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Indybay Feature

Fascist trends in Santa Cruz Government

by Elise Casby
Activists and myself using the derogatory gesture of the nazi salutes were focused on and reported in the conservative and reactionary paper, The Santa Cruz Sentinel by writer, Jessica York on May 15, 2019. As usual the focus was on the graphic gesture and not the fact that public comment and other forms of democratic participation are dwindling over the years as each mayor, now Martine Watkins takes up the mantle of repression.
My name is Elise Casby. I use symbolic gestures somewhat thoughtfully and pointedly. I have witnessed and followed our government here in the United States at all levels, Federal, State, County and Local city councils becoming more and more repressive of our democratic freedoms and venues for participation in government. We need our voices and our votes to count! In today's printed version of the Santa Cruz Sentinel and in the online version from yesterday, May 15, 2019, I am personally listed, that is my name is used by Jessica York to show that I used the Nazi salute outside of the Santa Cruz city council chambers to show my disapproval and passionate concern over the refusal of our current mayor and council to allow the public with reasonable tolerance and a political will that shows respect and support for public participation in the public comment section of our meetings. Yes, I did this. However, Jessica's willingness to use my name within the context of an article that focuses on the activist's responses and not the loss of our public commons of free speech is telling and for me erodes my trust further in her reporting and the Sentinel as a trust worthy source of news.

She goes on to focus on Robert Norse's history and use of the gesture as well as other facts pertaining to his fight for his right to use the gesture. What Jessica misses is the details that more pointedly show the bad faith of our council. For example, the 15 minutes that Council Member Glover requested in a motion to allow the remaining public who showed up to speak during the public comment section, was not a lot of time. In fact my friend pointed out to me that it took about a half an hour to clear the council chambers and for the recesses that Mayor Watkins ordered. However, my gestures were at the end of the demonstrations, I was outside the chambers and in all other respects, I was composed and waited for my turn to speak. I was in fact, the last person to "achieve" my slot for public comment at about 7:34 pm.

The wider community I believe, needs to be informed of the ever more widening sphere and depth of fascism that is present in our country. If people do not know about this trend and presence of the extreme authoritarians in our midst, governing our institutions all around us, and even here, in Santa Cruz, perhaps the people are not able to inform themselves because our "papers", our "media" which used to be considered, "the fourth estate" because of the need for information, which used to be called, "news" in our society has become extremely unfair and unbalanced. My critiques of city council members and city staff have become very pointed and are based in investigations and first hand sources that I have mostly collected by myself, and also through other sources that I believe are credible and which I cross check.

Ms. York's article is biased and slanted. It reminds me of more of a New York Times type of slant rather than a Fox News complete right wing political propaganda all the time. The sad thing about Jessica's reporting in this particular article that is entitled, "Disruptive Audience ordered to Leave Santa Cruz City Council Meeting" is that her slant, or what is called, her "context" in this article is really an attack on me personally and on Robert Norse as well. The reason for this her attack is surely my vocal and demonstrative "activism" to call attention to the fascistic trend in our local government. Her primary focus on what she calls, "the disruptive audience" instead of a focus on the politicians and representatives that are disrupting our lives by gentrifying our city to the extreme, cancelling our public speaking venues, and in more and more authoritarian ways, everyday, using other methods such as racist slurs, surveillance and the war of perception instead of allowing truth-based information- that these far right politicians and authoritarian leaders and people using to repress us citizens and residents, such as shutting down and severely limiting our public comment periods at our own government meetings, all of which aids and promotes further repressive and authoritarian governance and social norms.

In some ways, Ms. York reported facts. But what is totally missing here in her article is a morality and a conscience to report on "the truth" in some truly democratic manner that allows the public to know what actually happened. The repressive and dictatorial manner that Mayor Watkins has controlled this council, the coercive and strong-arming methods that the city manager and staff have often been using to deprive the newly elected progressive members on the council to get issues on the agenda combined with the unfounded slurs deployed against Council Member Glover are just some of the latest tactics and strategy the far right elite in Santa Cruz are using to take over our city completely. I do not have time to write more at this moment. I would like to but I must choose where to put my time and efforts carefully.

