HUFF has another outdoors Koffee Klatch 11 AM Sub Rosa Cafe Courtyard Wednesday July 27

 

 

HUFF remnants will be patching together plans and pondering afternoon protests at the usual time and place (though we’ll be outside in the Courtyard).  Likely for discussion:  Solidarity with Black Lives Matter from an unhoused perspective; a strategy for preempting the usual City Council psuedo-election race; supporting Lucero and other activists engaged in direct protest or civil disobedience downtown…and more with or without coffee, your choice!

 

Here Comes Freedom Sleep-Out #55 !

Freedom Sleep #55 To Follow Pacific Avenue Protests
Date Tuesday July 26
Time 5:00 PM – 9:00 AM
Location Details Using the public City Hall Courtyard until police drive the public out at 10 PM when sleepers will bunk down on the sidewalk.
Event Type Protest
Organizer/Author
Keith McHenry (posted by Norse)
Email keith@foodnotbombs.net
Phone 575-770-3377 

Freedom Sleepers will again claim sidewalk sleeping space in front of City Hall Tuesday night. The activists will defy the Mathews’ Council’s anti-homeless 11 PM- 8:30 AM Sleeping Ban still being used throughout the City to harass, cite, and “move along” unhoused people in the dead of night.

Food Not Bombs may be providing food support and Jumbogumbo Joe Schultz coffee and soup.

VIVID COVERAGE OF PRIOR FREEDOM SLEEP-OUT’S
Alex Darocy’s vivid photographic and narrative coverage of the last several sleepouts can be found at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/07/25/18789435.php (“Tuesday is Still the Night to Sleep at Santa Cruz City Hall”). Darocy provides regular coverage of the sleep-out’s, which can be seen through searching for “Darocy” on the indybay.org/santacruz website.

ENOUGH TREATING THE UNHOUSED AS GARBAGE!
Outspoken activist Lucero Luna was twice arrested last week for a dramatic, theatrical, and vocal protest on Pacific Avenue exposing and castigating the treatment of homeless people as trash in Santa Cruz. See “Houseless activist protests sleeping ban, public space restrictions in Santa Cruz” at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/07/24/18789390.php . Luna reports repeated harassment in the van she lives in and has frequently urged fight-back marches downtown.

APPEAL OF NIGHTTIME RV BAN COMING UP AUGUST 10TH
Santa Cruz City Council accepted misleading anecdotal testimony last fall without any specific statistics around complaints of dumping, view-blocking, the presence of “suspicious” vandwellers, and other more hysterical claims (meth labs on wheels).

They passed two ordinances banning RV parking from 8 PM to 8 AM, denying homeless people the right to get permits, and empowering the city engineer to begin eliminating ‘oversized” parking spaces and criminalizing vehicles that use more than one space.

The Coastal Commission will hear activist Robert Norse’s appeal on the more limited midnight to 5 PM RV ban, intended mainly–testimony from neighborhood NIMBY’s made clear at the time–to drive away homeless folks. The commission will meet Wednesday, August 10 at 9 AM at the Hilton Santa Cruz/Scotts Valley at 6001 La Madrona Drive.

UPCOMING COURT TRIALS FOR ARTISTS ALEX SKELTON AND JOFF JONES
Jones and Skelton have been arrested repeatedly for displaying their art work outside the small and sparce “exempt zones”, designated by small brass discs and blue dots on the Pacific Avenue sidewalk.

The two were unexpectedly acquitted last year by police powerpuffer Kim Baskett, Commissioner of Dept. 10. Now the two face four new charges of violating MC SC 5.81(A)-1 (displaying art outside the blue box and/or not moving every hour). Two of these charges go to trial at 1:30 PM in the basement of the County Building, adjacent to the courthouse on August 30th.

