Monthly Archives: July 2013

Homeless-bound Skid Row, L.A.–lengthy video

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http://www.thenatureexplorers.com/homelessbound/

HOMELESS bound L.A. Skid Row: The Michael C. Clark Cut A cinema verite film by Michael C. Clark about homelessness on Skid Row in Los Angeles, interlaced with interviews of the homeless inhabitants. Shot in Spring of 2013. View the entire documentary online at: http://www.homelessboundla.com

HOMELESS bound L.A. Skid Row: The Michael C. Clark Cut

A cinema verite film by Michael C. Clark about homelessness on Skid Row in Los Angeles, interlaced with interviews of the homeless inhabitants. Shot in Spring of 2013.

Blasting Back at the Cold of Deputy Property Seizure Against the Homeless in Santa Cruz

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‘Black Bloc’ Action at Gov. Center Calls Attention to Police Seizure of Homeless Property
by Alex Darocy ( alex [at] alexdarocy.com)Monday Jul 8th, 2013 5:06 PM

On July 3, an activist served representatives of the Santa Cruz County government with a written notice stating that the Sheriff department’s policy of seizing Continue reading →

The Problem with All These Homeless People is…

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…they lack homes.   They ain’t got housing.  They have no legal place to operate from with dignity and privacy.  They have been forced–most of them–into a furtive 3rd class citizen existence.   Instead of respect, they get suspicion, blame, and abuse.

NORSE NOTES:  Contrary to the latest Santa Cruz “Public Safety” mythology, it’s not that
…Santa Cruz is a “magnet” with its homeless-hostile laws;
…that the meager services (which really don’t include shelter–except for 5% of the homeless) are too welcoming;
… that the  homeless are addicts, alcoholics, and crazies who would naturally become homeless (the majority of homeless people are women, children, and vets)
… that homeless people “flock” to Santa Cruz because of its reputation for “easy life” (though the climate–like all coastal cities–beats Fresno, and many have roots here or are aware of the continuing cultural residue of a counter-culture here)
…that homeless people are producing a “crime wave”–as Deputy-Chief “Clatterbox” Clark repeatedly pronounces (unless you regard survival sleeping, sitting next to a building, peacefully asking for spare change, or drinking a beer in an out of the way place as being “crimes”–which Clark does; he should know, his SCPD got city Council to define these behaviors as “criminal”.)

I’m hearing that the broader housed and tourist community got a graphic taste of the Police State at 10 PM on July 4th when massive lines of cops began “rolling up” the previously public space.  All for our own security–of course.

Housing, work, and safety net repair for the disabled are the most immediate needs of the homeless population, say I.

HOMELESS Homelessness on the Rise in Monterey County, Census Shows

tent Arvin Temkar

Tent residents of Chinatown in Salinas celebrated Christmas with decorations last year.

Posted: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 6:39 pm | Updated: 10:25 am, Thu Jun 27, 2013.

Sara Rubin

 

An overwhelming majority of Monterey County’s homeless population lives without shelter, and those numbers are on the rise.

That’s according to the 2013 homeless census, conducted in January and presented Tuesday to the Board of Supervisors. The census represents a point-in-time snapshot of homelessness, based on data collected in one day by volunteers, who work on teams led by paid homeless individuals.

The 2013 census reports a 3-percent increase over 2011, bringing the county’s total homeless population to 2,590.

That number almost definitely is lower than the reality, says Glorietta Rowland, an analyst with the county’s Community Action Partnership. That’s because the census is, by its snapshot nature, imprecise.
“It is historically an under-representation of homeless in the community,” Rowland says.

The census estimates over 6,000 individuals experienced homelessness over the course of the past year—that annual estimate is a 58-percent increase from 2011.

In South County in particular, Rowland worries the numbers don’t accurately reflect the homeless population.

“Because we did not have people familiar with South County, the numbers there were very low,” Rowland says. “We know there are more homeless in that area.”

According to the census, there were 99 fewer homeless individuals in Greenfield, and also declines in Gonzales, King City and Soledad.

On the Peninsula and in North County homeless was up, census data shows. Monterey, Seaside and Prunedale all reported increases.

About three-quarters of the individuals surveyed do not live in shelters.

“There is a need for housing,” says Jill Allen, director of Dorothy’s Place in Salinas’ Chinatown.

Dorothy’s converts a day-use room into an emergency shelter each night, called Women Alive, and last year provided sleeping space to 188 women—many of them mentally ill, and many of them seniors, Allen says.

The nonprofit is in the midst of a fundraising push and education effort to “get people talking about better emergency facilities for women, and aging women who are out on the street,” she adds.

About 20 percent of homeless individuals live in families, the census found, though the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development definition of homeless doesn’t count families that might be doubling up in houses.

