The usual Sub Rosa Cafe 11 AM meeting today (Wednesday October 24) is cancelled.. HUFF has gone onto a bi-weekly schedule with the next meeting scheduled for Wednesday November 1st. at 703 Pacific. This decision was made to accommodate Monterey County activists currently fighting the Lapis Road Residential Vehicle Homeowner Struggle who have to come a longer distance as well as acknowledge the dwindling number of local HUFFsters attending weekly.
On KZSC’s Talkabout show Wednesday 10-25 7:45 PM , Bathrobespierre Robert talks about the latest SCPD gambit with Chief Mill’s “no tickets 9 PM to 6 AM unless there is a complaint by someone in control of that property or some other crime or nuisance behavior is taking place.”
Updates tomorrow Thursday 10-26 6:30 PM at 101.3 FM (also freakradio.org) on the 6-8 PM Bathrobepierre’s Broadsides show regarding the Poor Tour/First They Came for the Homeless encampment in Berkeley, and Tuesday doings around the Rent Control organizing, the visit of Bandelero Bob Aronson (S.C. Police “Auditor”), and the “no protests, please!” S.C. Coalition on Homelessness–if we can get ’em.
If anyone went to the Tuesday gatherings, please contact me at 423-4833 for updates. Personal health problems, unseasonable heat, and transportation problems kept me away.
See SCPD Chief Mills and mainstream media statements are available at http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/social-affairs/20171016/santa-cruz-police-chief-displaces-homeless-by-post-office-softens-sleeping-ban and http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/opinion/20171014/andrew-g-mills-homeless-problem-demands-action-and-scpd-is-acting
Also please report conditions in San Lorenzo Park, around the Post Office, and along the Coral St. sidewalk where numerous nightly encampments have grown.
The supposed “liberal” Mills policy means little if police and rangers are ticketing sleepers for “other crimes” on public property such as being in a park after dark, smoking, blocking the sidewalk, lodging, trespass, etc.
We have few if any reports of police and ranger use of the newly expanded Stay-Away law. Its selective enforcement powers are described at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2017/09/12/18802845.php (“Stacked Deck Stay-Away Law Expansion Promises More Pain for Poor Outside“) The SCPD has readied Public Records that document the use of this abusive process for the last 9 months as has Parks and Recreation–after much prompting. Help HUFF document this wretched recordto uncover the obvious pattern of enforcement which largely impacts houseless people.
You can also help fight the Stay-Away orders as they are individually levied on homeless folks contact Food Not Bombs or HUFF (numbers below). Let these folks know if you or anyone you know has recently been given a Stay-Away order along with an Infraction ticket, particularly if it’s for longer than 24 hours (or 72 hours after October 12th when the new expanded law goes into effect).
If meetings aren’t your thing, but you wish to work on Public Records, Help compile accounts of Police/Ranger abuses and/or Assist in getting interviews for Free Radio broadcasts or You-Tube Postings, contact Bathrobespierre Robert at 831-423-4833.
Activists around Food Not Bombs and the Freedom Sleepers are also looking for help gathering volunteers for the support meals on Saturday & Sunday as well as folks who want to help homeless harassed with citations for Being Visibly Homeless. Contact them at 575-770-3377.
Or go on line to the facebook page of Santa Cruz Food Not Bombs. FNB activists fear an upsurge of pressure against the downtown meals near the post office as follow up to the “coaxed removal” of the homeless encampment there. Sign up to support their Emergency Response Network by contacting them through Facebook or in person at the Saturday and Sunday meals. The idea is to quickly gather in numbers if city authorities attempt to shut down the meal.