Will Santa Cruz Freedom Sleepers Follow “Black Lives Matter” Baltimore Example?

NOTES BY NORSE: The Santa Cruz City Council’s continues its hostility to basic homeless rights/  Its police and ranger continue ticketing for homeless survival behavior.  This has raised proposals that Freedom Sleepers and other protesters bring sleeping bags and blankets to the next City Council meeting and sleep indoors.

Last Tuesday at the 14th Freedom SleepOut, Freedom Sleepers declared the sidewalks around City Hall a Safe Sleeping Zone and urged City Council and the City generally to do so. (Police rarely if ever give sleeping citations to those who bunk out on the sidewalks during the Tuesday protest night, though they regularly harass homeless folks elsewhere in town).

With harsh “El Nino” winter weather on the horizon and City Council poised to pass proposals to severely restrict or ban RV parking, the Freedom Sleepers spoke one after another at the 10-13 City Council meeting, urging (unsuccessfully) that the Parks Master Plan contain meaningful provision for homeless emergency rest and shelter.

Instead police continued to dog the peaceful protesters during the Council meeting and throughout the night, setting up the usual super-bright klieg lights, 4-man “security” patrols, closed bathrooms, expanded “no assembly” zones roped off during the Council meeting, $198 tickets for holding picket signs outside City Hall at night, and restricted parking to deter protest vehicles.

There has been no restored emergency shelter for the unhoused community and meals, bathrooms, and laundry facilities shuttered for the vast majority at the Homeless (Lack of) Services Center.

Will Santa Cruz demonstrators take inspiration from the Baltimore “Black Lives Matter” activists and simply lay down their gear and sleep inside the Council next meeting?  Do Homeless Lives Matter?  Not unless the outdoors and housed community takes action to make them matter.

FOR EXTENSIVE PHOTO COVERAGE AND COMMENTS GO TO:

http://www.abc2news.com/news/region/baltimore-city/kevin-davis-confirmed-as-baltimore-police-commissioner

Protesters stage overnight sit-in following Davis approval as police commissioner

Protesters refused to leave City Hall

WMAR Staff

9:40 PM, Oct 14, 2015

7:12 PM, Oct 15, 2015

 

BALTIMORE – Sixteen protesters were arrested after participating in an overnight sit-in at Baltimore City Hall following the approval of Kevin Davis as the city’s new police commissioner.

Davis was approved Wednesday evening by the executive appointments committee of the Baltimore City Council.


The last 30 minutes of the appointment hearing were taken over by the voices of a group of protesters who brought three demands to the proceedings:
1) The firing of Baltimore Housing Director Paul Graziano.
2) For officers to stop using excessive force against peaceful protesters.
3) To invest millions in alternatives to incarceration.

“One of the more fundamental problems is that the community doesn’t feel involved in the process,” said Adam Jackson, an activist and founder of the group Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle.

The group of protesters remained at City Hall well after the confirmation hearing to stage an “occupation” or a sit-in. The group, led by activist and community organizer Makayla Gilliam-Price, remained inside City Hall overnight.

She said police were barring the group from going to the bathroom and ordering food.
“It’s like they’re forcing us to choose our political voice over our survival,” Gilliam-Price said.
Around 11:45 p.m. Police department spokesman T.J. Smith said there were about 35 protesters who refused to leave City Hall.

“The protest remains non-violent. No arrests have been made,” Smith said in a statement.
Early Thursday morning, police escorted about a dozen people from City Hall and into police transport vehicles, many of them were wearing plastic handcuffs.
“As a direct result of their failure to comply, the remaining protesters have been arrested and charged with trespassing,” Baltimore police announced on Facebook.

Police said a total of 16 people, including three juveniles, were arrested. Those arrested are as follows:

  • 27-year-old Gabriel James Dinsmoor of the 100 block of E. Lafayette Avenue.
  • 19-year-old Tre Stephon Murphy of the 3300 block of Kenyon Avenue.
  • 22-year-old Ralikh Hayes of the 600 block of N. Rosedale Street.
  • 27-year-old Adam Joshua Jackson of the 3400 block of Powhatan Avenue.
  • 38-year-old Matthew Warren of the 300 block of Old Trail Road.
  • 22-year-old Daniel Nikita Lee of the 3900 block of Greenmount Avenue.
  • 26-year-old Payam Sohrabi of the 4900 block of Dulton Drive, Columbia Maryland.
  • 20-year-old Shaivaughn Fate Crawley of the 500 block of Fairrview Avenue.
  • 27-year-old Christopher Allen Comeau of the 3000 block of Stafford Street.
  • 21-year-old Hanifat Bimpe Bello of the 1300 block of Colbury Road.
  • 18-year-old Mocca Verdel of the 500 block of W. Mosher Street.
  • 23-year-old Kayla joy Ingram of the 1600 block of Darley Avenue.
  • 38-year-old Kerridwen Eliot Henry of the 14000 block of Falcon Wood Drive, Burtonsville Maryland.
  • A 17-year-old girl from Baltimore.
  • A 16-year-old boy from Baltimore.
  • A 17-year-old boy from Baltimore.