HUD requires all communities that receive federal funds to support homeless services conduct a bi-annual census.

Comment from Brent Adams

So blah blah blah, Robert.

What is HUFF doing about it besides this blah-ing for years on end?
Where in this report is mention of the proposed Sanctuary Camp?
Then endless media stream has begun to ring hollow if you’re not advocating for solutions that are so near at hand.
I encourage you to put your clatterboxing aside and begin putting your energy into helping us create a safe space for real people to sleep and to
keep stuff.  I also encourage you to realize that once that space exists then we’ll also have a real base for organizing around issues of
homelessness and the illegality of sleep.
sincerely,
Brent

Security Santa Cruz Security Guard Thuggery Receives Go-Ahead on July 11th

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NOTE BY NORSE:  Reports in Santa Cruz of intimidation and inappropriate behavior by Security Guards around the library, city hall, and San Lorenzo Park continue to come in on a regular basis–and from homeless people who have no past history of such complaints.  Yesterday, Gary at the Drum Circle denounced a First Alarm Security Guard (who, he said, was named “Dane”) for picking him out, towering over him, and then demanding he surrender the brown liquid in a glass jar (coffee) for examination, apparently insisting there were “no such liquids allowed in the park.”   Earlier, Gary reports, the same First Alarm guard bullied him at City Hall by false claiming his bike had to be placed in a special area to be “legal”.

Some months back, Razor Ray reported a similar incident at City Hall.  Ray, however,  insisted the SCPD be called, and the cop advised the First Alarm guard that no law was being violated.   He also documents a continuing pattern of First Alarm harassment in San Lorenzo Park (“What $160,000 dollars a year buys in contracts to ‘First Alarm’”  at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/05/07/18736461.php?show_comments=1#18736533 ).

Photojournalist and former Santa Cruz Eleven defendant Alex Darocy has also documented escalating harassment by First Alarm Security thugs in San Lorenzo Park:  See “First Alarm Security Guards Profile and Stalk San Lorenzo Park Users”  at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/06/24/18738888.php

Please post any videos, photos, or other accounts of such darkening police state behavior on line at you-rube as well as at www.indybay.org/santacruz .

An incident such as is described below is a likely prospect in Santa Cruz.  We’ve already experienced Officer Vasquez’s “Sidewalk Smash” of Richard Hardy  (see http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_23092865/homeless-man-injured-during-arrest ).  SCPD uniformed officers reportedly have “better training” than the private security heavies hired by the City to appease the Take Back Santa Cruz/Lynn Robinson/Pamela Comstock mob.

The increasing demonization of homeless people is encouraged by by neo-fascistic groups like the Public Hysteria Citizens Task Farce (which calls itself the Public Security Citizens Task Force) set up to legitimize “an unwelcoming attitude towards the homeless.”

This situation will grow worse on July 11th when a new anti-homeless “Public Safety” ordinance goes into effect.   (See “Anti-Homeless Laws at Santa Cruz City Council” at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/05/26/18737433.php).   This new ordinance (MC 13.08.090(b)) reads  ” Any person who by his or her conduct, or by threatening or abusive, or profane language willfully molests or unreasonably interferes with the use of a City park or beach by any other person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”  This sets up “fuck you, leave me alone!” responses for a year in jail and $1000 fine as well as a pre-conviction 24-hour banishment order from the park in question.

The First Alarm Security Thugs are reported covered under MC 13.08.090(a) which reads ” Any person who willfully harasses or interferes with a City of Santa Cruz employee in the performance of his or her duties in a City park or beach, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”   This, of course, turns around the kind of security thug “move along or be intimidated” harassment that is increasingly reported by homeless-looking folks in the parks.

The resulting ritual humiliation and harassment by First Alarm, boardwalk security, Panther Protective Services, and other would-be stormtroopers is almost certain at some point to spark verbal or physical resistance and violence.  Which, in turn, will lead to lawsuits–if adequately documented.

Severely beaten L.A. man awarded $58M

Michael Winter, USA TODAY 9:09 p.m. EDT July 2, 2013

House painter’s skull was crushed by security guard during bar fight.

Antonio Lopez Chaj

(Photo: Nick Ut, AP)

 

A California jury has awarded nearly $58 million to a 43-year-old house painter left brain damaged and deformed after a security guard crushed his skull during a beating outside a Los Angeles-area bar.

“His skull is like a pie with 25% cut out of it,” attorney Federico Sayre said at a news conference Monday.
Doctors had to removed part of Antonio Lopez Chaj’s brain and skull after the April 2010 beating at La Barra Latina in Torrance. He can no longer speak, needs help walking and requires 24-hour care.

