Brazen Squaredance Friday (5/18)

What? Willfully violating the 15-min Law? Don't you know that the City fathers and mothers ---led by Vice-Mayor Ryan Coonerty who was concerned about his Dad's customers "feelings", wrote a law which prohibits members of the public peacefully assembling on public property for a public gathering--should it last longer than 15 minutes?

Shameful willful law-breakers!!!

How dare you don your dancing shoes when innocent Bookshop Santa Cruz customers might "feel uncomfortable" should they see a person who appears down on their luck, is perhaps a person of color, or might be (gasp!!) dancing???

P.S. the Downtown Commission is meeting THursday, May 24th to consider expanding the criminalization of being in a parking structure to ALL of the City's surface parking lots----

The following e-mail was rejected when feedback was rejected by the freeskool on the outcome of the Brazen Squaredance event and apparently did not get out to Free Skoolers. I hope the folks pick it up and pass it on to others who might be interested.


>From: "Robert Norse" <rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com>
>To: freeskoolsc [at] riseup.net
>Cc: freeskool-sc [at] lists.riseup.net
>Subject: RE: [freeskool-sc] Gotta Brazen Reportback?
>Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 12:46:58 -0700

>Congrats to the Brazen Brigade for both taking back public space in the parking garage and doing so on the Pacific Ave. sidewalk as well.
>
>I would hope that the next time the Brazen Squaredancers schedule an event in the parking garage that they collude with homeless advocates trying to take back those garages other than for Squaredancing.
>
>I contacted Rico before the event and got a thumbs down on the prospect of calling the media, police, and city council about the event. The purpose of this would not have been to embarrass or discomfort the dancers (though it would have been a complication if police had actually tried to enforce the law). But to provide documentation that (a) police are declining to enforce the law and so when they attack homeless people alone, they are doing so selectively and unconstitutionally, and (b) dramatize for the May 24 next meeting of the Downtown Commission that the old law is absurd and unworkable.
>
>I was talked out of this idea with the suggestion that police had appeared and perhaps been photographed in the past at such events and that such documentation could be used without spoiling everyone's party this time.
>
>I have found no such documentation, but if anyone has it, I'd love to see it, since people are being harassed and reportedly ticketed in the four parking garages and in Parking Lot #10 where the 15- minute trespass law has been in effect since last summer and enforced since last winter.
>
>The Downtown Commission is now considering a police/public works proposal to expand the ban (for all who have no vehicles or bikes) and the 15-minute limit (for those parking cars or bikes) to ALL city parking lots, removing 6-8 square blocks of public space.
>
>It comes up 8:30 AM Thursday morning at 809 Center St. (City Council Chambers). The number to call if you want to denounce this crap is James Burr at 420-5426 or perhaps Sheila Coonerty, Downtown Commission member and ACLU (!) co-director (at least she was).
>
>Mixing dancing and human rights direct action is a great idea. I'm sorry it apparently didn't happen on Friday in the parking garage.
>
>There is a massive crackdown going on along the river, in the Pogonip, and downtown against folks outdoors for innocent behavior in public spaces like "loitering" and sleeping at night. Parks and Recreation now has 3 more park rangers, quadrupling its force, and four CSO's (Community Service Officers) to patrol with them.

>Such brazen poicing requires some brazen coptaming.
>
>May the brazen community get more brazen.
>
>Robert Norse


Sadly it seems that the freeskool mailing list censors are more brazen than anyone.

I still hope that those with any documentation of police presence at prior Square Dance events will come forward.

And I hope that folks will stand up, not just for a twice-a-year symbolic fiestas. But also for the rights of folks who have few choices and risk humiliatrion, harassment, and arrest every night for simply walking into a parking structure.

If the SCPD has its way any public parking lot in town will be fair game.

Can you say Adios to Wednesday Food Not Bombs & the Drumming Circle get togethers?

The Brazen Squaredance Association and Free Skool Santa Cruz host this sporadic Santa Cruz event, in which scores of squaredancers take over public space, moving to increasingly brazen locations, eventually taking over the streets, literally. A kind of movable feast of old-timey dancing. Fliers and posters circulated around town promised rollicking live music, dancing in the streets, and reclaiming public space.

This time well-loved caller Mavis McGaugh stepped up to call and Karen (of Amy and Karen) played with a rollicking old-time band including musicians from Blackbird Raum and Curse Is Cast. Mavis provided squaredance instruction before each dance.

Dancers gathered at 5:30 on a Friday evening at the top of the River Street parking garage (violating the absurd 15-minute parking lot trespassing law). As a stop-gap between the arrival of the caller and all the musicians, the author stepped up to run the many new dancers through some of the basic squaredance and contra dance calls and moves. Alamand left your neighbor, do-si-do your partner, all join hands and circle up left.

Mavis arrived and charmed us through two or three dances on top of the parking structure all lit in golden sunset light. Then we moved the dance to our old Brazen standby Cooper and Pacific. There a Santa Cruz cop stepped into the middle of a reel and we hooted and hollered and danced around him thinking for sure, seeing all the fun, he just wanted to join in.

Turns out, no, the police had gotten complaints from O'Neil's Surf Shop who couldn't stand to see people dancing outside for free when they should be inside the store buying overpriced surfwear. After the cop explained this, we offered a rousing chorus of boos to the killjoys inside the store. We turned one of the sets 90 degrees to avoid the 15 feet no-go zone in front of merchant doorways (another repressive Santa Cruz law) and continued the dance.

After a few dances, we moved to our next increasingly brazen location at Lincoln and Cedar. We walked through the dance in the (soon to be doomed) Farmer's Market parking lot. Then when the band and the dancers were ready, we moved to the middle of Lincoln Street and began dancing. At first drivers were confused, then frustrated, then resigned all in quick succession, like stages of automobile-bound grief. After that, dancers formed a de facto street barricade.

A patrol car showed up and a uniformed officer shouted that we had to get out of the street. The musicians on the sidewalk kept playing and the dancers kept dancing. Our cop-tamer went over to serve his role as police liaison only to realize that the uniformed man was merely a security guard feeling some sort of duty to keep his city's streets free of cavorting, frolicking dancers. After that, the rent-a-cop's protests were largely ignored. However, he continued to block all approaches to the intersection with his car while he made frantic calls on his radio. Dancers thanked him afterward for providing an effective roadblock.

Several waltzes later back in the parking lot, we called it an amazing evening.

Photos and video at http://scartconspiracy.blogspot.com/