Cop Watch Downtown Santa Cruz. November

Here is a link to the pdf file for all arrests on Thursday the 8th. 2007. This is the media report the Sentinel uses for "Cops and Courts" although they rarely list all the arrests. The arrest on Lincoln St. is the one first video in this post. link

Also here is the link where you can check arrests daily.

<a>

Made an error,
Here is the link to find all arrests listed by the cops that are released to the press each day.

Arrests in Santa Cruz

thank you. I've been waiting for a nice article to add this as a comment to because it's not quite a story in itself.

On Halloween, I went to Pacific from about 9-10:30. I didn't see any uncivil behavior at that time. Bernard was handing out copwatch flyers. At one of the side streets, there was a case of massing of about 2 dozen officers from Sheriffs/parole board/CHP?/Santa Cruz departments, but I couldn't spot anyone being detained.

Retrieving my bicycle at lower Pacific by Saturn, a teen went by saying something like "run away! there's a fight and the cops are coming". In front of the Bike Church (paradoxically) at the Saturn parking lot entrance, there was a bicycle that had just had the whole rear end run over, and a woman was calling police. In the parking lot, there was a big truck with no one in it. People standing nearby were saying that the left-turning truck had hit a cyclist, and that it's never acceptable not to yield to oncoming traffic.
I quite agreed, because this is precisely how one of my bike accidents happened. A man from Singapore hit me with a new car which he was driving into a body shop because he had already dented it, and he was totally apologetic yet didn't understand that he had to yield. He also kept calling me begging me not to report the incident. I really hate that psychological aspect of dealing with collisions. In another incident, I was driving a car and was stopped at a light when someone hit me, not causing major damage. She didn't have insurance and I didn't report it because her license would be removed and she now had my home address.
The key thing though, is that this category of head-on impact is highly dangerous or deadly. It's no joke. My friend's wife's mother was recently struck and is now paralyzed below the shoulders, and their whole life for the next 20 years is changed because of this. It's not the same thing as beer brawls and fights going on at the bars on halloween.

Anyway, the onlookers continued to explain that someone had thrown a bottle at the truck after it came to a stop. I looked and the front tire was flattened. Because the driver was gone, I presumed he might have been drunk and run away. After about 10 min, five police came (I don't know why it took this long) and the driver was really whining and accusing the cyclist of drinking. The cyclist looked calm and was in costume while the driver wasn't. The idea that the cyclist, who had been going straight, with lights on the bike, could have caused the accident was unbelievable, particularly as the *rear* of his bike had been crushed. This meant he escaped without injury by a fraction of a second, and that the driver had several extra seconds during which he failed to yield for the cyclist and the many pedestrians by Saturn. Given that this was a half block from the crowded halloween restricted area of Pacific Avenue, there must have been lots of pedestrians, and it would be highly unreasonable to drive at a high speed.
I started to feel conspicuous watching the police and I hope they made the right decision.

This is just where a lot of police suddenly were moving towards around 10pm

This one is a bit old. New stuff coming soon. Thanks other cops watchers.

Yesterday,
I was ill, but I had promised to take a friend who is struggling to his doctor and SS lawyer who is located downtown. I was unable to walk around and decided to stay in my car despite the 15 minute trespass law. I was in a disabled space legally. In the lot were three different groups of people, all shoppers, having discussions in the lot. All were past the time limit. I sat ill waiting for my friend wondering how I could handle a conversation with cop in my current state. A police cruiser came in, stopped , looked at me and I assume that he was writing the time he spotted me resting. As a disabled person I am allowed 30 min. He knows me, as a cop watcher. He did not write down the times of the other 7 people milling around talking.

Not only is this law just plain silly. You can't rest in your car while your significant other shops, or feeling ill.

Worse is this law will be selectively enforced, just as dogs downtown and all the other laws aimed at the poor and homeless. What makes this law silly is, there are laws for everything that could happen in a parking lot, public nuisance, drunk in public, whatever. We do not need new laws that waste vast amounts of public money (taxes), City Council time, police officers time, and unconstitutional in nature.

So, just as my 30 minutes was up my friend returned and I left right as the officer re-entered the lot. This law serves does not serve the public.

Much thanks to Tim for this series--particularly hard for him because of his health.

The more who do their own Copwatch and post the results the better. I see that LRDP protesters up at UCSC are doing so--and, of course, it both educates the community and restrains police abuse.

The Fifteen-Minute Trespass Law (or Parking Lot Panic Law, as I call it) officially becomes law a month after its Second Reading at City Council, which was October 23rd. For more information on the law and the controversy around its passage, go to: "Council Kills Public Space in the Parking Lots" at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/10/23/18455629.php .

Robert,
I was in the lot next to 99 bottles and across from Clouds. This new law taking affect soon is an expansion of the old law to all public lots. Is this correct or am I wrong. And which lots apply to the old law? Thanks.

I will post these to aide people doing Cop Watch find the case they filmed. These are only the arrests made public. They do not show camping citations etc. If you film an arrest where the officer did something wrong, use your evidence and file a complaint. The forms for a complaint or even an accommodation, can be picked up at, the police station.