This will be the first challenge to the City’s recent “Vanish the Vendors” law. This ban on handicraft creation, display, and sale along Pacific Avenue and side streets reiterates and reinforces the reduction of art/performance/tabling space which went into high great in 2013, created the “blue boxes” in 2014, and then cut their number down by half in 2016. Commissioner Basket will hear the case without a jury. The two artists don’t have a court appointed lawyer and haven’t mentioned that any local legal eagle has volunteered to help.

More info on the Freedom Sleepers is frequently available at https://www.facebook.com/groups/freedomsleepers/ . Donations of food, blankets, sleeping bags, and energy are always welcome.

This calendar event description was written by Robert Norse, who is alone responsible for its content.

 

 

__._,_.___

Santa Cruz Homeless Activists Hit the Sidewalks; Monterey Activists Act to Support Black Lives Matter !

 NOTES BY NORSE:

Houseless activist protests sleeping ban, public space restrictions in Santa Cruz

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/07/24/18789390.php

Houseless activist Lucero Luna shares her experience in Santa Cruz city jail and protests against laws criminalizing poor and houseless people within the city.

Tuesday is Still the Night to Sleep at Santa Cruz City Hall

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/07/25/18789435.php

After celebrating their one-year anniversary on July 5, the Freedom Sleepers returned to Santa Cruz City Hall for their 53rd community sleepout on July 12, as well as their 54th sleepout on July 19. [Top photo: A Freedom Sleeper lies next to a protest sign that reads, “Embrace Your Moral Compass Because We Upon This Earth Are One,” at the 53rd community sleepout held on July 12.]
Black Lives Matter – Say Their Names!

sm_say-their-names.jpg

original image (638×936)

Full Show Disabled By Power Problems Last Sunday to Air Today

The show features scintillating and soporific street interviews, some badlands Berkeley history with handicapped commissioner Dan McMullan, music lifted from You-tube by Ryan Greer, street performers and artists joyfully fighting back against the Vanish the Vendors laws, and just lots of stuff !  Five hours worth!   If you miss the show or want to hear it at another time, check out:

Part 1:
http://radiolibre.org/brb/brb160717.mp3 [first 56 minutes]
Part 2: http://huffsantacruz.org/lost/F%20BB%207-17-16/F%20BB%207-17-16%201.mp3 
Part 3: http://huffsantacruz.org/lost/F%20BB%207-17-16/F%20BB%207-17-16%202.mp3

Rare L.A. Victory for Direct Action Protester !

 

NOTES BY NORSE:   Hats off to long-time Venice advocate David Busch, who’s been fighting city attacks on the local homeless community for decades.  See “The Right to Discriminate” at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/StreetSpiritSantaCruz/2002-4-the-right-to-discriminate-001.jpg , http://www.huffsantacruz.org/StreetSpiritSantaCruz/2002-4-the-right-to-discriminate-002.jpg , & http://www.huffsantacruz.org/StreetSpiritSantaCruz/2002-4-the-right-to-discriminate-003.jpg .



 

Santa Cruz’s bigot-pleasing Good Times  has recently covered its typical smear campaign against the outside poor with environmental concern protective cover.  See “Saving Lighthouse Field” at http://goodtimes.sc/cover-stories/saving-lighthouse-field/
Santa Cruz’s Parks and Recreation Department and the SCPO have long proclaimed its right to dumpster and destroy homeless survival gear and has lately been doing that, according to participants in the 54-week long Tuesday night Freedom SleepOut’s at City Hall.   Retrieval of homeless property (in those instances where it is saved rather than trashed) can only be done during a two hour period (12:30 – 2:30 PM) on Tuesdays and Thursdays in spite of bloated police budget.

 


Parks and Rec thugs-in-white now regularly “patrol” the Downtown Area in white shirts (no white hoods yet)in search of performers, vendors, and activists who are sitting outside the scattered blue and brass boxes (Performance Pens) being used to constrict, coral, and discourage non-commercial activity on Pacific Avenue, the Wharf, and elsewhere. SCPD’s Officer Hoppe has reportedly been jailing impoverished homeless panhandler for peacefully holding up a “help me” sign on the median at Ocean and Water streets.


