Vallejo Times-Herald, by Katy St. Clair, May 12, 2021

Far-right ideology was linked to department

In the wake of revelations that members of the Solano County Sheriff’s Department has shown support for far-right ideologies, several county residents called in the supervisors meeting on Tuesday.

Some expressed their opposition and others voiced their support for agendizing a discussion about creating an oversight board to monitor the sheriff’s office.

In an internal email obtained by the Times-Herald, the Solano County Republican Central Committee organized its members to call into the meeting with talking points in support of the sheriff’s office. Members were told not to identify themselves as Republicans, but several callers expressed the points covered in the email.

According to an investigation by the nonprofit newsroom Open Vallejo, a deputy and two sergeants of the Solano County Sheriff’s Office promoted a far-right militia “for years” that is linked to terrorist plots and the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol in Washington D.C.

After Open Vallejo’s story, which featured far-right Three Percenter symbols taken from public social media accounts and other online sources belonging to members of the sheriff’s office, Benicia Black Lives Matter wrote a letter to the supervisors asking for a “full investigation both at the county level and at the city level” to make sure that “policies and procedures — including those focused on recruitment and disciplinary actions — are in place to actively expel these extremists from the ranks of law enforcement.”

The letter was also sent to Solano County Sheriff Thomas Ferrara.

The Three Percenters have been dubbed a “radical anti-government group” by organizations such as the SPLC and the FBI. The FBI also claims that many members of these groups are in law enforcement, according to CBS News.

In February, BBLM asked the board of supervisors to condemn right-wing extremism and conduct a full investigation into Open Vallejo’s allegations. They also asked the board to consider creating an independent oversight committee, citing a new law that went into effect in September of last year.

Assembly Bill 1185 makes it easier for supervisors or voters to establish independent oversight boards to oversee activities within the sheriff’s department. Such boards would also have subpoena powers — something that many independent police oversight boards do not.

On Tuesday, several members of BBLM called in to support the creation of an oversight board, or the very least have a discussion about it. One member said that learning that there were people who supported Three Percenter ideology in the sheriff’s department “caused alarm for me” and said this was a public safety issue. Another caller said there is now fear and suspicion about the sheriff’s office and therefore civilian oversight is warranted.

Callers who opposed agendizing any discussion of oversight said it would create more government bureaucracy.

“Since when has government solved anything?” asked one caller.

Two callers referred to BBLM as “left wing anarchists and Marxists.” A man who identified himself as ex-law enforcement, said that “out-of-town forces are trying to bring their dysfunction to Solano County and to disrupt the peace that we’ve had here.”

Another caller named Steve said that the mass media makes it “almost impossible” to get all the facts.

“We have seen cops everywhere get charged with violations of protocol… Some cops are incompetent and get removed. Most of the time the accusations are inaccurate,” he said.

According to Bay City News and confirmed by the Times-Herald, Benicia Black Lives Matter received a response from Sheriff Ferrara. In the letter, Ferrara said he was “sickened” as he watched the Jan. 6 attack and that he can confirm that none of his employees were present on that day.

However, the sheriff’s letter did admit that the far-right images posted on social media by his officers were “disappointing” but were “not in themselves a crime…or in violation of (then current) policy.”

Further, Sheriff Ferrara said he had arranged for extremist ideology training for all of his staff, including himself.

Ferrara also told BBLM that he consulted with the FBI, which he claims, “confirmed none of my employees are members of any extremist organizations.”

When Open Vallejo attempted to verify this, the FBI instead called Ferrara’s statement into question. In a statement, spokesperson Gina Swankie told the newsroom that “a group which may espouse domestic extremist ideology is not illegal in and of itself, no matter how offensive their views may be, and membership in any group is neither tracked nor is sufficient basis for an FBI investigation.”

Former special agent for the FBI in San Francisco John Bennett told Open Vallejo that it is possible that the FBI would inform the head of an agency that there was an inquiry into their organization, and that “a disciplined and honorable leader of an agency would not make a public statement contrary to what they know is the truth about the status of an FBI inquiry.” He also added that “if the Bureau comes out later with contrary statements, that department and its leadership will lose credibility.”

Supervisor Monica Brown made a motion at a previous meeting to agendize discussion of oversight of the sheriff’s department but no one seconded it. Brown could not be reached for comment at press time.

BBLM members dispute the idea that they are “Marxists” or far left radicals. One caller from the organization said that she is “not a Marxist, I am a mother of two” and said she called in because of her children.

