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Community Campout Ends with Citations
On July 4, community members in Santa Cruz held a public campout at Santa Cruz City Hall, but it was quickly cut short by police at about 1am. The campout was organized in response to the recent reduction of services at the Homeless Services Center that occurred due to a funding deficit, as well as to protest local laws that criminalize sleeping outdoors. [Top photo: Police issue citations to clear the community campout from Santa Cruz City Hall. Scroll down for more photos.]
Organizers announced in advance of the protest that a location for the campout would be decided at a meeting to follow the July 4 Food Not Bombs dinner at the post office in downtown Santa Cruz. At an assembly on the steps of the post office, a group of about 40 people voted to camp in the courtyard at City Hall, which would be an act of civil disobedience as the area is closed to public use at night.
To address sanitary needs, organizers rented a portable restroom, which was to be towed to City Hall on a small trailer. The plan was complicated when police pulled over the truck towing the port-a-potty. Attorney and sleep activist Ed Frey was at the wheel of the truck, which police say they stopped because it was missing the proper tail lights, however an officer was first seen taking down the vehicle's license plate number at the post office where it was parked earlier.
It appeared that police weren't going to allow the porta-a-potty to be towed any further, but individuals became more vocal with officers, and eventually Deputy Chief of Police Rick Martinez arrived. As a solution, one organizer convinced him of the necessity of a police escort to City Hall, as it wasn't very far away. Martinez agreed. The police car that initially pulled over the truck then escorted the port-a-potty the approximately three blocks distance to City Hall.
After their arrival, about 25 people set themselves up to sleep in various locations around City Hall's courtyard. Some snuggled into free sleeping bags, and others ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, both of which were provided by the organizers.
Eventually, all of the people who weren't planning to sleep at the protest left, and by midnight most present were quiet and attempting to sleep. Fireworks could still be heard and seen in the sky as 4th of July continued to be celebrated in various parts of the city.
At 1am a group of 22 police officers, led by Deputy Chief Martinez, showed up at City Hall. Some of those who were sleeping quickly rose and avoided being cited, but others refused to move in an act of civil disobedience.
At least eight individuals were issued infraction citations for refusing to leave City Hall. Those cited include homeless activists Rabbi Philip Posner, Abbi Samuels, and Robert Norse.
After warning individuals they had to leave City Hall, the police themselves left. The group of protesters remained in the courtyard for some time after that deciding what to do. Eventually they chose to reconvene for breakfast in front of the post office in the morning.
The campout was originally called for by activists from a variety of organizations, including Santa Cruz Food Not Bombs, Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom (HUFF), residents and refugees from the Coral St. complex, UCSC students, Camp of Last Resort workers, the Homeless Legal Persons Assistance Project, and others.
Alex Darocy
http://alexdarocy.blogspot.com/
All images copyright Alex Darocy. Re-use by permission only.
To address sanitary needs, organizers rented a portable restroom, which was to be towed to City Hall on a small trailer. The plan was complicated when police pulled over the truck towing the port-a-potty. Attorney and sleep activist Ed Frey was at the wheel of the truck, which police say they stopped because it was missing the proper tail lights, however an officer was first seen taking down the vehicle's license plate number at the post office where it was parked earlier.
It appeared that police weren't going to allow the porta-a-potty to be towed any further, but individuals became more vocal with officers, and eventually Deputy Chief of Police Rick Martinez arrived. As a solution, one organizer convinced him of the necessity of a police escort to City Hall, as it wasn't very far away. Martinez agreed. The police car that initially pulled over the truck then escorted the port-a-potty the approximately three blocks distance to City Hall.
After their arrival, about 25 people set themselves up to sleep in various locations around City Hall's courtyard. Some snuggled into free sleeping bags, and others ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, both of which were provided by the organizers.
Eventually, all of the people who weren't planning to sleep at the protest left, and by midnight most present were quiet and attempting to sleep. Fireworks could still be heard and seen in the sky as 4th of July continued to be celebrated in various parts of the city.
At 1am a group of 22 police officers, led by Deputy Chief Martinez, showed up at City Hall. Some of those who were sleeping quickly rose and avoided being cited, but others refused to move in an act of civil disobedience.
At least eight individuals were issued infraction citations for refusing to leave City Hall. Those cited include homeless activists Rabbi Philip Posner, Abbi Samuels, and Robert Norse.
After warning individuals they had to leave City Hall, the police themselves left. The group of protesters remained in the courtyard for some time after that deciding what to do. Eventually they chose to reconvene for breakfast in front of the post office in the morning.
