Copwatching in Downtown Santa Cruz

Coming on the heels of a successful Copwatch several weeks ago (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/12/11/18554486.php)HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) and HRO (Human Rights Organization) will be back downtown Tuesday afternoon.

Our petitions urge the removal and prosecution of bad cops, the dropping of concocted charges against poor and homeless people, cutting back the fat police budget, and restoring transparency and accountability to the SCPD and its affiliated agencies and support groups.

We'll be doing a little informal training on how to deal with false information and selective enforcement from SCPD. Such incidents include Officer Winston's phony demand that musicians stop playing music for donation after dark, Officer Forbus's recent false arrest of a HUFF activist for offering information to a homeless couple being harassed for marijuana use, or the differential standard where cops spit on the street at will, but then give tickets to homeless people who do so in the rain.

Join us. Bring cameras, notebooks, audio equipment, signs, songs, and sass.



We hope to video police patrols and accompany officers to encourage those they contact to be aware of their rights in such encounters.