“I’m confused why we are not having a conversation (about this),” she said, adding that they are just asking for a discussion to be raised about oversight.

BBLM member Brandon Greene, a civil rights attorney, told the Times-Herald that he too is concerned about public safety and security for residents and he is not an “out-of-town Marxist.”

“My property tax bill says otherwise,” he said.

FBI rebuffs Solano County sheriff’s claim it cleared deputies of extremist ties

FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean Ragan speaks to reporters at a press conference in Fairfield, Calif. in 2018. Solano County Sheriff Tom Ferrara, second from right, has recently sought to downplay concerns about possible far-right extremism in his agency following an investigation by Open Vallejo. Jonathan J. Cooper / Associated Press
Open Vallejo, by Scott Morris, April 27, 2021

The FBI called into question Solano Sheriff Tom Ferrara’s claim that agents cleared members of his department of links to a far-right extremist group as the sheriff seeks to minimize fallout from revelations that several deputies promoted imagery associated with the Three Percenter movement on social media.

There is no indication the deputies committed a crime through their posts. However, federal prosecutors have linked Three Percenters, a loose-knit anti-government militia, to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and other acts of domestic terrorism across the country. Following publication of the article, local, state and federal officials called for an investigation into the extent of extremist support in the sheriff’s office.

A 2019 post from the Instagram page of Sgt. Roy Stockton's business depicts a Gadsden Flag snake with the text, "Since when is it 'extreme' to support the Constitution?"
A 2019 post from the Instagram page of Sgt. Roy Stockton’s business. Open Vallejo / Screenshot

Ferrara indicated he would not formally investigate the deputies’ conduct. He instead has launched what appears to be a political defense in recent weeks, sending letters to progressive organizations suggesting federal investigators had done so for him.

“I have consulted with the FBI, who confirmed none of my employees are members of any extremist organizations,” Ferrara wrote in a March 22 letter to the Solano County Democratic Central Committee. He repeated the claim in an April 12 letter to Benicia Black Lives Matter. The sheriff’s office employs more than 500 people.

According to emails obtained by Open Vallejo, on Feb. 17, Ferrara forwarded a request for comment from Open Vallejo to Sean Ragan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Sacramento field office, who called Ferrara to discuss the situation. Ferrara did not respond to questions about the substance of his call with Ragan.

The FBI appeared to cast doubt on Ferrara’s version of events. Reached for comment about the claims contained in Ferrara’s letters, FBI spokesperson Gina Swankie said the agency does not investigate or track membership in domestic political groups.

“Investigations by the [FBI] focus solely on alleged criminal activity of individuals,” Swankie said in a statement to Open Vallejo. “A group which may espouse domestic extremist ideology is not illegal in and of itself, no matter how offensive their views may be, and membership in any group is neither tracked nor is sufficient basis for an FBI investigation,” she said.

Veterans of the FBI cast further doubt on Ferrara’s claims, saying it is unlikely the agency would have told the sheriff that his employees are not members of extremist organizations.

Michael German, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and former FBI agent who studies domestic terrorism, said the agency’s focus is on investigating violations of federal law.

“It would not be proper for the FBI to provide the information to a local law enforcement officer simply so that it can be passed on to the media for public release,” German said.

An AR-15 rifle on a display rack bearing the words, "WILL NOT COMPLY" and the logo of the Three Percenters, a far-right militia linked to violence across the country.
Daniel “Cully” Pratt made this rifle rack for fellow Solano County Sheriff’s Sgt. Roy Stockton, who was elected to the Vacaville City Council in November. It depicts the logo of the Three Percenters, a far-right militia that has been linked to terrorist plots across the country. An Open Vallejo investigation found that Pratt, Stockton, and Deputy Dale Matsuoka shared imagery linked to the extremist group over the course of several years. Cully Pratt

John Bennett, former Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s San Francisco field office, said the FBI would not investigate members of the sheriff’s office unless it believed that there had been a violation of federal law. While the FBI might not alert department leadership to such an investigation under certain circumstances, it is likely the head of an agency would know if the FBI had an open inquiry into anyone in their department, he said.

“A disciplined and honorable leader of an agency would not make a public statement contrary to what they know is the truth about the status of an FBI inquiry,” Bennett said. “If the Bureau comes out later with contrary statements, that department and its leadership will lose credibility.”

In his letter to Benicia Black Lives Matter Ferrara also said photographs referenced in Open Vallejo’s report that depicted firearms and Three Percenter symbolism were “taken over four years ago.”

