Feature Archives

On February 8th, 2010, the UC Santa Cruz judicial affairs office sent approximately 45 emails to various undergraduate and graduate students. The emails present a list of ten of the university codes of student conduct that had been allegedly broken by these students; these emails were identical, all including allegations of theft, destruction of property, disorderly or lewd conduct, among other codes said to have been broken at the November 2009 occupation of Kerr Hall at UCSC. Then on April 7th, 36 students received a resolution stating that they were each responsible for breaking all ten codes and would need to pay restitution. Of the 36 students, seven are faced with not only a restitution of $944, but other sanctions as well, including being immediately barred from campus, at least one suspension, and an expulsion.

On April 8th, over 200 people demonstrated in San Francisco BART stations to push for justice and accountability in the murder of Oscar Grant. Protesters took various trains and chanted "No justice, no rush" — slowing their walk onto trains in order to disrupt BART's normal rush hour schedule. Police began to try to push or pull demonstrators out of train car doorways. BART trains were disrupted and delayed about 15 minutes in both directions by the action. One person was arrested on misdemeanor charges which have since been dropped.

Tiny Garcia was arrested for the crime of living houseless in America. From that experience she co-founded POOR Magazine, a media organization that is much more than a weekly journal. Tiny describes the magazine as "a family of poverty scholars teaching on and speaking on issues of poverty, racism, disability, border fascism and indigenous resistance" in this interview with Angola 3 News.

After the recent uprisings in Portland in response to two police murders, a call has gone out for "West Coast Days of Action April 8th and 9th, From the Bay to the Sound: No More Police Killings!" The call to action reads in part: "Organize protests and autonomous actions in your own city!" Announced actions include non-violent civil disobedience at Embarcadero BART station in San Francisco on April 8th and an Anti-Police General Assembly in Portland and a march against police brutality in Seattle on April 9th.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will soon be voting on a law that would make it illegal to sit or lie on any sidewalk in San Francisco. On March 27th, actions were held across San Francisco to educate local residents that historically sit/lie laws have been discriminative in nature, and are unnecessary. San Francisco had a sit and lie law in the late 1960's through the 70's, but it was ultimately struck down because it was found to be unconstitutional.

Homeless musicians Anna Richardson and Miguel de Leon faced jail for allegedly defying laws against sleeping in Santa Cruz. The city had tried to argue that the pair were in contempt of court as they had been seen by police with blankets and all their possessions. The pair had an injunction preventing them from camping. At a court hearing on March 19th, Judge Timothy Volkman disagreed that the reports showed the pair were intending to camp. For homeless people, taking a nap with your belongings during the afternoon is not the same as camping.

Homeless musicians Anna Richardson and Miguel de Leon face 15 days in jail, 240 hours of community service, and fines of thousands of dollars for violating a court order banning them from sleeping at night after 11pm (the City's Sleeping Ban) in the downtown area of Santa Cruz. A contempt of court hearing is being held on Friday, March 19th at 9am, three months before the formal hearing on a permanent injunction.