Police policies around homeless sweeps:  Do police instruct homeless people on a legal place to go?  Any spcific instructions, reports or written documents around this practice?  How much money and police time has been spent in the last year on this?  (And, for good measure, how much do they anticipate spending this year?)

Property confiscations:   Is property found vacant at homeless camps destroyed–yes or no?   How much property is currently in police impound from the sweeps?   What agency does the dumping, how frequently, at what cost, and how many trips have been made?

Targeted enforcement to determine if most of these offenses are charged against homeless people whose address is recorded as “transient” or 115 Coral St:  A report on police enforcement downtown of MC 5.43  (The Move-Along Law), MC 6.04 (The Smoking Ban), MC 6.36 (The Camping/Sleeping/Blanket Bans), MC 8.14 (Homeless Dog Ban), MC 9.10 (The Panhandling Ban), MC 9.20 (The Chalking Ban), MC 9.36 (The “Offensive Music” Ban), MC 9.40 (The ‘Amplified’ Sound Ban), MC 9.50.012 (The Sitting-on-the-sidewalk Ban), MC 9.50.020 (The Sitting on Most Public Property Ban), MC 13.04 (The “Entering Forbidden Zones Designated as No Trespass” Ban),  And whether the police make any exception for disabled people (not to do so arguably violates the ADA).

SCPD Freeze-out on Bike Distribution:  How many bikes have reached non-profits from the SCPD in the last half year, either through the Bike Dojo or anywhere else?

Documenting That You Have or Haven’t Made These Requests:  Sounds like this won’t be necessary since you don’t indicate any willingness to do any of them, but it would be more candid to actually make it clear that you are refusing to make these requests of staff.  So  I  ask again, are you?

Thanks,

Robert

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From: MPosner@cityofsantacruz.com
To: rnorse3@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2013 22:48:20 -0800
Subject: Re: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

–Forwarded Message Attachment–
From: rnorse3@hotmail.com
To: micah@peoplepowersc.org; mpleaner@gmail.com
Subject: FW: Local Civil Liberties Issues
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2013 19:11:28 -0800

I’m going to a HUFF meeting tomorrow and would like to give an update on these questions and the ones in the companion e-mail.   Feel free to show up there and respond personally, or provide some written guidance.

Thanks,

R

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From: rnorse3@hotmail.com
To: mposner@cityofsantacruz.com
CC: huffsantacruz@yahoogroups.com; steve@santacruzhub.org
Subject: Local Civil Liberties Issues
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:26:57 -0800

Councilmember Posner:

At the HUFF meeting, members asked you numerous questions.  This is a follow-up to those questions and to my previous e-mails and phone calls as well as your responses.  If you find the number of specific questions daunting–please indicate which of these you will  prioritize.  I believe they are all important and actually only don’t require extensive work on your part.

1  Have any new insulting “Imagine Real Change” meters been set up in the last year?  How much money has actually been generated by these meters since they were put in?   How often were they vandalized and repaired?

2.  What is the response of the City Attorney to your question about whether the SCPD is being advised to respect the White v. City of Sparks decision protecting artists and writers selling their work downtown?  

3.  Please request a staff report on police policies around homeless sweeps–i.e. whether homeless people who they accost  in the middle of the night are given a legal place to go sleep.  Ask for the specific instructions given to beat officers, any written documents or reports around this practice, and how much money and police time is being spent on this.

     Additionally please request a report on property confiscation:  what the policy is, whether survival material found at camps left vacant during the day are stored or destroyed (the latter is what is being reported to me),  how much property is currently in police impound or storage, and how many trucks full of homeless property have been taken to the dump for destruction–by what agency, how frequently, and at what cost?

4.  I’d also like to see a report on the “addresses” of those cited in the downtown core around such ordinances as the Sitting Ban, the Panhandling Ban, and the Performing/Tabling Ban  (where ‘Ban” means severe restriction).  This would go a distance towards indicating whether the chief targets of these laws are homeless or disabled people.   The City, of course, faces legal vulnerability here, which would be a good motivator to halt such practices.

5.  What is the status of your public support for Ammiano’s Homeless Bill of Rights?

6.  Please ask to see the direction given SCPD officers in the downtown core regarding enforcement on MC 5.43.020 (“Move-Along Every Hour if you’re a political tabler, panhandler, artist, or performer”) &  MC 9.50.012 (Sitting Ban).

7..  Are any bikes being delivered to non-profits from the SCPD, either via the Bike Dojo, the Bike Church, or any other mechanism?  The response that this issue is “under discussion”–which has been the City’s line for the last year while poor people via non-profits are being denied bikes is not a helpful one.  Please provide specifics regarding how many bikes have been delivered in the last six months and then passed on as was previously the case at the Bike Church.

Please clarify  when and to whom you have made these information requests and send me a copy in writing of such communications.

Thanks,

Robert Norse