Each person arrested has been charged with trespassing, police said.

Davis’ appointment will move on to a full vote by the City Council at a later date.
City Councilman Nick Mosby did not support the approval of Davis as commissioner. In a statement, Mosby wrote:

“Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s decision not to seek re-election means that the City will have new leadership beginning in January, 2017.  The new mayor and the citizens of Baltimore should not be saddled with $150,000 golden parachute for another police commissioner should the new mayor decide to bring in new leadership for the department.”

 

Davis said Thursday he has reviewed the groups demands and added that he has no problem meeting to discuss them- although he says not all were reasonable.

 

Davis said he’s always been accessible as a leader and he hopes to meet with the group within the next day.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Baltimore officer investigated for spitting on handcuffed man

By Shawn Price   |   Oct. 14, 2015 at 12:46 AM

 

Baltimore Police have suspended and are investigating a veteran police officer who appears in a cell phone video to spit on a handcuffed man.

BALTIMORE, Oct. 13 (UPI) — Baltimore police said they have suspended an officer and launched an investigation after the release of a video purporting to show the officer spitting on a handcuffed man.
In the video, Sgt. Robert Mesner, a 34-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, appears to be involved in a shouting match with a man as he arrests him Sunday.
An officer alleged to be Mesner said “You’re going to be Tased. You’re under arrest. Get down, man. You’re under arrest.” 
“Go ahead! Go ahead! Do it!” the other man said.
Then the officer handcuffs the man and seconds later, appears to spit on him. An off-screen bystander is heard yelling, “He just spit on him, he just spit on him.”
Tensions escalate before police tell people to move back.
“Our internal investigation progressed rapidly today with the review of available video and interaction with witnesses. The video appears to depict the police sergeant spitting on the arrestee,” Interim Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said.
“That is outrageously unacceptable and it directly contradicts the necessary community relationships we are striving to rehabilitate. The police powers of Sgt. Robert Mesner are now suspended, and a criminal investigation is underway. Our entire community deserves to be treated with dignity and respect,” Davis said.

Protests resume at Baltimore City Hall after 16 arrested, jailed for trespassing

Interim Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said Thursday that arresting the demonstrators was “the last thing we wanted to do.”

By Doug G. Ware   |   Updated Oct. 15, 2015 at 8:00 PM

BALTIMORE, Oct. 15 (UPI) — Just hours after more than a dozen demonstrators were jailed for trespassing at Baltimore City Hall, over the tentative approval of the city’s new police commissioner, more protesters continued the rally Thursday morning.

Police said 16 people were arrested overnight Thursday — including three under the age of 18 — not long after the Baltimore City Council’s Executive Appointments Committee approved Kevin Davis as the new permanent police commissioner.

The full city council must now confirm Davis, who has been serving as the interim police commissioner, to the post permanently.

However, his occupying that office doesn’t sit well with some Baltimore residents, who argue that Davis is a questionable candidate due to a lack of experience. He has served as interim commissioner since July.

Demonstrator Lawrence Grandpre argued that Davis’ leadership has coincided with “a clear shift in tactics” by Baltimore police officers — who he believes have sometimes infringed on protesters’ First Amendment rights.

Grandpre has said Baltimore police, for example, are too quick to make arrests when people have a right to protest — an accusation Davis himself refuted.

The interim police leader told a local radio show Thursday that arresting the young demonstrators was “the last thing we wanted to do.”

“In a perfect world, they probably wouldn’t have stayed that long,” he added.

Davis was approved by the appointments panel Wednesday night — and although a contingent of supporters were present to applaud his leadership, several who feel he is not the right person for the job were ardent in their opposition.

One incident fueling the fire against Davis is a video that surfaced this week allegedly showing a Baltimore police sergeant spitting on a man being arrested. Davis called the video “reprehensible” and “disgusting.”

That officer has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of an investigation.

“Just when we’re making progress, it’s two steps back,” Davis said of his department’s efforts to win back public trust.

The video is the latest in numerous public grievances against the police department, which drew global outrage in April following the death of Freddie Gray — a man who died of severe injuries while in Baltimore police custody.

The demonstrators, many of whom were teenagers, decided to underscore their opposition by staying inside city offices after business hours. Multiple police officers, they said, ultimately threatened to arrest them if they did not leave.

The police department said after “hours of communication and warnings, a small number of protesters inside of City Hall decided to leave the building.” The rest, 16 in all, were handcuffed, taken to jail and charged with trespassing.

Grandpre, of Baltimore United for Change, was among the protesters who left without being arrested — but he returned, with a small contingent, later Thursday morning.

“The goal is to get our protesters out of jail,” said Grandpre, who also claimed that police turned away advocates who showed up at the jail with food for the demonstrators early Thursday.

Returning demonstrators asked the community for financial help for the arrested protesters, who were scheduled to appear in court later in the afternoon.