Downtown Association Holiday Parade

Wow, thank you, Video Man! Great music. Nice visual lyric overlays.

What with the weather scheduled to rain from Thursday on, it looks like both the "Take Back Santa Cruz" and the HUFF "Feed the Foes" rallies may have to be canceled or wear snorkles.

For more on the Bumbusting Bigotry being plotted for Friday go to http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_13938488 ["Pacific Avenue 'positive loitering' rally set for Friday"] To catch the real tang of the hatred, click on the comments that follow the Sentinel article.

For the Sentinel's "story" on the parade, go to http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_13938500 ["Holiday Parade brings cheer to downtown Santa Cruz"] but hold your nose and grab your barfie bag if you click on the comments that follow.

why alter the data with captions and editing? data is data, when you put captions and text in the original data you ruin the information and evidence, and prevent the viewer from forming there own opinion

While I'm definitely a fan of raw data so that the truth can be ascertained, I'm also aware of the importance of presentation. It's a dramatic and amusing story, what happened downtown on Saturday morning. I think the videoman did a great job of putting it together, particularly since the raw footage was compromised by all the harassment.

This video is ridiculous! First, you fail to mention that HUFF did not have a permit to march in the parade. Secondly, your song attacking a police officer does not belong in a family parade with children and parents welcoming in the holidays. There is a time and place for your protest and the holiday parade is not appropriate! That woman drowned out your lyrics so that the children of the officer being attacked would not be subject to your antics. You should be ashamed of yourself!

Remember, there were two homeless people stabbed downtown this year also. I'm not sure why the Sentinel didn't mention it. Downtown may or not be dangerous, I lean towards not, but it is perceived to be. A lot of people seem to have expressed some fear, rightly or wrongly about what is going on downtown. The meetup friday will probably just be a circle jerk. But there might be some good that comes out of it. Meeting and getting to know your neighbors is always a plus. I am planning to go, unless the Sharks tickets come through. Priorities.

As for the snark on the topix board, I think that was aimed at you and not at the homeless in general. I noticed only one or two straight out anti. Almost all of it was pointed at your first post. You took and posted a list of muni codes that won't apply to the event as nobody will sit, sing or beg for change. From there, it was off to the races about how ineffectual you are.

Also Robert, the next time you're downtown, could you have a word with "Yellow B Brown"? He's going to be the "bad apple" that people say that everybody downtown is like. I ran into him Saturday at the BOA ATM next to New Leaf. He was hassling a guy at the ATM. Hounding him because he would not engage Mr Brown in conversation. He wandered off before my wife and I got to the ATM. Which was good for him. My wife would have broke him if he hassled her at the ATM. I can't imagine why he got tossed from the Subrosa, he's such a likable guy... And his antics are exactly what the city will use to bring more shit down on the homeless.

That is not true. Yellow B. Brown has not been "tossed" from Subrosa. He is welcome anytime, as are all housing challenged individuals. Unlike many downtown businesses, we do not discriminate.

If I get a chance, I'll try to wade through the tape and see if I heard it correctly. I don't think it was for housing status, it came off more about being rude and grating.

None the less. My one encounter with him worries me, as it's that sort of thing that gets the normals all into a froth.

Here is a copy of the invitation HUFF got to join the parade. HUFF was invited to join the Human Rights Fair in the parade...

Subject: second part of Instructions
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:53:35 -0800


Thank you for participating in our Second Annual Human Rights Fair. I am enclosing a copy of all the events that weekend. Also enclosed is the list of the booths in the three rooms.

Louden Nelson Center is open on Saturday Dec. 5 at 9 am. You can get a parking permit at the office if you need to leave your car more than two hours.

Please have your booth set up by 11 am and close up at 5:45 since we need to clean up.

There will be a Human Rights contingent in the Holiday Parade under the auspices of the United Nations
Association near the beginning of the parade. Please join us if you can. The Fair officially opens at 11:30 am.
There will be plenty of inexpensive delicious food made by Heavenly Nibbles in room 3.


Organizations in Room 7
LITERATURE BOOTHS CONTACT

ACLU Mike Rotkin

S.C. SCHOOL OF TAROT Amber Jayanti

*DIGITAL BRIDGE ACADEMY Natalie Cordobe-Velasquez

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTER Jan Karwin

* DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE Chris Finnie

?SECULAR HUMANIST SOCIETY OF S.C. Paula Kiehne

UU FELLOWSHIP OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY Deborah Pembrook