Undefeated visual artists Alex Skelton and Joff Jones face hundreds of dollars in fines in court next month after five in-custody arrests for displaying their paintings on Pacific Avenue “outside the boxes”.  Meanwhile fascist-friend City art critics have driven away handicraft artists on Pacific with new laws banning creation, display, or sale of any artwork or perfomance that may have “a functional use” such as jewelry, t-shirts, massage, crystals, etc.  Laws banning RV’s from parking late at night anywhere in the city await likely Coastal Commission approval–with homeless people explicitly denied the right to purchase permits.


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HUFF Floats On: 7-20 11 AM Sub Rosa: Meet, Mingle, and Masticate

Further discussion of police abuses locally (See “Race and Class Bias in the SCPD–What’s the real Story?” at https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2014/12/03/grand_jury_protest_updated.pdf ).   How to use the election campaign to raise real issues and take real action.  Direct action to stop social service surrender to the Take Back Santa Cruz mentality.   Avenues for supporting righteous resistance to the Performance Pens downtown.   And, as always more!

You bring the issues; we got the coffee.

 

Anti-Police Abuse Demos Nationally, Freedom Sleepout #54 Locally

Date Tuesday July 19

Time 5:00 PM – 8:00 AM

Location Details At the usual center of “get out of town” enforcement against the poor and homeless–Santa Cruz City Hall at 809 Center St. between Locust and Church.

Event Type Protest

Organizer/AuthorKeith McHenryEmailkeith [at] foodnotbombs.net

Phone 575-770-3377

 

Another night of providing (relatively) safe space for unhoused folks on the sidewalk against the City’s 11 PM to 8:30 AM Sleeping Ban.

Another night of showcasing the City’s hostility to basic services to the poor (closed restrooms at night, security guards snitching on sleepers to police, police rousting people at night but giving them nowhere legal to sleep).

Another night of calling on the community to stand up to the torture of Sleep Deprivation in Santa Cruz and explode the “most progressive City” myth.

Another night of solidarity against police and vigilante abuse city-wide to those in poor, whether outside or in vehicles.

Another night of providing a brief community space for those who gather around the food and drink (sparsely) provided by Food Not Bombs and JumboGumbo Joe Schultz.

Another night of solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters and local protests like Curtis Reliford’s local “Follow Your Heart” demonstrations.

For homeless updates and reports on last week’s SleepOut, go to http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html and click on the links under Lost Show 7/17/2016 .

Interested folks might also consider signing the petition and considering Direct Action support for UCSC campers at https://www.change.org/p/ucsc-administration-support-the-camper-park .

Bring video, friends, blankets, and high spirits.

This notice prepared by Robert Norse and reflects his perspective (and likely those of others!)

HUFFmeet 7-13 11 AM Sub Rosa: Addressing Police Abuse in Santa Cruz

In the wake of the well-publicized police murders nationally,  I’m encouraging HUFF to turn its attention to police abuses locally and follow up on our 2014 campaign.  (See “Race and Class Bias in the SCPD–What’s the real Story?” at https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2014/12/03/grand_jury_protest_updated.pdf )

Perhaps we can propose local actions at the Project Pollinate Friday 7 PM meeting at 703 Pacific 7-15.

Bring your issues; we supply the coffee tomorrow.

