In the Wake of Bigotry: Freedom SleepOut #36

Title: Speak Out Against the Sleeping Ban
START DATE: Tuesday March 15
TIME: 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location Details:
Town Clock–Downtown Santa Cruz
Event Type: Protest
1. Meet up at the town clock at 3 pm, (and bring a sign) for the brief “mike check” style speak out!

2. at 3:45 pm we will move out to march down Pacific Ave.
-we will march down pacific ave to Laurel St.
-we will turn right onto Laurel, and then march over to Center St. and turn right onto Center St. Then march up Center to City Hall.

3. We will meet up at City Hall for a longer speak out and open mike with a “mike check” style speak out for all at about 5

4. Everyone who supports the right to sleep and the decriminalization of the sleeping ban is welcome to join us!

5. We will be in solidarity with the Freedom Sleepers there!

Please bring signs, make signs, everyone make your own sign and bring it!

NOTE FROM NORSE: I received the above e-mail, requesting me to post it with the psuedonym Dogwood. An activist speaking at the Red Church Monday reaffirmed the time and place of the march. I have no further information on it.


Title: Rage Against City Council Bigotry–Freedom SleepOut #36
START DATE: Tuesday March 15
TIME: 5:00 PM – 8:00 AM Wednesday
Location Details:
809 Center St. Outside City Hall and City Council Offices
Event Type: Protest
Contact Name Toby Nixon (posted by Norse)
Email Address rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com
Phone Number 408-582-4152
Address
A week after City Council enraged and disappointed a room full of activists, Freedom Sleepers resume their regular weekly protest and invite the disenfranchised to join them. If supporters hold fast, there will be coffee in the morning.

Homeless folks at the Red Church and on Pacific Avenue Monday night continued to report citations for sleeping, being driven out into the rain, and regular harassment.

RELATED SANTA CRUZ ACTIONS
Meanwhile “Dogwood”, a homeless activist seeking to generate a more visible and public response, has announced a protest to begin at the Town Clock at 3 PM with a march down Pacific Avenue to City Hall to join the Freedom Sleepers. See “Speak Out Against the Sleeping Ban ” at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/03/14/18784050.php

“Push Back” Pat Colby has announced she’ll be at the police station Thursday March 17 at 12:30 PM to help folks reclaim their property from the police. At present, police only allow folks to pick up their seized property 12:30 -2:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This restriction severely impacts unhoused people whose survival gear is confiscated–still a grim occurrence here.

HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) will be present at the Project Pollinate day-long event on Saturday the 19th at San Lorenzo park between 11 and 1 PM to help organize resistance to the criminalization of the homeless.

HUFF hopes to organize a caravan to Salinas on March 22nd to support the Salinas Union of the Homeless resisting the planned destruction of the Chinatown encampment (see below).
We’ll be signing up people and looking for vehicles.

HUFF will also be assisting people to call the River St. Shelter at 459-6644 to get on the Waiting List, which immunizes those on the list for three days from camping ticket prosecution.

Insider, Silver-Tongued Steve Pleich’s predictions of higher City Council support for the right to sleep proved overly optimistic. He notes that City Councilmember Micah Posner may be introducing a call for City staff to find legal places to park RV’s in town. Several months ago, City Council, under the leadership of Councilmember Richelle Niroyan criminalized homeless RV parking at night.

SIGNS OF EARLY SPRING IN THE STRUGGLE
Sacramento activists, after weeks of protest, seem much closer to forcing its local politicians to legalize if not support encampments. See “Let Sacramento’s homeless have their tent city”–an editorial by the conservative Sacramento Bee at http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article65032512.html

In addition, Sacramento housing activist Paula Lomazzi notes on her facebook page that the Justice Department is moving to block local and state fines for poor people in actions arising out of the Ferguson struggle:
See http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/14/politics/court-fines-poor-people-doj/index.html

In Salinas, National Lawyers Guild attorney Anthony Prince has filed a second lawsuit demanding police leave homeless property alone. He has called for making Salinas “the Selma of 2016” recalling the civil rights struggles of the 60’s.

Specifically, he wants folks to stand up to a scheduled police raid on the long-standing homeless encampment in Salinas’s Chinatown on March 23, by having a mass rally on the 22nd and sleepout there. See http://www.thecalifornian.com/story/news/my-safety/2016/03/11/salinas-homeless-urged-stand-their-ground/81679316/ .

For more information, contact Wes White at 831-296-0042 . See the flier below for additional details.

§Salinas Flier

by Wes White (posted by Norse)

Monday Mar 14th, 2016 11:27 PM