* S. C. COUNTY WOMEN’S COMMISSION Kymberly Lacrosse

WHOLE PLANET
WHOLE TRADE GUARANTEE Shonell

Organizations in Room 5



DOWNTOWN ASSOCIATION Melanie
?SANTA CRUZ CREDIT UNION Ginger McNally

CUBA STUDY GROUP Nancy Abbey

*MARIA VAZ PHOTO & VIDEO ARTISTIC PRODUCTIONS

WILPF Randa Solick

*The GLBT ALLIANCE Merrie Schaller


PEOPLE AGAINST CHEMICAL TRESPASS Ruth Valdez

*HUFF Robert Norse - rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com

The only thing that is offensive when singing about a police officer who harasses people for nothing but BEING there, is the fact that the officer really did harass them. It's not just a song.
Sgt. Harms is armed and dangerous. Watch out for him.
He arrests people for feeding other people food, makes people leave a spot they are sitting only because they are there and have no where else to go, and criminalizes people who are sleeping at night and have no place to sleep.
All people who think that is ok are people who care about only themselves and maybe their families.They don't care about others who have had hard times, either in their life dramas or mentally or physically.
As Scrooge said "Are there no prisons, are there no work houses?" For goodness sake! Let people alone they are trying to live.
Just because you hate them is no legal reason for them to be harassed.
They should have a legal place to sleep somewhere. But where?
If you lost your home right now and couldn't find a place to stay, would you like to get a ticket for sleeping?
This, unfortunately, will happen to many more people as this economy gets worse.
Where will they go? What will they do?

Now I know what it's like to march down Pacific while being carried upside down and backwards. I know that you want to bring us the story of the streets, but I know what pavement looks like.

The lady with the bullhorn and the people singing against you simply beat you at your own game, and that hurts your feelings. *lol*

They made a bigger spectacle of themselves than you did. They created a distrubance to interrupt your agenda, as is your wont at City Council meetings, Metro bus stations, and in front of downtown businesses.

Hilarious.

"Human Rights supporter" shows an email from the fair organizers to be in the parade, but it's not an invitation from the parade organizers to be in the parade. There's a difference. HUFF and Robert were not invited to be participants in the parade by the DTA and they/he know that. It's like when someone brings along a guest to a dinner party without telling the host of the party. Yes, the person was "invited", but not by the person who is organizing. So HUFF cannot say they were officially invited.

Bernard G made the following statement "Remember, there were two homeless people stabbed downtown this year also. I'm not sure why the Sentinel didn't mention it." Was that when the two homeless people had a fight in the Soquel Garage bathroom over a heroin needle? The fight turned into a stabbing of two other homeless people who tried to break it up. That was covered in The Sentinel. Go back and look it up.

Is that it's not mentioned now in the current list of downtown "woes". All you hear about now is the shooting on lower Pacific and the murder. The stabbing of the two in the restroom was forgotten after about a week. My fear is that it's being ignored since the victims were "only" homeless. Frankly, I think they're heros.

Yes, I agree, Bernard, they were heroes. However, I think there are SO many stabbings at this point, that unless someone dies, the Sentinel goes past these issues in a day or two. If the two had been murdered, I think it would have lasted a little longer. But either way, a story like that does indicate the general decay and problems in downtown, many caused directly by the homeless.

Robert you are full of misinformation, as usual. The Positive Loitering rally is about taking back downtown from gangs, drunks and druggies. If one of your beloved "sparechangers" is in one or more of those categories, well, then it's time for them to move on.

To quote a post from the Topix: "Robert has his panties in a wad over the "Take Back Santa Cruz" group. Poor Robert. Take Back Santa Cruz has over 1800 members, how many does HUFF have - 3?" Take Back Santa Cruz has been around for a couple of moths and has accomplished more than HUFF has in all the years they are been in Santa Cruz.

It must really suck to be you Robert.

Okay, they stepped in to help the woman. But........

From the police file on the matter... "As of this time, however, the victims have not provided any specific information regarding the suspect's names or potential whereabouts."

So they more than likely knew who did it and didn't want to get involved with apprehending them. Heroes? Really?

It's very telling that at any HUFF event you might see around 20-25 people show up. This is after over a decade of "raising awareness". In a little over a month Take Back Santa Cruz has rallied over a thousand people. What will people see on Friday? Possibly hundreds of people showing up to "raise awareness". It is proof of Robert and HUFF's ineffectiveness as serious activists. Don't get me wrong, I think Robert has some very valid points. But he is incapable of getting tie in from the community. He should seriously re-think his tactics if he ever hopes to get anything done. On the other hand, it may be too late for him. The community is obviously not interested in what he has to say any more. The parade drove that point home.

I'm not seeing why there's a perception of a need to compete. Two different standpoints- one is trends , one is creating something using trends, and varying the use of holiday songs. Probably it's more peaceful to not use so beloved Christmas song melodies as a basis for protest lyrics, but what is so confrontational? Anyway, did she have a permit to use a bullhorn?Everyone must state their attitude, luckily, and no one is excluded. Well sometimes everyone is more open to one point of view and not to another, thus the competition for street time . It's a democracy, supposedly, still, and we still have rights to express- so just let it be. Robert probably is too defensive, and so are the others wanting street expression equal time. More volume is not always the wisest.

