top
Santa Cruz IMC
Santa Cruz IMC
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

A kick in the balls for the SCPD

by brentugly
In response to former sentinel editor Tom Honig's Goodtimes cover article telling of his riding along with the SCPD.
Here is a letter to the editor carried in this weekend's Goodtimes that will be out tomorrow.
Letters to the Editor


Seeing Blue

Tom Honig, as an embedded reporter with the police department in his cover article “SCPD Blue” (GT 12/9) reminds us of embedded reporters in Iraq. They didn’t really get a dynamic view of things outside of the PR interests of the military. Honig’s report reads like a glowing puff piece. Anyone who has been paying attention to our boys in blue understands things are more complex than this article articulates but I agree that riding shotgun in a cop car would be a good vantage point.

The SCPD seems to welcome ride-alongs. Their website encourages citizens to sign-up to see a cop’s beat from the passenger seat of a police car. Several months ago, I answered that call and was scheduled for an evening shift. I arrived expecting an eye-opening experience, but instead I was denied. Later, then Interim Chief of Police, Kevin Vogel, called me himself, to tell me it was because of prior “contact” with the department. What that meant I do not know. I was convicted on a misdemeanor charge many years ago, maybe that is the reason. I’m an upstanding and active member of the community and I was hoping to have an inside view to better understand things instead of my normal view that is usually colored by police who selectively enforce the laws and often act outside of the law.

The color “blue” is an interesting choice of theme here as it reminds us of news stories of the department’s past. The SCPD was once charged with harassing the Blue Lagoon. For years they would park their squad cars across the street with the headlights flooding into the entrance effectively scaring off the gay patrons of that establishment. They were ordered to pay “the Blue” a quarter of a million dollars. Also, a secret SCPD program called Code Blue had officers beating sleeping homeless people with baseball bats. The department avoided prosecution by firing the Chief of Police. While not mentioning anything “blue,” Honig’s puff piece does give a glimpse of how our local boys work when he tells us that they ran off some men who had done nothing wrong. I don’t have to sit in a police car to see blue. Outside of my own kitchen window I’ve seen the police harassing the gardeners of the Beach Flats Community Garden. An officer who is in the so-called “Gang Task Force” demonstrated which side of the conflict he is on when he upended crates of personal belongings of the peaceful gardeners. This Latino officer is obviously not impartial when it comes to the battles between the colors red and blue, which to me seems quite blue. While the police department profits from the May Day “riot” and saturates downtown as they harass anyone who doesn’t look like they’re shopping, our town has been draped in the color blue. I, too, am blue because this type of journalism is also color-coded. It is yellow.

Brent Adams

Santa Cruz
Add Your Comments
Listed below are the latest comments about this post.
These comments are submitted anonymously by website visitors.
TITLE
AUTHOR
DATE
brent adams
Sat, Dec 25, 2010 4:46PM
Seriously
Wed, Dec 22, 2010 12:30PM
brent's boots
Wed, Dec 22, 2010 1:51AM
Bob Lamonica
Sun, Dec 19, 2010 9:28PM
Robert Norsse
Sun, Dec 19, 2010 8:07PM
Keep It Real
Fri, Dec 17, 2010 6:02PM
brentugly
Fri, Dec 17, 2010 2:43AM
Keep It Real
Thu, Dec 16, 2010 7:44AM
Robert Norse
Thu, Dec 16, 2010 1:26AM
a friend
Wed, Dec 15, 2010 10:53PM
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network