In the wake of police murders nationally, Freedom SleepOut #53

Going Into Year 2 with the Freedom Sleepers

Date Tuesday July 12
Time 4:00 PM – 4:00 AM
Location Details
On the edge of City Hall, where city police, rangers, and security guards have driven the homeless protesters–along the Center St. sidewalk across from the Main Library
Event Type Protest
Organizer/Author Keith McHenry
Email keith [at] foodnotbombs.net
Phone 575-770–3377
In the wake of escalating repression downtown, Freedom Sleepers will be gathering tonight for SleepOut #53. Police continue to harass and cite homeless people under MC 6.36 (the nighttime outside and vehicular Sleeping Ban).RESISTANCE DOWNTOWN
Artists Joff Jones and Alex Skelton were arrested for the 5th time downtown last Wednesday for displaying their artwork “outside the brass/blue boxes”. (See “City directed police shutdown of artists and PUBLIC ALERT on Pacific Ave” at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/07/10/18788862.php ). In a bold move, they reappeared several days later defiantly repeating their assertion of First Amendment rights (and subsequently wheeling about enlarged copies of the First Amendment in colonial garb).LOCAL REACTION TO POLICE KILLINGS
Nationally, the police murders of Alton Sterling, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile, in Falcon Heights, Minnesota have already prompted a local Sunday protest (unfortunately not specifying local police discrimination and lack of transparency).

Another Community Meeting around the issue is scheduled for Friday, July 15 6-8 PM at 703 Pacific. HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom) have repeatedly raised local issues and hope that more “mainstream” activists, such as Pleich, Schnaar, and Glover–all running for City Council, will actually get specific in criticism. See “”Homeless People Matter” Protest Gets Honks, Volunteers, at Cop Corner” at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/12/22/18765911.php . Specific concerns (that needed to be updated) are itemized at https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2014/12/03/grand_jury_protest_updated.pdf . .

COUNCIL ON VACATION; STAFF SLIMES ON
Since City Council is on vacation while their police and the expanded Parks and Recreation Downtown Rangers do their dirty work, so there’s no Council meeting. Snakey staffers like Julie Hende and Scott Collins under the dark tutorship of City Manager Martin Bernal are continuing their oppressive work. Protests can still be registered (hopefully en masse) at staff offices. Possible targets: the forthcoming nighttime RV ban, the on-going Stay Away Order scandal, the stepped up bullying downtown, and the gentrification/sterilization of the City Hall Courtyard area.

LEGAL LONGINGS
Meanwhile activists Phil Posner and Steve Pleich are trying to coax a San Jose attorney to join the campaign to end the Sleeping Ban through legal action. Previous efforts to pursue sleep deprivation in Small Claims Court, enlist the help of the National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty, and sue for the loss of homeless property seem to have fallen by the wayside.

LIBRARY LAVATORY LOCKOUT
Last week, library officials arrived in the morning after the 52nd Sleep-Out to demand removal of the makeshift commode, activists had moved (under pressure from the police) from the City Hall side of the street to the side of the library. Both the library and City Hall have closed and locked their bathrooms at night in spite of appeals from the Freedom Sleepers. Library supervisor Lee then called police who rapidly arrived, ignoring activists concerns that an enclosed and accountable commode was certainly preferable to folks shitting and pissing at random. To no avail. Tonight’s protesters will have to find their own accommodations.

For a review of last week’s Anniversary SleepOut go to “Freedom Sleepers Anniversary: One Year of Protesting the Sleeping Ban at City Hall” at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/07/09/18788832.php

Food and drink will be limited tonight, but likely present. Folks are invited to join the protest even if for a brief time to provide heart and hope to those who face the heavy hand of the city’s gentrification program nightly.

This description of tonight’s event is the product of Robert Norse and represents his views and understanding of the protest and other recent events.

HUFF to stagger in from 1st Anniversary Freedom Sleep-Out 11 AM 7-6 As Usual

In the aftermath of the latest Freedom SleepOut at City Hall, (#52 making a year of Tuesdays there),
HUFF will stagger and struggle to its usual rendezvous point with coffee and cookies as bait.

Some possible chattering points:  Demands from the Freedom SleepOut the night before;
Supporting Vendors, Performers and Homeless Downtown in the wake of the Vanish the Vendors crackdown;
Jailtime Blues–recent behind-bars abuses;
Wrenching the upcoming City Council race;
and more, depending on who shows with how much energy…