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Men in black vandalize SUVs on Santa Cruz's Westside
Chaos in Santa Cruz!! Men in black terrorize innocent SUVs of the Westside!!
Men in black vandalize SUVs on Santa Cruz's Westside
By SHANNA McCORD
Sentinel staff writer
SANTA CRUZ — Vandals struck at least six sport utility vehicles Saturday night on the Westside, slashing tires and spray-painting politically charged messages such as "Oil equals blood" and "Guzzle" on the side of the vehicles, authorities said.
One of the victims, Andrea Muzzi, who lives in a house at King Street and Berkshire Avenue, said she saw a group of 30 to 40 young men on bicycles ride away after using a knife to slash the four tires on her brand-new GMC Yukon, which was parked in front of her house.
The incident happened about 10:30 p.m., she said.
"I heard a 'pop-pop' noise and came out of my house," Muzzi, 32, said. "They were all riding 10-speeds and wearing black trenchcoats."
Muzzi speculated, based on the ages of the riders, that they were UC Santa Cruz students.
Several other vehicles near Muzzi's house also were painted and vandalized.
Police said Sunday that the case is under investigation, but Sgt. Mike Pruger said he had few additional details to offer.
No arrests had been made as of Sunday night.
"The vandalism appears to be directed toward owners of SUVs," Pruger said. "We have no idea who the suspects are."
Three years ago, the radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front was accused of tagging 60 SUVs all over town, including brand-new vehicles at the North Bay Ford and Lincoln Mercury dealerships on Soquel Avenue.
Those vandals tagged SUVs with "No War," "SUVs suck" and "No blood for oil," among other messages, apparently to make a point that the vehicles burn more oil than cars and that America's dependence on oil was the impetus for the war in Iraq.
The group often calls for nonviolent property damage as a means of protest.
In August, a 19-year-old was prosecuted on 30 counts of vandalism, including the slashing of tires on several cars.
Muzzi said it could cost several hundred dollars to replace the tires on her Yukon.
"I've lived in this house for 12 years," she said. "I shouldn't feel nervous to park in front of my own house."
Muzzi did her best to wipe off the "Oil for Blood" message painted on her car Saturday night and replaced it with her own.
In white spray paint, she wrote: "Die UCSC."
Contact Shanna McCordat smccord [at] santacruzsentinel.com
By SHANNA McCORD
Sentinel staff writer
SANTA CRUZ — Vandals struck at least six sport utility vehicles Saturday night on the Westside, slashing tires and spray-painting politically charged messages such as "Oil equals blood" and "Guzzle" on the side of the vehicles, authorities said.
One of the victims, Andrea Muzzi, who lives in a house at King Street and Berkshire Avenue, said she saw a group of 30 to 40 young men on bicycles ride away after using a knife to slash the four tires on her brand-new GMC Yukon, which was parked in front of her house.
The incident happened about 10:30 p.m., she said.
"I heard a 'pop-pop' noise and came out of my house," Muzzi, 32, said. "They were all riding 10-speeds and wearing black trenchcoats."
Muzzi speculated, based on the ages of the riders, that they were UC Santa Cruz students.
Several other vehicles near Muzzi's house also were painted and vandalized.
Police said Sunday that the case is under investigation, but Sgt. Mike Pruger said he had few additional details to offer.
No arrests had been made as of Sunday night.
"The vandalism appears to be directed toward owners of SUVs," Pruger said. "We have no idea who the suspects are."
Three years ago, the radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front was accused of tagging 60 SUVs all over town, including brand-new vehicles at the North Bay Ford and Lincoln Mercury dealerships on Soquel Avenue.
Those vandals tagged SUVs with "No War," "SUVs suck" and "No blood for oil," among other messages, apparently to make a point that the vehicles burn more oil than cars and that America's dependence on oil was the impetus for the war in Iraq.
The group often calls for nonviolent property damage as a means of protest.
In August, a 19-year-old was prosecuted on 30 counts of vandalism, including the slashing of tires on several cars.
Muzzi said it could cost several hundred dollars to replace the tires on her Yukon.
"I've lived in this house for 12 years," she said. "I shouldn't feel nervous to park in front of my own house."
Muzzi did her best to wipe off the "Oil for Blood" message painted on her car Saturday night and replaced it with her own.
In white spray paint, she wrote: "Die UCSC."
Contact Shanna McCordat smccord [at] santacruzsentinel.com
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Typical middle-size SUVs are 20 highway/15 city driving, while small Corollas, Civics, and pre-2000 Sentras get 40 highway, 34 city.
Distance to Monterey = 42miles
Distance to SF = 73 miles
Trip to SF is 146/20x$3/gallon = $22.
Anyway, I would like to add that, while I support people radically curtailing their fossil fuel consumption, you can't always make general conclusions. For example, some people might have large families and need to have larger vehicles. To those people, I would highly recommend bio/veggie diesels or some very fuel-efficient hybrids. (Yeah, it is irresponsible for people to have large families in the first place, but you can't family plan in retrospect!)
Regardless, I hope that people finally start thinking about what they are doing to our earth. I just read a very recent article that estimated that ocean levels could rise to 20 ft by 2050! If that's the case, Santa Cruz would be underwater, folks!! Every couple of months these predictions are updated to say that the rate has increased, so who knows when it will actually happen.
I'm sure that police will be on the lookout for these vandals. I really wish we could devote as much manpower to educating people about how important the issue of global warming is so people would know better than to guzzle fossil fuels in the first place.
Really, the west coast is a leading edge continental plate, so it has a cliffy, fastly rising slope. Micronesia, Florida, Bangladesh, plus other marshy places will suffer problems, not to mention that there will have been to internal migrations due to alterations in regions suitable for crops, long before the sea level rises another inch. This is already happening in east Africa.
Why?
cuz dey STOOPID, and that's being charitable