Dan wielded a “Don’t Discriminate” sign and gave out flyers to folks coming and going from the “Sentinel Cafe” in the Cruzio building. Gryphon sat across the street minding the two possession-laden bicycles and bike cart-as he’d done three days before on the same Tuesday they were barred because he was “loitering”.

A friendly Cruzio employee explained to me that the other tenants of the building were “on edge” because of an earlier break-in, perhaps explaining the pathology of the service denial. I was reminded of the broader atmosphere of hysteria created by Santa Cruz Neighbors, the Sentinel, the SCPD, and, of course, The Clean Team and Take Back Santa Cruz that has ramped up harassment of innocent homeless people in Santa Cruz generally.

“Dead On” David Silva sat with a placard outlining the contradictory and hypocritical contrast between CruzioWork’s claim of non-discrimination and its illegal cancellation of a the 24/7 contract with Dan Madison a few hours after he signed it.

Officer Azua double-parked his car half a block away and strode up to insist we “not block the sidewalk”. An older woman, upset by what Cruzio was doing, pursued the officer back to his car, trying to educate him on the issue. Azua, ever oblivious, suggested she ‘take a homeless person into your home.”

Passersby in cars did lots of rubbernecking, almost all surprisingly positive with thumbs up and Victory finger signals as well as broad smiles and nods. The one negative shout suggested “close down the homeless bum center” (perhaps referring to the Homeless (Lack of) Services Center.

One crying woman happened by, noting she was dying from cancer and recently barred from Starbucks a block away (perhaps our next target) because of a backpack. Several other travelers reported police harassment and hostility. Other housed locals expressed outrage. Even some other First Alarm Security thugs chatted informally with Dan and David, perhaps taking time off from surveilling “suspicious” homeless locals at the library.

I’ll be playing her account and other sound bytes from the tabling Sunday August 11th at 10AM on the stream of Free Radio Santa Cruz at http://www.freakradio.org (also reachable through http://tunein.com/radio/FRSC-s47254/ and archived at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb130811.mp3 (about an hour and a half into the audio file).

No CruzioWorks customer were clearly convinced at the door to turn back by cries of “Bigotry Big Time Downtown!” and other loud announcements made by protesters. A dozen or so signed the two petitions.

All in all the protest was a positive first step towards informing the community about CruzioWorks untenable and bigoted position. A Santa Cruz Weekly reporter spoke with Dan and several others at some length.

There was brief mention of the secondary question of whether Cruzio is secretly cooperating with the feds and the NSA in turning over our e-mail to the Obama snoops. An answer there is yet to be forthcoming. If you care who’s reading your e-mail, give Cruzio a call at 831-459-6301.

While you’re at it, ask if their subsection CruzioWorks, is still discriminating against homeless and disabled folks. And just how they feel about that.