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Indybay Feature

Following Fast and Fancy City Council footwork, Freedom Sleepers return for 86th Time

Date:
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Time:
4:00 PM - 4:00 AM
Event Type:
Protest
Organizer/Author:
Keith McHenry (story by Norse)
Location Details:
Dodging raindrops and rangers, the nimblefooted Freedom Sleepers continue their relentless quest for sanity and justice outside City Hall on Tuesday night. Food usually arrives in the late afternoon, and coffee the following morning. The protest runs from Tuesday afternoon through mid-morning Wednesday. Come early Tuesday afternoon if you want to raise your voice at City Council. Bring video, warm bedding, and good humor to deal with the cold night and the city's paid nightmare providers.

BATHROOM BARRICADE LAST WEEK BY BUREAUCRAT BADGIRLS
The City Council bathrooms are regularly closed and locked during Freedom SleepOut's (perhaps to enable to the City to yowl about "urine and feces" being left outside?)> But last week, Freedom Sleepers last week reported even during regular business hours, Assistant administrator Bonnie Bush refused to open the bathrooms, even for a disabled patron, who then relieved himself on a wall. Bring your own catheter or colostomy bag.

MISSION ST. LOCKOUT OF UNHOUSED PATRONS
Julie Shaul and other report what may be an organized crackdown on homeless folks trying to use the laundromat to clean and dry rain-soaked clothing and bedding. Safeway and nearby shops have reportedly removed or walled off outdoor seating. Other businesses such as MacDonald's are becoming vehemently abusive towards "loitering" customers.

HOMELESS (LACK OF) SERVICES CENTER STRIKES AGAIN!
POVERTY PIMPS DENY HOMELESS WOMAN HER MAIL AFTER SHE WALKED OUT WITH A GRANOLA BAR
Food Not Bombs activist Kim Argula reported being refused access to her mail after she picked up a bar and a bag of chips from a table which looked open to homeless folks. "Denise", the sharp-tongued poverty pimpstress who confronted her, then "banned" her and called the police even as Kim walked away. Mercifully, the officer responding declined to handcuff the hungry mail seeker and haul her away.

"Bucks for Bums" Boss Phil Kramer subsequently allowed Kim mail access to mail--provided she stood on the sidewalk across the street from the famed "Homeless Services Center".

Homeless folks are now banned from parking their cars on Coral, Fern, and Limekiln streets with 24-hour Permit-required signs posted along all three.

The Homeless (Lack of) Service Center [HLOSC] has excluded all but a fraction of the homeless community from its breakfast and dinner meals in spite of a $3 million budget and much donated food. The massive cutback in HLOSC services prompted the first Freedom SleepOut on July 4, 2015.

GET THE BAD NEWS DIRECTLY FROM COUNCILMAN CHRIS
9 AM-10 AM: Councilmember Chris Krohn has a pre-Council huddle with members of the public at the Cafe Pergolesi 418 Cedar St.

NO RELIEF FOR TENANTS
Sometime after 2 PM: Tenant activists have asked those supporting renter protection and rent control to come to the afternoon session to speak on Item #17, which grants $10,000 to gab about "affordable housing" without any mention of key renter concerns or inclusion of renters as a primary participatory group.

A BRIEF CHANCE TO SPEAK IF YOU DON'T MIND WAITING 3 1/2 HOURS
Oral Communications: End of the Council's afternoon agenda (historically 5 PM, but now at a time uncertain--perhaps to discourage speakers who have to wait through the whole afternoon not to miss it?). The period when the Mayor cuts you off after 2 minutes of struggling to make the community aware of issues NOT on the agenda.

RESOLUTIONS AND RABBLTY-BABBLE, BUT NO DOCUMENTS & NO ACCOUNTABILITY
7 PM: City staff returns, after twice delaying a resolution and ordinance banning SCPD collusion with DHS/ICE raids against undocumented immigrants.

The agenda packet includes no documentation of the actual communications between the SCPD and the DHS/ICE. Vogel of the SCPD says one thing and Schwab of the DHS says another (See http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/social-affairs/20170223/feds-santa-cruz-police-trade-jabs-after-february-gang-busts)

Bring your blankets and sleeping bags into the chambers to see if either the SCPD-subservient Council or their "liberal" critics will physically support Sanctuary for and stop busting Santa Cruz's homeless population--documented or undocumented. That's what the Freedom Sleepers are all about.

SLAMMING THE BOOK CLOSED ON SCPD'S ARLT KILLING
Missing from the agenda is any follow-up to Vogel's closed-to-alternative-media press conference 2-16 exonerating Officer Eric Bailey for the slaying of Sean Arlt last October.

The D.A.'s report and the witness's accounts have not been released.

There has been no indication of any change in SCPD's "shoot to kill" policy nor have other questions raised by the household that called the SCPD to restrain Arlt. (https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2017/02/16/18796574.php?show_comments=1#18796828).

TALK BACK ON TALKABOUT TALK SHOW WEDNESDAY NIGHT
Broadcaster John Malkin will be interviewing witnesses and relatives in the law enforcement killings of Sean Arlt and Luke Smith on KZSC (88.1 FM) at 7 PM Wednesday 3-1. Call in at 459-4036.
Added to the calendar on Mon, Feb 27, 2017 10:35PM
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