But many of the posts were much more recent than that. Sgt. Roy Stockton, now a Vacaville City Councilmember, shared Three Percenter posts on Instagram as recently as 2019 and had Three Percenter items on his online leatherwork store through mid-April. Deputy Dale Matsuoka, the sheriff’s homeless outreach coordinator, changed his Facebook profile picture to a Three Percenter emblem just after the 2020 election. It remained on his public profile after the article was published.

Journalist Katie Way discovered this month that a fourth sheriff’s employee, SWAT team member Sgt. Ty Pierce, also displayed Three Percenter symbols on his Instagram page. Pierce, who has since made his Instagram private, did not respond to detailed written questions about his posts.

Ferrara’s letter went on to say that since the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, he has educated himself on Three Percenter ideology and trained his staff in extremism, claiming without evidence that the movement has evolved. “We learned that the ideology of the III percenters has changed since the posts were first made,” Ferrara wrote.

Deputy Dale Matsuoka changed his Facebook profile picture to the Three Percenter symbol in the days following the Nov. 3, 2020 general election.
Posting under the name “Matt Daley,” Deputy Dale Matsuoka changed his Facebook profile picture to the Three Percenter symbol in the days following the Nov. 3, 2020 general election. Open Vallejo / Screenshot

Three Percenters have called for violent resistance to the federal government and anticipated a second civil war since the movement’s inception. Researchers have tracked the group’s origins to the Sipsey Streets Irregulars blog. In its second post in 2008, author Mike Vanderboegh, a longtime militia member from Alabama, referred to the recent election of President Barack Obama and anticipated he would enact tougher gun control laws.

“There are American gun owners, the Three Percent, who will resist these laws,” Vanderboegh wrote. “Three Percenters’ resistance will provoke government violence to compel their obeisance. The administration will kick in the doors of American gun owners to achieve this allegedly ‘reasonable’ objective. Shots will be fired, and the next American civil war will be off and running.”

Since then, Three Percenter groups have splintered into a network of loosely affiliated individuals and organizations across the country. Some Three Percenter groups claim to be represented in every state. They have ties to other far right movements like the Oath Keepers and Boogaloo and have provided security for white nationalists, such as during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017 where a counter-protester was killed.

Months before Sgt. Cully Pratt posted a photo of a rifle rack with the Three Percenter logo he made for Stockton in 2016, Three Percenter groups were involved in an armed standoff with federal authorities in Oregon that left a man dead.

Benicia Black Lives Matter co-founder Brandon Greene said in an interview that if the FBI investigated and found the deputies had no involvement in extremist groups, then that investigation should be made public.  “We don’t know what it entails, what the methodology was,” Greene said.

“It would be strange to me if any sort of FBI investigation happened so rapidly,” Greene said.

Greene and other activists have pushed for the county Board of Supervisors to discuss the possibility of extremist ideologies in the sheriff’s office and for the board to exercise its authority under AB 1185, a new law that took effect this year, to establish a community oversight board with the power to oversee the sheriff’s office.

“The only person we have heard from is [Supervisor] Monica Brown and only to say they have no power,” Greene said. “We asked for very specific demands in our letter and there has been silence.”

Brown, who represents Benicia and part of Vallejo, said last month that she found the extremist groups described in Open Vallejo’s original investigation “deeply disturbing.” But she told Bay City News last week that she trusts the FBI. “I also trust Tom, he keeps tight reins on his employees,” she said.

In a statement to Open Vallejo, Brown reiterated that she could not comment on specific county employees and that the sheriff is an independent elected official.

She said her statement to Bay City News “was based on the understanding that the FBI investigated and found nothing” but that the FBI’s statement in response “calls that into question.”

“I will have to evaluate what options are available,” Brown said.

ABOUT 

Scott Morris is an independent journalist in Oakland and San Francisco covering police use of force, civil rights, protest and neighborhood news. In 2020 he was a reporter with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network based at the Bay City News Foundation.

Solano County Sheriff refuses to share FBI report clearing deputies

Community Group Slams Sheriff For Lack Of Transparency

SFGate.com, by John Glidden, April 15, 2021
Solano County Sheriff Tom Ferrara

Solano County Sheriff Thomas Ferrara has come under fire from critics claiming he hasn’t been completely transparent when he said federal law enforcement cleared several of his deputies of being members of an extremist organization.

Ferrara told Benicia Black Lives Matter (BBLM) in a letter this week that the FBI “confirmed none of my employees are members of any extremist organizations.”