The campout was originally called for by activists from a variety of organizations, including Santa Cruz Food Not Bombs, Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom (HUFF), residents and refugees from the Coral St. complex, UCSC students, Camp of Last Resort workers, the Homeless Legal Persons Assistance Project, and others.
Alex Darocy
http://alexdarocy.blogspot.com/
All images copyright Alex Darocy. Re-use by permission only.
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The citing officers don't look familiar. Are they in the Take Back Santa Cruz (TBSC) contingent of the Santa Cruz Police Department?
It's interesting to note, no camping or sleeping cites. "Closed Area" (I'll leave it to RN to state the muni code). I suspect the SCPD is nervous about camping tickets at the moment because the grand jury just told Santa Cruz to clean up it's 'homeless act' even as the shelter was downsizing and there's talk if the city spending millions of dollars to finance Internet infrastructure development, which if my hunch is right, comes from HUD business development money that a city worker giving a presentation about it last year clearly stated was for "Brick & Mortar" types of businesses. I suppose the city's legal beagles told them to give it a go anyway. If no one notices they sure aren't going to have to tear that cabling out or return the money for use appropriately.
I think under these circumstances the SCPD MIGHT find courts hard pressed to go against the grain of that grand jury and begin actually throwing out the tickets until such a time as the city shows SOME WILLINGNESS to comply with the grand jury's wishes.
Last night after the post-fnb Robert and Steve show. The consensus was one action a week on Saturdays until the group reaches some sort of 'critical mass' in numbers.
Next Saturday @ 10am the action will be at the roundabout by ̶B̶a̶r̶n̶a̶r̶d̶'̶s̶ ̶S̶t̶a̶r̶ the boardwalk to get the tourist's attention. Community Campout is Hamstrung on camping actions until Ed Frey gets the portajohn's lighting/license issue squared away.
Ed was speaking of a lawsuit based on a state code he found that apparently REQUIRES all county and municipal governments to take into account the health and welfare of ALL citizens (I KNEW that had to be in there somewhere if not the state constitution)
But PERSONALLY (with a vengeance) I think economic sabotage is the ONLY thing the freaks who run this burg understand. I want to swarm downtown at the height of tourist season with food 'spangers' handing out fliers to the tourists explaining how the Santa Cruz grand jury just told their governments to 'get off their asses' about homeless services and the response was to let their shitty dysfunctional 'shelter' fail, and to target millions of dollars, which as I stated above I strongly suspect is HUD job/business development money, to internet infrastructure development so they can further gentrify Santa Cruz by bringing people from elsewhere, WHO ALREADY HAVE JOBS, to pay the inflated rents around here .
And if economic sabotage doesn't work... See the photo.
I think under these circumstances the SCPD MIGHT find courts hard pressed to go against the grain of that grand jury and begin actually throwing out the tickets until such a time as the city shows SOME WILLINGNESS to comply with the grand jury's wishes.
Last night after the post-fnb Robert and Steve show. The consensus was one action a week on Saturdays until the group reaches some sort of 'critical mass' in numbers.
Next Saturday @ 10am the action will be at the roundabout by ̶B̶a̶r̶n̶a̶r̶d̶'̶s̶ ̶S̶t̶a̶r̶ the boardwalk to get the tourist's attention. Community Campout is Hamstrung on camping actions until Ed Frey gets the portajohn's lighting/license issue squared away.
Ed was speaking of a lawsuit based on a state code he found that apparently REQUIRES all county and municipal governments to take into account the health and welfare of ALL citizens (I KNEW that had to be in there somewhere if not the state constitution)
But PERSONALLY (with a vengeance) I think economic sabotage is the ONLY thing the freaks who run this burg understand. I want to swarm downtown at the height of tourist season with food 'spangers' handing out fliers to the tourists explaining how the Santa Cruz grand jury just told their governments to 'get off their asses' about homeless services and the response was to let their shitty dysfunctional 'shelter' fail, and to target millions of dollars, which as I stated above I strongly suspect is HUD job/business development money, to internet infrastructure development so they can further gentrify Santa Cruz by bringing people from elsewhere, WHO ALREADY HAVE JOBS, to pay the inflated rents around here .
And if economic sabotage doesn't work... See the photo.
Great opportunity to familiarize newer SCPDers with local protest abeyance procedures. Enforcers came early, waited, moved in and took over.
