After a lively debate, Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom (HUFF) voted to endorse a "mellow" but visible presence on the corner of Laurel and Center Streets in front of the Santa Cruz Police Department parking lot, that was held on September 17. Since 2013, HUFF has received complaints about officer Barnett of the SCPD targeting homeless residents for minor offenses, and the organization pressed the department to release the citations he has issued.

Robert Norse of HUFF writes: "Our initial impetus for the road trip to the SCPD HQ was to search citations by Officer Barnett for race. Our goal was to see if he had found a crime wave for such public safety hazards as "smoking in a no smoking zone", "trespass in a public parking lot", "panhandling" "sitting within 14' of a building". And whether such citations disproportionately targeted homeless and minority people."

"We wanted to go forward with a small but visible and vocal presence near the SCPD to encourage the rest of the community that our police are not above criticism and accountability--or should not be at any rate. And that we and others should not be afraid to expose the nightly abuse homeless people suffer and the racial profiling that many blacks & Latinos I've spoken to quietly acknowledge happens here in 'liberal' Santa Cruz."

Read More with PDF of Citations Issued by Officer Barnett | Photos and Video: Protesters Demand Faster Response from SCPD Regarding Records Requests | Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom | See Also: Be on the Lookout for "Bad News" Barnett: Bully in Light Blue on the Beat!

Related Indybay Feature: Santa Cruz Police and First Alarm Brutalize and Arrest People for Being Black and Homeless