Say NO to Two Wars

The War on the Poor in Santa Cruz 

• Harassment of the Those Whose Only Shelter is Their Vehicle 
• Forced Deportation of Increasing Numbers to the Benchlands 
• Police Contempt for the Rights of the Poor Outside (Martin v. Boise) 
• Wretched Sickness-Producing Lack of Sanitation in the Benchlands 
• Extended “Emergency” and Unaccountable Emergency Powers 

Russia’s Criminal Invasion & the NATO-provoked War  

Threatening Nuclear Holocaust in Ukraine 

• Playing Russian Roulette with the 50 million in the Ukraine 
• NATO’s 20-Year Advance to the Russian Border 
• Massive Propaganda on Both Sides Risking Nuclear Winter 
• Russia’s Escalated Shelling of Ukrainian Cities 
• Ukraine’s Failure to Hold Minsk-mandated Elections 
• Media’s Suicidal Call for a No-Fly Zone Speeding WW III 
  
   
  
  DEMAND RUSSIA OUT OF UKRAINE! 
  
  NATO OUT OF EASTERN EUROPE! 
• 
  
• A NEUTRAL UKRAINE ! 

Rhonda Reyna accused the SCPD of abusive violence & kidnapping against a minor last summer. City Administrator/Clerk Bonnie Bush refused to post the full text of this Claim on the twice-monthly Santa Cruz City Council agenda for its 2-4 meeting, leaving the community in the dark before the upcoming Council meeting. But then, this may have been the whole point. 

HUFF is usually interested in police violence as it affects those outside who are more vulnerable.  However, institutionalized abusive practices which affect the entire community, even more significantly affect the homeless.  For more about this case go to https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/02/15/18847994.php .

Food Not Bombs volunteers and those eating with them could be arrested and our equipment stolen by the property speculators on Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 5 PM from their new location next to University Copy at Cathcart & Pacific.

Their storage area near India Joze is also under threat of seizure.

For more details go to https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/01/18/18847438.php

A new “hearing” for the OVO [Oversized Vehicle Ordinance] will be held on January 12th at 10 AM by the Zoning Administrator to confirm the ouster of “Oversized”, i.e. homeless vehicles, from a large segment of the City. 

Some particulars of the upcoming “hearing” and the last one can be found at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/01/08/18847199.php .  

City staff is urging the Zoning Administrator to authorize and sanctify the reactionary City Council’s latest RV ban (the Oversized Vehicle Ordinance).  This law and the CSSO (Community Services and Standards Ordinance) nails the lid on the coffin of those struggling to survive outside.

The hearing is being zoomed at 10 AM on Wednesday January 5th. Oppose it in writing now and prepare for an appeal!

For more information and to comment, go to https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/01/03/18847069.php

What to Do Next Time the River Floods?

Rains are on the Horizon

The Nearest, Most Obvious, & Most Immediate Sheltering Area is the Upper Park

Yet Police Have Ticketed Those Who Went There To Escape the Flood

Where Can Those Outside Take Their Property and Persons Safely ? 

Speak Up at the In-Person Homeless Memorial for the Dead !  

Tuesday December 21st Laurel/Front 3 PM ! 

• The City’s token annual memorial will only be held on zoom this year 10 AM – 12:30 PM Tuesday December 21^st.  Watch it at  https://bit.ly/31IfbY2. 
• Food Not Bombs, the Santa Cruz Homeless Union, and HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) will be holding its own remembrance ceremony for those who’ve died this year on Tuesday December 21^st 3 PM at the encampment and meal area.  We’ll also discuss possible responses to the next flood. 
• In December 2020, housed & unhoused peacefully refused to leave the park.  How many would be willing to repeat this resistance while filing for a life-saving Injunction as happened a year ago ? 
• Can the broader community repeat the successful resistance & Injunction of 12-28 & 12-29?  Do Benchlands residents and Community members support this strategy understanding the risk of arrest?

HUFF has received and posted yesterday’s hearing temporarily proeventing the trashing off the Pajaro River campsites near Watsonville protecting scores of people.   

It can be accessed at https://www1.huffsantacruz.org/lost/Pajaro%20River%20TRO%20Hearing.mp3 on the HUFF website. 

Van Keulen said she’d be issuing a ruling on whether to dissolve the TRO, to continue it, or to create a Preliminary Injunction within a day or two.  

