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Indybay Feature

Stop Pamela Comstock, Take Back Santa Cruz

by Surf City Locals
Pamela Comstock is one of the founding members of TAKE BACK SANTA CRUZ, a group that claims to advocate for public safety, but what has their role in the community really been? VIGILANTISM, PARANOIA, AND LIES.
pamela-comstock-75-river-street_9-21-12.jpg
(Photo: Pamela Comstock campaign sign at 75 River St.)


Pamela Comstock is one of the only candidates to not accept voluntary campaign spending limits. She has raised more money than anyone in this city council race. Her money has paid for nice-looking glossy fliers, but they only tell half the story.

Pamela Comstock is one of the founding members of TAKE BACK SANTA CRUZ, a group that claims to advocate for public safety, but what has their role in the community really been?

VIGILANTISM, PARANOIA, AND LIES

Take Back Santa Cruz has spread vicious lies about people with whom they disagree. Their lies have stirred up vigilantism and mob-mentality, and they have refused to work with anyone who has a difference of opinion.

Pamela Comstock, founding member of Take Back Santa Cruz, is not the kind of person this city needs on city council!

Say "NO! I won't vote for Pamela Comstock. I believe in actual community building through dialogue, and mutual support, not by under-handed fear tactics." Then spread the word!

On May 2, 2010, Take Back Santa Cruz sent an email to all their hundreds of members on Facebook accusing an innocent person of rioting. They were very specific, naming him by name and providing the address of his employer and the business he owns. They had no tips from the police, no inside scoop from the DA. In fact they had no evidence at all. The person they accused was never charged for rioting, and, in fact, was never even formally investigated. Take Back Santa Cruz took the law into their own hands simply because they disagree with his politics. Within a day their target’s photo and home address were published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on-line forums. He started receiving death threats, and even his teenage son was the target of violence and harassment.

A month later, a group of Nonviolent Communication practitioners organized the “Downtown Dialogues” to bring folks together to talk about how violence downtown had affected them, and to seek community oriented solutions. Take Back Santa Cruz was repeatedly invited, but they pointedly refused. Individuals tried to invite them to private conflict-resolution meetings, but Take Back Santa Cruz ignored the invitations. Take Back Santa Cruz even refused to meet with a group of Santa Cruz High students who were organizing a peace forum, citing political differences with the teacher adviser of the group.

In December of the same year Take Back Santa Cruz continued their campaign of paranoid lies, holding a press conference to attack the ever-peaceful, family-oriented DIY Last Night Parade. A Take Back Santa Cruz spokesperson lied on prime-time television claiming that parade organizers had made threats. She linked the parade to the May Day riots, though the parade had occurred for 5 years with nothing but joyful family fun.

Furthermore, from the start, Take Back Santa Cruz has made their mission clear: to get rid of people they consider undesirable. They want wealthy property owners to "take back" the town from folks who are somehow less deserving. When they first started, the ugly rhetoric on their facebook page made this idea clear. Comments like "we need to drive the undesirables out of town" and "we should go downtown and start hitting all the undesirables with sticks" were prominent on their wall. Other comments expressing concern over trading liberty for a police state were immediately deleted. Anyone who disagreed in the slightest was blocked from seeing their page.

Take Back Santa Cruz has engaged in mob-mentality vigilantism and paranoid lying. They refuse to work with anyone who disagrees with their politics. They are reactionary fear mongers. The founder of such a group is not the kind of person this city needs on city council. ON ELECTION DAY, SAY “NO” TO PAMELA COMSTOCK.

When you go to the polls and vote for city council, don't vote for Pamela Comstock. Tell all your friends to say "No!" to Pamela Comstock for city council
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