The meeting room is relatively small (the group of 15 takes up more than half of the room). It can also be hard to hear some of the speakers. The first few meetings are scheduled to be “presentations” from police, poverty pimps, etc. with a meeting or two slated for public comment, but no public comment period regularly allowed.

More on the Task Farce at http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/index.aspx?page=1924 .

The group is stacked with right-wingers (a Seaside Company boss and a retired cop are chair and vice-chair), has no homeless advocates or homeless people. And there is no regular provision for public input, at least no Oral Communications period. The group was hand-picked by Mayor Hillary Bryant and excludes strong critics of the Take Back Santa Cruz-prompted hysteria.

This part of the on-going anti-homeless laws and increasingly brutal crackdown.

Scott Collins is the staff member who is recording and facilitating this meeting, but is not responsible for this posting and the commentary here.

RECENT POLICE ABUSE
A recent report from W. notes that while crossing Union Grove parking lot, he was tackled and assaulted by Officers Warren and Ahlers, sending him to the hospital with 4 stiches in his lower lip.

He noted he’d earliler been twice ticketed for performing downtown, and denounced the officers for hounding him in colorful terms at which point they attacked him. I haven’t run into Ahlers or Warren to get their side of the story. He goes to court for “interfering with an officer”, of course. W. says the assault was viewed by numerous people. I don’t know if it was videoed.