Feature Archives

Gary Johnson is a homeless activist who maintained a nightly protest at the Santa Cruz Courthouse from late December until earlier January against local and state laws which criminalize the basic human necessity to sleep. Johnson, who slept next to a sign which stated "6.36.010 647(e) A LEGACY OF CRUELTY", was arrested four times for "lodging" in violation of Penal Code 647(e) and "trespassing" PC 602(o) during his protests. A jury trial was held March 20th-22nd at the Santa Cruz Courthouse, the publicly owned building which Johnson slept in front of. About an hour after assembling, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all four counts of "illegal lodging".

On March 1st, hundreds of students at the University of California Santa Cruz, with the aid of local community members, built a tent university at the base of campus as part of a coordinated day of Occupy Education actions statewide. A general strike with regards to the main campus was also planned, and students blocked both entrances to the university, which effectively shutdown UCSC for approximately 16 hours. In the words of one UC police officer that day, "students have taken control of the campus."

Santa Cruz County District Attorney Bob Lee has embarked on a full frontal assault against independent media in Santa Cruz by including four regular contributors to the independent news website Indybay.org amongst the eleven people charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors after the occupation of a vacant bank building on November 30th, 2011. District Attorney Lee is attempting to dictate how events such as the occupation of the vacant bank at 75 River Street should be reported on by the media.

Monsanto closed its facility in Davis, California on March 16th after 150 occupiers from throughout the state blocked the entrances to their Davis facility at 1910 5th Street. The occupiers reported that they shut down operations at the corporate giant, which produces genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and is notorious for its inordinate influence over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

On March 3rd, the Student Environmental Center at UC Santa Cruz hosted the 11th Annual Campus Earth Summit. This year's Campus Earth Summit included student-led workshops on a wide-variety of subjects, live performances, and keynote talks by Santa Cruz Mayor Don Lane and Eric Holt-Giménez of Food First.

On December 31st, 2011, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012, codifying indefinite military detention without charge or trial into law for the first time in American history. The NDAA’s dangerous detention provisions would authorize the president — and all future presidents — to order the military to pick up and indefinitely imprison people captured anywhere in the world, far from any battlefield.

On February 27, several dozen community members involved with Occupy Santa Cruz joined in a solidarity march with occupies across the country and the world, protesting repression of the occupy movement and the associated police violence. The march started from the Santa Cruz County court house occupation location of Occupy Santa Cruz, and it made its way through the downtown to City Hall, where a candlelight vigil was held.