I sincerely wish that Ms. Jessica York had represented my actions more fully that I used and deployed this past Tuesday night at the council meeting- both inside and out. I think the citizens and residents of Santa Cruz could have gotten a much better idea of what is actually happening to our government here. I was respectful as well as opportunistic inside the chambers, and used my speech to tell the public about the lack of protest when the council decided to limit public comment to a mere half an hour maximum several months ago. Now we are living with that meager amount of time and it allowed Ms. Watkins to limit our public speech to our government when we need it sorely. Free speech has been and is under severe attack and is terribly repressed already here in Santa Cruz and in the United States. Using the nazis gesture outside of council chambers as I did when we have a collected group of citizens who showed up to address the council, who easily could have been accommodated by the Mayor, if she cared about democracy and the public's need to speak to council, which she does not really seem to support strongly- it was an adequate and appropriate time to attempt to warn our fellow citizens and residents about our present situation and what we are fast losing. It would have been so much more beneficial if Jessica York and the Santa Cruz Sentinel had also cared more about our eroding opportunities to stem the tide of fascism. But they just don't. Instead they are using this erosion of our rights and freedoms to attack and mark activists as "disruptive" and worse adjectives and labels to describe people like myself and Abbi Samuels who risk self preservation and decorum at times to make "statements" and gestures to alert the wider community of the repression we are enduring and which is likely to get far worse if we don't act, and have a sea change in our government and media. We need a sea change that is not brought on by climate change, but is brought on by our friends, our fellow citizens, our community leaders, everyone to wake up to the ever more pervasive trend in our society toward fascism and authoritarian rulership.
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by Pat Colby
I have been sicken by the lack of equal opportunity and actions by the people who have monopolized the city council for years who claim to be democrats. I have noticed one double standard after another being forced down fellow left leaning Democrats. Those who lean toward human rights and civil rights for all even the the disenfranchised homeless, students and people of color in the Santa Cruz city government. My fellow citizens have been silenced, ridiculed, disrupted, obstructed and denied equal standards of decorum.

I watched while Take Back Santa Cruz declared members made a mockery of decorum by holding up vile-vulgar signs calling out Pat Kittle while he spoke. They were not told to put down their signs that were blocking the view of others like the people against the acquirement of the military "Bearcat!" They were also opening passing a bag of candy back and forth between others TBSC members in the two rows they occupied; laughing while openly flaunting council decorum rules. I watched to see if the mayor would send the then Sargent of Arms Sgt Bush to reprimand their violations of decorum rules. Rules that HUFF members were strictly held to . He never approached them because the Mayor never sent him. Their repulsive actions were blatant to the whole room, showing up on the tv monitors numerous times.

The same meeting the same TBSC members were allowed to plug into council sockets to recharge their smart phones. When Becky Johnson of HUFF tried to do the same Sgt Bush told her she was not allowed. He threatened to take her phone if she did. A blatant double standard allowed that gave passes to TBSC members that were not reciprocated to other in the progressive, activist community. This is an attack on civil rights and the constitution. The ACLU should have spoken up, but didn't.

My brother who attended this latest meeting only earlier in the was denied the ability to use the only available fluids to keep him from be dehydrated from a disability related medicine. The city hall has illegally shut off all public drinking faucets that by law are suppose to be functioning. He had no way to refill his gallon jug of water he must carry and drink from constantly, so he brought in a bottle of the only other fluid he had "Watermelon Lemonade." He was quickly told he was not allowed to drink this in council chambers in direct contrast to what the TBSC members were allowed to do in past meeting which I witnessed on many occasions. Why was he singled out for trying to accommodate his disability. The public bathrooms were locked before the meeting started ,so he had no access to water from there either.

It is a blatant lack of equally enforced decorum standards. The fact that our organized gang stalkers who also have concealed carry permits are in mass at the city council meetings which made me feel fearful and angry, so that I no longer felt safe or treated equally to attend city council meeting.

If you don't agree with a loud vocal, minority that are hateful and mean-spirited then your safety and your civil rights are not being allowed amounting to a shut down of people like myself from petitioning my own local government. This is huge because of the importance of the 1st amendment, right to free speech and openness to petition my government locally as well as state and federal. Since avenues to address local government are blocked by all this hypocritical, doubled standard and nonsensical discrimination, I been forced to petition the federal government which has been more welcoming and friendly for recourse. Who knew Republican Senators would be more proactive, attentive and helpful standing up for civil rights over their Democratic counter parts?

We need to be more vigilante to double standards, hypocrisy being allowed by old guard city council members. We need to demand back rights taken away and hold all members to the same equal standards!

Stalker site maligning my brother and I created by TBSC member Steve Schlinct aka Santa Meirda aka Ben Dover aka Benjamin Dover aka Bend Over: http://www.johncohencolby.com
At the afternoon part of the City Council meeting Mayor Watkins first snapped at me then shut me down after I made a statement that the Santa Cruz wastewater treatment plant — like ones all over California — is likely emitting toxic metals and toxic gasses. The City is "stacking" my public records request about it linked to below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15LrRtdSLF8V2jvSb7rYaDyS_R0sXfJ7FXLXADwuILZQ/edit

It's very likely this wastewater treatment plant is spewing poisons into the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary and poisoning our beaches. The City refuses to provide me Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs) for the plant nor will they help me use the report searching tool on the plant's website to find reports about it from oversight agencies.

Maybe they never completed an EIR. Maybe the oversight agencies never conducted proper reviews of the plant. Why was Mayor Watkins so mad at me for pointing out the potential problem with the plant? Why didn't so called environmentalists Donna Meyers and Justin Cummings show concern about this?
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