This includes the Three Percenters militia group, which advocates for the Second Amendment and the right for private gun ownership, along with active resistance toward the U.S. government.

Ferrara and the Sheriff’s Office have not released any official reports or documents supporting Ferrara’s claim that his deputies were absolved of being part of an extremist organization.

“I’m not comfortable with the sheriff’s response,” said Nimat Shakoor-Grantham, co-founder of BBLM, on Thursday. “(Ferrara) has proof that deputies in his office supported these groups in the past. You can take off the uniform but you can’t take off the bias.”

Three Percenters are an anti-government militia named after the mistaken idea that only 3 percent of the American colonists fought in the revolution against Great Britain.

Shakoor-Grantham pointed to the firing of a Fresno police officer after he allegedly participated in a rally held by the far-right extremist group Proud Boys in mid-March. The officer was placed on leave the following day and then subsequently terminated.

“What other proof does this sheriff need?” she added. “The FBI has deemed militia organizations like this as terrorist groups.”

In its letter, which was also directed at the Benicia City Council, BBLM demanded that Ferrara and the council “not only visibly and vocally condemn right wing extremism, but also pledge to conduct afull investigation both at the County level and at the City level to ensure that policies and procedures – including those focused on recruitment and disciplinary actions – are in place to actively expel these extremists from the ranks of law enforcement and to prevent their recruitment in the first place.”

Brandon Greene, co-founder of BBLM, said Ferrara’s letter showed his unwillingness to weed out extremists in his office and be transparent about his investigation.

“Where is this FBI report?” asked Greene on Thursday. “Put it out to the public and community for scrutiny.”

The county did not respond to a request from this news organization to see the FBI report.

Both Greene and Shakoor-Grantham said the Solano County Board of Supervisors’ decision not to get involved is frustrating.

“The sheriff is almost emboldened by the lack of Board of Supervisor action,” Greene added.

Greene said BBLM sent a letter asking the board to do something, with Supervisor Monica Brown the only one to respond.

“(Supervisor) Monica Brown said the board didn’t have the power to investigate,” Greene said.

Greene says that isn’t true, as a newly enacted law, Assembly Bill 1185, allows the board to create a civilian sheriff oversight board and inspector general position. The board and inspector general would have subpoena power to investigate issues within the sheriff’s office.

Shakoor-Grantham and Greene said they have approached the board to have an item placed on the agenda to discuss the issues raised by the Open Vallejo investigation.

“So far, it’s been crickets,” Shakoor-Grantham said. “They won’t talk about it.”

A request for comment sent to the clerk of the Solano County Board of Supervisors wasn’t immediately returned on Thursday.

Ferrara continues to reject the findings from Open Vallejo’s investigation, claiming he found “no merit” in the allegations made in the report.

Open Vallejo originally reported that members of Ferrara’s office displayed imagery and support to the Three Percenters over social media during the past few years. Former Solano County sheriff’s Public Information Officer Daniel “Cully” Pratt, who owns a wood-working business, made a gun display rack for his colleague Sgt. Roy Stockton in 2016. Cully Pratt’s brother is well-known actor Chris Pratt.

The piece includes Three Percenter imagery, like 13 shotgun shells arranged in a circle around the Roman numeral III. It also has “WILL NOT COMPLY,” at the bottom of the display. Cully Pratt used the hashtag “#3percenter,” and “blackgunsmatter,” among others in the Instagram post.

Cully Pratt told The Vacaville Reporter in response to the Open Vallejo article that the symbols in the post were “believed to be strictly in support of the 2nd Amendment and Pro-America — not in any way extremist anti-government views.”

However, in the same year Cully Pratt unveiled his art on Instagram, Three Percenters from Idaho sent some of its members over to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon during an armed standoff with federal officials.

Stockton, who was recently elected to the Vacaville City Council, also sold leather products under the name High Brass Leather and another business. As of Thursday evening, the High Brass Leather website had been taken down. For a time, a product was displayed on the site showing a coiled snake and a Roman numeral three surrounded by 13 stars.

Open Vallejo also uncovered that Ferrara’s office homeless outreach coordinator, Deputy Dale Matsuoka, under the name Matt Daley posted Three Percenter imagery over his social media.

With the lack of information coming from the Board of Supervisors and Ferrara’s office, Shakoor-Grantham says she is fearful interacting with sheriff’s deputies.

“I can’t call the sheriff’s office for support,” she said. “I don’t want them coming to my house. I’m a Black woman. It scares me.”