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UCSC Police Visit Tree-Sit, Sweep, Leave
This morning's tactical visit to the Science Hill Tree Sit involved a cherry-picker, street sweeper, a dumpster's worth of branches, a work crew, lots of familiar cop faces, and the removal of the larger banner from between two of the platforms.
It seems that they came prepared for a full eviction/extraction, but decided to just lend a hand and 'clean up' a bit, instead. Garden boxes, debris shelters, a display board with information, tibetan prayer flags, pallets and banners...
It was all collected in the dumpster and carted away.
In years past, UCSC has moved during scheduled vacations to destroy contested spaces and log forest to develop land for expansion. Without being *too* speculative, it looks like this may have been an information-gathering mission, where police were able to gauge community support (who came to support and when), gain temporary access to the base of the trees, and confirm information about the setup for the three platforms. They also came out in force, with all the tools necessary for a full-scale eviction/extraction, intimidating treesitters and supporters on the ground.
In other words, they got the information they need to plan an extraction.
It was all collected in the dumpster and carted away.
In years past, UCSC has moved during scheduled vacations to destroy contested spaces and log forest to develop land for expansion. Without being *too* speculative, it looks like this may have been an information-gathering mission, where police were able to gauge community support (who came to support and when), gain temporary access to the base of the trees, and confirm information about the setup for the three platforms. They also came out in force, with all the tools necessary for a full-scale eviction/extraction, intimidating treesitters and supporters on the ground.
In other words, they got the information they need to plan an extraction.
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