On two successive Wednesdays, December 26th and January 2nd, police officers ordered a peaceful drum circle to leave the parking lot on Cedar Street alongside the Santa Cruz Farmers Market. On December 26th, Sargent Dan Flippo stated that the Farmers Market folks had "complained" about the drum circle, however there was no Farmers Market that day. The police are enforcing a new municipal ordinance, which went into effect in mid-November, that activists refer to as the 'Parking Lot Panic Law.' The merchant-backed law prohibits lingering in a parking lot or garage unless you have a vehicle there (and then only for fifteen minutes). Anything else (waiting in your car for a friend, eating lunch, talking to friends, playing music...) is trespassing, illegal, will get you hassled by Santa Cruz's finest, and, ultimately, fined. Read More | Download a pdf of the ordinance

The Santa Cruz Trash Orchestra stress that the new law and eviction of the drum circle are "merely the newest battle of a war in Santa Cruz. A war against dissent, against the poor, against the homeless, and now against people making music." The Trash Orchestra played music at the Santa Cruz Farmers Market on January 9th in solidarity with other musicians and friends. Read More and Watch a Video

see also: And the Beat Goes On at the Cathcart Parking Lot | Drum Circle and Food Not Bombs at Santa Cruz Farmers Market | Previous SC-IMC Coverage of the 'Parking Lot Panic Law'