There will be more commentary on the issue on  Thursday’s show–which will be available to hear at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html at 6 p.m. on 11-25.  Background of the Pajaro river struggle can be found in the two most recent shows also  at that website.
Monike Tone, President of the Watsonville/Pajaronian Homeless Union can be reached at  villenair831@gmail.com .

ALERT:  Monike Tone of the Pajaro River Chapter of the California Homeless Union is appealing to the community members to join her and the many survival campers on the Pajaro River off south of Watsonville, threatened with forceable eviction and destruction of their homes (tents and other structures) 7 AM Wednesday November 17th.

They were served with a notice on the 10th, given no shelter options–as is required by the Martin v. Boise decision–and expect to be confronted with armed force tomorrow morning. 

Monike met with several dozen residents earlier today and told me she and others have decided to stand fast and decline to be bullied out of their homes–as RV dwellers in Marina were last Friday.

Attorney Anthony Prince of the California Homeless Union is reportedly working to secure an Injunction as he and Alicia Kuhl did in December 2020 for the San Lorenzo Survival Campers.  Prince has been able to secure Injunctions in other cities such as Sausalito and Novato.

She invites and urges those interested in joining the resistance–either as participants or observers–to come to the Valero gas station at San Juan and Porter Streets in Royal Oaks.  Those with questions are welcome to call her at 831-707-5562.

I will be playing several interviews with Monike on my 6 p.m. Thursday show, a preview of which should soon be available this evening at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html

In mid-July Attorney Anthony Prince of the California Homeless Union successfully applied for a restraining order to stop enforcement of a thinly-disguised anti-homeless Novato city Camping ban designed to work around the Martin v. Boise decision. Perhaps activists in Santa Cruz can take similar action, long promised by the Santa Cruz Homeless Union, either with or without an attorney.
WHY AND HOW
To assist and inspire any would-be legal eagles and/or simply lay activists interested in following in successful footsteps, here’s both Prince’s application for the court Injunction as well as the Court’s positive response in Novato. Hard work by S.C. Homeless Union president and workers in large part compiled the evidence. Long-time Court survivor Keith McHenry of the allied Food Not Bombs organization has repeatedly suggested that the legal arguments, gleaned from prior applications could be mustered fairly quickly. This is something ordinary mortals could do without relying on cowed or overworked attorneys.

THE DOCUMENTS
Prince’s Application for a Restraining Order: file:///C:/Users/Robert/Downloads/516121476-California-Homeless-Union-et-al-v-City-of-Novato-et-al-complaint(1).pdf [put this link in your browser to see the full document]

The Court order: https://www.scribd.com/document/516120708/Novato-camping-restrictions-temporary-restraining-order

BACKGROUND STORIES
Attached are several stories giving background (from an establishment perspective of the Novato City Council’s conniving against Camp Compassion and the unhoused folks in that town: from the Marin Independent Journal and the San Francisco Chronicle. For completeness and amusement, I add the Novato and Police Chief’s statements as well.

FOR THE FULL STORIES & TO COMMENT, GO TO https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2021/07/24/18843907.php

The grim news of sweeps removing homeless-run encampments in Sausalito and San Rafael, as well as the RV rousts in Seaside, in recent weeks is now counterbalanced by a ray of light from a federal court in the Warren v. City of Chico case, which I transcribe here.   In mid-December, City Manager Martin Bernal unilaterally sent in Andy Mills’ SCPD last December to oust the homeless population living in San Lorenzo Park, ignoring the winter weather, COVID crisis, and lack of City shelter.

Bernal and his staff had decreed such removals with false promises of adequate alternative shelter and services from the Benchlands, 1220 River St., Ross Camp, and Phoenix Camp in prior years.

In response, community organizations set up their own tents and showed up in large numbers to interpose themselves between armed police and the threatened homeless residents. A day later the California Homeless Union and its attorney Anthony Prince got a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) blocking the removal. The order was turned into a longer term Preliminary Injunction on January 20th.

In negotiations with the City, Prince agreed to squeeze the homeless encampment into the Benchlands in March where it has grown over the last few months receiving limited support from City authorities and from Food Not Bombs and other charitable groups.

“Given the great disparity between the number of beds and the number of unhoused persons, the Court need not get into the weeds of whether the existing beds are “practically available.” There was simply not enough shelter available for the community to opt to enforce its criminal sanctions.”    –quote from the decision

TO READ JUDGE MORRISON’S DECISION GRANTING THE PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, GO TO “The Chico Decision-Hope for the Homeless in Santa Cruz” AT https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2021/07/10/18843676.php .