Five months after a group of pro-Palestinian protesters occupied Girvetz Hall at UC Santa Barbara, a Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge heard arguments about the campus police department’s search warrant request for Instagram accounts suspected to be related to the June occupation.

On Sept. 11, the UCSB Police Department got a search warrant for the @saygenocideucsb and @ucsbliberatedzone Instagram accounts for its investigation into alleged kidnapping, burglary, vandalism and conspiracy during the Girvetz Hall takeover and occupation in June. 

A motion to quash the search warrant was filed on Sept. 25, arguing that there was no probable cause to link the accounts to alleged crimes committed in the building.

On Friday, about 30 supporters of the accounts, including UCSB students and faculty, gathered in court for a hearing on the matter.

The warrant requires various records from the two Instagram accounts, including archived data, linked accounts, communications content, records of devices used by the accounts, IP address logs, location information, photos and videos, and other personal information of anyone who authored the account or interacted with the account by liking or commenting on posts.

Addison Steele is a local criminal defense attorney defending someone who may be affected by the release of information. He argued that there is no probable cause to suggest there’s a connection between the group of people who occupied Girvetz Hall and allegedly committed the crimes to the person or people who posted on the two social media accounts.

Steele also argued that the search warrant is too broad because it asks for the information of everyone who interacted or even looked at the account.

“That’s pretty scary. The police are going to come knock on your door because you looked at some political speech?” Steele said. “That doesn’t sound like America to me, or that you went on and engaged in political speech, not just merely passively observed others political speech, but you clicked like. I’m not seeing a connection between somebody clicking like and in that they committed a crime.”

Jonathan Miller, attorney for the UC Regents, a governing board for the University of California system, argued that an @saygenocideucsb post created on June 10 shows the damage in Girvetz Hall and takes responsibility for the damage.

Miller also argued that the data included in the search warrant will help identify the people responsible for the takeover-related crimes.  

Additionally, Miller argued that there is evidence that the account @ucsbliberatedzone is associated with the takeover at Girvetz Hall because it posted on June 11 calling for community mobilization to prepare for police response at Girvetz Hall. 

Steele argued that there is not enough probable cause to link @saygenocideucsb and @ucsbliberatedzone because they are separate pages with separate concepts. 

In June, more than a month after UC Santa Barbara students set up a pro-Palestine encampment known as the UCSB Liberated Zone, a group known as Say Genocide occupied and barricaded themselves inside Girvetz Hall. 

After two days, police responded to clear the building of protesters, but the group was gone by the time they arrived and no students were arrested.

During the occupation, protesters maintained control of the building by securing and blocking doors with zip ties, ropes, metal clamps, and stacked chairs in entryways. They also used broken concrete blocks, newspaper-stuffed fake bodies and red paint to depict war-torn scenes, according to court records. 

Court records also claim that the protesters “burglarized” a secured HVAC mechanical room, which they allegedly used to access the rooftop and monitor activity from above. The total cost of damage was $40,000, according to court records. 

The records also indicate that when the protesters first took over the building, they told two janitorial staff members that they intended to “take over the building for political reasons.”

One staff member reportedly locked himself inside a custodial closet and refused to come out until his supervisor arrived on the scene. Another staff member was reportedly escorted out of the building by the protesters, according to court records. 

Miller argued in court that it was an act of kidnapping by removing the janitorial worker from his job. 

He ended his argument by saying that there needs to be consequences for the people who occupied the building and damaged university property. He also argued that it was not an act of peaceful protest.

Steele argued that the act does not even resemble kidnapping because the janitorial worker was not taken from a safe location to a less safe location.

Jacob Snow, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, appeared in court via Zoom and argued that the warrant would allow law enforcement to surveil students engaging in political activism, which would have the effect of “chilling” student activity. 

Superior Court Judge Pauline Maxwell listened to arguments and said she will issue her ruling in court at 9 a.m. Dec. 20.

Before then, the attorneys will have the opportunity to submit supplemental arguments to the court and attempt to come to an agreement regarding the scope of the warrant.