Scores:
Citations 7
Publicity -
Best Real Time Coverage - beckyjohnson222
Best Post Play - rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com
Best Photojournalism - Alex Darocy
Sentinel - It never happened
Scores:
Citations 7
Publicity -
Best Real Time Coverage - beckyjohnson222
Best Post Play - rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com
Best Photojournalism - Alex Darocy
Sentinel - It never happened
Then why is the Police Station only open during Business hours? In a City of 60K, that would mean more than 1000 Cops for Santa Cruz. Last time I checked there are less than 150.
Compared to socioculturally similar towns in California (tourist towns with UC campuses for example) Santa Cruz has the most cops.
Steve Schnaar quoted the stats at the city council public safety meeting a while back to debunk the public safety commission's statement that the SCPD was understaffed. You should contact him for the exact statistics but note that SIMPLE PER-CAPITA counts tend to be a misleading dataset.
Ps. The city did hire a bunch of new cops a while back. A number of women were hired, and one kid who looks like he's still too young to shave. I hear he's been bullying and intimidating young people, and he's got a gun!
Steve Schnaar quoted the stats at the city council public safety meeting a while back to debunk the public safety commission's statement that the SCPD was understaffed. You should contact him for the exact statistics but note that SIMPLE PER-CAPITA counts tend to be a misleading dataset.
Ps. The city did hire a bunch of new cops a while back. A number of women were hired, and one kid who looks like he's still too young to shave. I hear he's been bullying and intimidating young people, and he's got a gun!
There are about 100 officers, including the Chiefs, with the SCPD. Here is the 2014 list of officers: https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/07/21/18758915.php
697 x 100 = 69,700
If the chiefs are subtracted from the list, the number gets closer to the US census figures posted for the SC population.
697 x 100 = 69,700
If the chiefs are subtracted from the list, the number gets closer to the US census figures posted for the SC population.
After only covering one downtown city block, two traffic citations were issued. These activists need to work on basic legal responsibility prior to setting out.
Rather than harassing the campout, scpd simply enforced basic traffic laws.
Rather than squash the campout, Deputy Chief Rick Martinez told campers via Phil Posner at the very beginning of the campout that they'd likely face citations due to being in a park after hours.
FAIR WARNING.
I'd like to see much more savvy and solution-orientation in this movement, rather than the same tired old protest approach. We know that HUFF, Robert Norse, Steve Pleish, Papa Posner and Abbi Samuels can march people-experiencing-homelessness down the street into certain citations and then make a fuss about it, but what of a more thoughtful and constructive approach?
I'm tired of being beaten over the head constantly by the lowest common denominator. This is an intelligent community and it deserves a more intelligent approach to this problem.
Rather than harassing the campout, scpd simply enforced basic traffic laws.
Rather than squash the campout, Deputy Chief Rick Martinez told campers via Phil Posner at the very beginning of the campout that they'd likely face citations due to being in a park after hours.
FAIR WARNING.
I'd like to see much more savvy and solution-orientation in this movement, rather than the same tired old protest approach. We know that HUFF, Robert Norse, Steve Pleish, Papa Posner and Abbi Samuels can march people-experiencing-homelessness down the street into certain citations and then make a fuss about it, but what of a more thoughtful and constructive approach?
I'm tired of being beaten over the head constantly by the lowest common denominator. This is an intelligent community and it deserves a more intelligent approach to this problem.
The intelligent solution, and the solution ALL PARTIES TO THE PROTEST (except you) appear to want, is a city or county funded and operated facility that hopefully does more than pander to people receiving government checks, which is what the HSC became over some time after Karen Gillette left the directorship.
The un-intelligent solution is a private business that diverts funding from that intelligent solution. You want the houseless equivalent of a Charter School Brent. That's your "Sanctuary Camp" concept, and it's a plagiarism. Further it's a destructive and dysfunctional plagarism. Charter schools destroy public education, and your approach will destroy what little chance we have for sensible 'houseless services' that serve the needs of non-gubmint check bearing Santa Cruzans and travelers.
The un-intelligent solution is a private business that diverts funding from that intelligent solution. You want the houseless equivalent of a Charter School Brent. That's your "Sanctuary Camp" concept, and it's a plagiarism. Further it's a destructive and dysfunctional plagarism. Charter schools destroy public education, and your approach will destroy what little chance we have for sensible 'houseless services' that serve the needs of non-gubmint check bearing Santa Cruzans and travelers.
Poor arithmetic — akin to the poor spelling of Tea Party fanatics — seems to be part of the "Bullshit" thrown around by Take Back Santa Cruz.
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