top
Santa Cruz IMC
Santa Cruz IMC
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

New Year's Eve Report

by Becky Johnson & Robert Norse
Hopefully some photos of the DIY parade will be appearing soon on indybay. I was in the uncustomarily short and brief 5 PM parade as was activist Becky Johnson, whose comments I reprint from the Sentinel's brief New Year's story spotlighting (as usual) the SCPD and the smug Deputy-Chief Steve Clark.
Becky's Comments:

"We watched cops cite 2 homeless men for sitting on concrete lip between sidewalk & parking lot next to Union Grove music. They were sitting quietly watching the parade. Police returned to arrest one man (who was drunk) and take him to jail. A little later I saw 6 cops in front of Betty's Burgers surrounding a young homeless man sitting on a bench. He was eventually issued a citation: for having a puppy on the mall after dark!! Another (homeless) man was panhandling near the bus station. He'd put his sign away and was packing up when he was cited for "panhandling after dark." Finally, Sherry Conable saw police citing a homeless woman for having her dog tied to a pole. The only common thread in these citations is that ALL of those cited or arrested were homeless. Many dogs (perhaps a dozen) appeared in the DIY parade without a single citation issued to them. Selective enforcement, Santa Cruz style!"

My thoughts:

In past years the DIY parade assembled in the parking lot behind the Saturn Cafe. Now that that lot has been turned into a Walgreen's annex (along with some phony greenery), there was little (though some) of that.

I taped an interview with Arthur Hull, drummeister, and numerous other paraders--which I'll be playing later today on Free Radio (back on the air again, however briefly!). It can be heard 6-8 PM at 101.3, streams at http://tunein.com/radio/FRSC-s47254/ . The show will be archived at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb140102.mp3 .

I was surprised that the drummers left the parade to assemble in front of O'Neill's on the sidewalk instead of in the street, as was customary. The parade was not only unusually short, but also very brief, surrendering the street quickly to join the drummers on the sidewalk. One brave Big Ball Bouncer kept playing bouncy-bouncy with the sparse crowd in the street while others crowded onto the sidewalk.

There were still a lot of smiles and traditional fun floats and vehicles. Out of respect for walkers, I kept my exhaust-heavy stickermobile out of the parade.

The Sentinel's police hand-out can be found at http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/santacruz/ci_24830693/smaller-crowd-fewer-arrests-new-years-eve-santa as well as the usual trolltalk in the comments that follow.

It's ironic that as political thugs and creeps nationally seem on the retreat (Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, the rebellion against NSA spying); in Santa Cruz the crackdown seems poised to intensify under Mayor "Rattlesnake" Robinson.

I've already received word that I shall be required at City Council to stand or sit by my tape recorder if I wish to record Council sessions. We unfortunately live in "interesting times" as Chinese sages used to curse their adversaries.

Officer Winston, to top things off, is reportedly back on the downtown beat.

Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by (posted by) Norse
https://www.facebook.com/LastNightDIY
by (posted by) Norse
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/santacruz/ci_24827278/new-years-eve-parade-takes-streets-downtown-santa has a sympathetic story by Gomez as well as a number of video links. It's a little depressing when the Sentinel is posting more coverage on the DIY than participants and sympathetic observers. However, the parade speaks joyfully for itself in however muffled tones.
by Guy Fawkes
guy.jpeg
Robert may not have been present but a certain person in a Guy Fawkes mask turned the parade back in the opposite direction. This is no small feat given there were two difficult to steer quadcycles, one super massive white peace dove and scores of somewhat resistant people. This is now a 2 year tradition as someone did the same thing last year. This year the parade simply returned to the site of the drummers at O'niell's dancing, drumming and making merry. Did you really miss all that?
by Razer Ray
because..._non-serviam.jpg
The senile pretty much coopted the post-DIY parade PR with a front page piece on how "Family Friendly" it really is and proposed that 'a good time was had by all'. Expect more mainstream society revelers next year, and the year after, until it looks like a Google Bus commuter parade of NTSB legal, well-lit Kleins and other bikes that cost as much as some people pay a year for housing around here.

About the mask, and the attached picture, and the 'tude the mask itself does not necessarily represent (any more than a Black Bloc 'uniform' represents a backgrounding in Anarchist theory)

From Theo Roszak's "Making of a counterculture":

[---] …Nicola Chiaromonte tells us that dissenters "must detach themselves, must become resolute "heretics." They must detach themselves quietly, without shouting or riots, indeed in silence and secrecy; not alone but in groups, in real "societies" that will create, as far as possible, a life that is independent and wise… . It would be … a non-rhetorical form of "total rejection."[---]

As a heretic, I'd say it would be REALLY NICE to HAVE something to celebrate, but anyone whose actually watched what the city government has done over the last few years should know better.

More about Theo Roszak’s book and a download link for the (free) eBook

http://auntieimperial.tumblr.com/post/70759531647
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network