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Indybay Feature

Tabling for the Santa Cruz Eleven

Date:
Friday, August 03, 2012
Time:
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Event Type:
Other
Organizer/Author:
Robert Norse
Email:
Phone:
831-423-4833
Address:
309 Cedar PMB #14B Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Location Details:
Cooper and Pacific across from the Cinema 9 Theater

Supporters of the Santa Cruz Eleven [SC-11] will be giving out information, circulating petitions, and seeking help to expose and dismiss the two felonies and two misdemeanors that seven of them still face. They could be sentenced to seven years in prison apiece.

The seven are charged with felony vandalism, misdemeanor trespass, and felony conspiracy to trespass and vandalize in a case widely denounced by ACLU, the National Lawyer's Guild, the Resource Center for Non-Violence, and many others.

The charges have also targeted alternative media workers.

Coincidentally most of them are high-profile critics of city and county government, reporters, and/or organizers and activists with Occupy Santa Cruz.

Critics charge and D.A. Bob Lee denies he is playing a game with the taxpayer's money to discourage legitimate future protest. Activists claim he is acting as bagman and security force for Wells Fargo Bank, whose 3 1/2 vacant property was briefly and peacefully occupied last year.

Judge Paul Burdick, before whom all previous SC-11 cases have come, thought so little of D.A. Bob Lee's case (presented by D.A. Rebekah Young) that he dismissed every one. Instead of learning from this, Young has refiled charges and continues to expensive and grueling persecution.

Their next hearing is scheduled for August 17th (Readiness for Preliminary Hearing) with the actual Preliminary Hearing on August 20th (both at 9 AM in Dept. 6 before Judge Burdick). They have been ordered to personally appear at both hearings.

The only evidence police seem to have against the seven is that they were present in the building (along with hundreds of other people, including other reporters and a councilmember). Yet they are the only ones charged.

Activists said they were seeking a community center, winter shelter for the homeless, and exposure of Wells Fargo's fraudulent foreclosure practices.

For more information and to offer support, see http://www.santacruzeleven.org .

HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) is also giving out information to alert the community to a new vicious crackdown on people without shelter ("homeless people"). The city has shelter for less than 5% of its homeless, a Sleeping Ban that criminalizes ALL sleeping outside or in vehicles on public property, and an ongoing assault against homeless activists (two of whom report to jail this month to serve out six month sentences for peaceful protest).

See "USA: Human Rights Activist Ordered to Six Months of Jail, More Repression Scheduled" at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/07/29/18718520.php

For details from the police department itself on the crackdown, see http://santacruzpolice.blogspot.com/ .

The attack on "illegal campsites" ignores the fact that there is no legal camping in the city of santa cruz on any public property.

The act of sleeping after 11 PM outside on public property even without bedding, tents, or other equipment is considered "camping" if done outside or in any building not a residence.

More than 1000 homeless people are estimated to engage in this "crime" every night in Santa Cruz.
Added to the calendar on Thu, Aug 2, 2012 10:21AM

Comments (Hide Comments)
by That's frickin beautiful
No worries whenever a group decides it's going to take over another's property and commandeer it for 3 days? It's all good because you're right and they're wrong?

Screw that.
by Robert Norse
...done lately to stop Wells Fargo's fraudulent foreclosures, open up unused shelter space for homeless, and/or set up a Community Center or petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Don't raise your voice too loudly, get too visible, or confront injustices too directly.

Your next peaceful protest may result in uniformed goons threatening your person and destroying your property--no arrests at the time, but felony charges months later. And endless prosecution--no matter how spurious.

Santa Cruz authorities and their cheerleaders--leading the pack of Wells Fargo well-wishers, "Jail for [homeless] Sleep" backers and First Amendment crushers.

Check out Brent Adams video at http://www.youtube.com/user/subcommondante/featured .
by that's frickin beautiful
Decide which side of the fence you're on please: Are you protecting your right to occupy my property when you feel like it, per your first post, or are you worrying about my property for me when the authorities might destroy my property per your second post?

Or is it that you get to pick and choose whose property is protected and whose isn't? Ridiculous self-serving "logic".
by Robeft Norse
Tabling downtown was uneventful but merry today. Women in Black were there doing their weekly protest.

HUFF members and SC-11 supporters joined them with Brent Adams excellent flyer publicizing the upcoming vigil for Ed Frey on Tuesday night at the courthouse (see "How Can You Sleep At Night?" at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/08/03/18718814.php ).

No sign of cops, though a yellowjacked Host happened by. Several homeless people reported harassment and tickets from cops or rangers pushing the new Take Back Santa Cruz/Bryant City Council agenda of a city cleansed of visible homeless people.

Please phone in or post any accounts of harassment from authorities or vigilante action against homeless survival camps. 831-423-4833.
by Finally he sees the light
Maybe there is hope for our recognition of what's actually going on.
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