Robert says "For the Sentinel's "story" on the parade go to ["Holiday Parade brings cheer to downtown Santa Cruz"] but hold your nose and grab your barfie bag if you click on the comments that follow."

It's always the same. If you don't agree with Robert you're nothing more than puke.

When will Robert understand that having an opinion different to his is okay?

Maybe when he realizes this he might start accomplishing things.

For someone that cries bigotry at the drop of a hat, he gives us a good example of what one is.

SHADOW WRITES: "It's always the same. If you don't agree with Robert you're nothing more than puke. When will Robert understand that having an opinion different to his is okay?"

BECKY: His opinion that many of the comments on TOPIX will make you barf doesn't seem to be "okay" with you. Frankly, he's right. Many of the comments are abusive, gross, offensive, and bigoted. That is a fact. Why do you think that only you and your ilk should be allowed to comment? HUFF activists have been attempting to influence the public perception of homelessness and to expose City Hall shenanigans for over a decade now. HUFF's work is not insignificant. But given the entrenched nature of the Merchant class and the City Council, our battle is uphill. Many, many cities across the country are following Santa Cruz' example and passing a myriad of laws to harass homeless people and to criminalize homelessness.

Becky continuously provides a link to her "blog" in her comments. Her site has advertising links that Becky has the ability to profit from. If people click on the ads enough she could make some serious cash. A very capitalistic and greedy move on her part. She has already been warned on other web comment sections to stop doing this as it is a violation of terms. I kindly ask the Indybay monitors to ask that Becky stop this activity. It is against the ideals of this site that a person post with the hopes of reaping personal profit.

Please make it stop.

Is DEEJ trying to say that Indybay shouldn't allow links to sites that host advertising?

Has DEEJ ever had this problem before with , say a link to the New York Times, which, last I heard, is hosting advertising and can profit from that?

Or is DEEJ just trying to coax Indybay monitors into censorship? I think the latter.

Stop it.

Judging from Becky's comment above she admits to using Indybay as a portal for making money and profit off of her posting on Indybay. Indybay should be careful when letting people pursue capitalistic endeavors via their site. This is not about censorship. This is about people hoping to make a profit off of the good work trying to be done on this site.

Didn't take her 30 minutes to quickly challenge the complaint about her, so it leads one to believe she likes the income and is ready to protect it.

The comparison to the N.Y. Times is preposterous and irrelevant, an obvious attempt at sidestepping Becky. Are you suggesting that the owners of the N.Y. Times are posting here and linking to their articles for the personal profit? Because that's the complaint against you. There is a big difference between a third party posting it and the owner who stands to profit posting it for their own personal gain.

In your own words, Stop It.

The homeless section of Becky's website/blog is a useful resource for indybay readers who are interested in local homeless rights struggles. See http://beckyjohnsononewomantalking.blogspot.com/search/label/Homeless and http://beckyjohnsononewomantalking.blogspot.com/search/label/HUFF .

Another interesting blog is Linda Lemaster's http://hearthbylinda.blogspot.com/ . Linda chaired the Homeless Issues Task Force 1999-2000. Their report can be found at http://www.cabinc.org/Research/HTFFinalReport.htm .

Judging by my own experience with peacemovies.com, Becky would be lucky to be making one cent per month off of the advertising click throughs on her site. Personally, I get about 1 or 2 clicks per month through to the Amazon.com web site that I'm trying to sell movies from. And no way is there anything like 70% of the click throughs who buy from me like what Amazon.com claims. (No sales yet.) Big deal. Get a life. More important is the content of her site other than advertising. Also, some bloggers may be using sites that host advertising that they don't personally profit from such as angelfire, etc.

Quoting: "The homeless section of Becky's website/blog is a useful resource for indybay readers who are interested in local homeless rights struggles. See http://beckyjohnsononewomantalking.blogspot.com/search/label/Homeless and http://beckyjohnsononewomantalking.blogspot.com/search/label/HUFF .

Another interesting blog is Linda Lemaster's http://hearthbylinda.blogspot.com/ . Linda chaired the Homeless Issues Task Force 1999-2000. Their report can be found at http://www.cabinc.org/Research/HTFFinalReport.htm ."

Thank you for the direct links for Becky's blog. It's easier when you don't have to wade through the Zionist stuff. And for Linda's blog - 5 posts in 5 months is not "interesting".

Hard ta keep up w/the world around me -- I finally got to watch this wonderful movie from a quiet place - calmly, without bias. (this yr I made it down there . . .) It's great! Has anyone submitted this for play @ community tv? It's the kind of creative work that gets better n better w/age. I laughed.