The Santa Cruz Chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) announced a fundraiser for "law enforcement agencies, and organizations committed to racial justice." The fundraiser is being called a "NAACP Peace Party" and will be hosted at the end of August in Santa Cruz at Garfield Park Community Church. The decision to raise funds for the police is in direct opposition to the demands by the Black Lives Matter movement for: "A reallocation of funds at the federal, state and local level from policing and incarceration". After publication of an article on Indybay critical of raising funds for the cops, event organizers changed the announcement and now state, "No money is being raised at this event for local law enforcement, but local officers are in support of this event and will be present."

Simba Kenyatta, the current President of the Santa Cruz NACCP, wrote an op-ed piece for the Santa Cruz Sentinel on July 30 praising local sheriffs for being different than the police who murdered unarmed black men in recent incidents in other states: "we wish to highlight the higher social sensitivity of the Santa Cruz County sheriff and applaud his novel tactics".

Kenyatta also made this statement about the killing of unarmed black men by police: "This tragedy should not be allowed to continue because our future matters, all lives matter, blue lives matter and black lives matter!"

It should be noted that the Santa Cruz NAACP was silent after two Santa Cruz Sheriffs shot and killed 17-year-old Cyrus Hurtado in Boulder Creek on July 9, 2015. Hurtado was suffering from a mental health episode when the Santa Cruz Sheriffs murdered him.

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See Also: The PR Campaign to Uplift Police & Demonize Those Who Call for Accountability