Sayre said an unlicensed, untrained security guard with DGSP Security and Patrol Service beat Chaj with a baton or metal bar, kicked him in the head eight times and bashed his skull on the pavement four times. Chaj was attacked after he tried to intervene in a fight between one of his two nephews and the bar manager.

The guard was never charged; police said they lacked independent witnesses. He and the bartender who started the fight disappeared before the civil trial.

The damage award against the security firm — $35 million for past pain and suffering, $11.5 million for future medical expenses and $11 million for future pain and suffering — is one of the largest ever given to an individual in California.

Chaj’s lawyers, including the oldest son of the late farm workers’ leader Cesar Chavez, expect the security firm to ask the judge to reduce the judgment.

“I have explained to him that he now is going to be taken care of the rest of his long life,” Sayre said he told

Chaj, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Time to Chalk-ccupy Santa Cruz to Free the SC-11?

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NOTE BY NORSE:  Unfortunately, the decision was made by a jury and doesn’t stop future prosecution as a “legal” matter.  However the voice of the people (as it’s been heard in Brazil, Turkey, and Egypt recently) –in this case through the jury acquittal via “jury nullification”–is louder than any judge, mayor, cop, or soldier.   It’s probably too much to hope that gentrified Santa Cruz juries will exercise the kind of independence, clear vision, and refusal to follow judicial authoritarianism that “conservative” San Diego jurors did.   Still, we can spread the word!

In Santa Cruz we have the recent imposition of curfews (Cowell’s Beach, the library, City Hall the County Building, the Levee, and now at Capitola Beach for the 4th of July) and piling on of cops and security guard patrols for “safety”.

Santa Cruz has a nasty history (in spite of its phony liberal reputation) if attacks on Free Speech.  As of 7-11, it will become illegal to hold up a political sign on any median or roundabout (the goal being to criminalize peaceful panhandling–again under the phony pretext of “Public Safety”).   Haughty bigots will have an additional weapon in the new “disorderly conduct” law making it illegal to make the gentry “uncomfortable” in the parks (which is a huge swath of territory extending far beyond formal parks run by the city’s Parks and Recreation Dept.)–violaters (as of July 11th) face up to a year in jail and $1000 fine if they dare to dispute officials and don’t leave areas for 24-hours as well as appear in court to face trial.

No cheeky chalker protesters were ticketed or cited for chalking during the Occupy movement (the cops simply used massive police force to terrorize both activists and homeless survival campers nearby).  However, the Santa Cruz City Attorney’s office has intervened against past anti-war protests to prosecute “criminal chalkers” such as activist Becky Johnson (see http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/02/22/hopscotch-rebellion ).

And D.A. Bob Lee is still postponing murder, rape and assault prosecutions to forward his Wells Fargo-friendly political agenda of trying four activists (the last of the Santa Cruz Eleven) for peaceful occupation of a 5-year vacant bank building at 75 River St.    (See http://66.147.242.176/~santacv5/santacruzelevencom/ for background on the SC-11).

He panhandled the Board of Supervisors last month for more money, while ignoring the hundred thousand-plus his malicious prosecution of the SC-11 has cost the county.  The four defendants go to trial in September and face 4 years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines and restitution though no evidence has been presented that any of them committed any kind of vandalism whatsoever, simply being present in the vacant building as hundreds were throughout the 3-day occupation.

It’s telling that for the first time in Santa Cruz history (as far as I’ve heard), a local judge fined the D.A.’s office for improper behavior involving D.A. Rebekah Young—Lee’s underling in charge of prosecuting the cases–for repeatedly withholding discovery and presenting falsehoods to the court and to the defendants.  (This cost the defendants and their lawyers tens of thousands of dollars as well as big court costs, but Judge Burdick, closing ranks with fellow attorneys, only fined Lee $500.  Lee has refused to pay and is appealing the case.)  See “Attorneys for 4 of the Santa Cruz 11 go to Status & Sanctions Hearing Monday” at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/04/05/18734749.php )

Joe Schultz of India Joze will be catering a benefit for the SC-11 and Sanctuary Camp at 535 Spring St. 2-5 PM on Friday, July 5th.  Remember to carry chalk at all times!

Jeff Olson Acquitted Of Charges From Writing In Chalk On San Diego Sidewalk

By ELLIOT SPAGAT 07/02/13 09:40 AM ET EDT AP
https://bay165.mail.live.com/#!/!n=1602386955&view=1
jeff olson san diego chalk

SAN DIEGO — The mayor called the case “stupid” and a jury swiftly said it shouldn’t stick, taking the eraser to vandalism charges for a man who wrote anti-bank slogans on San Diego sidewalks.

A Superior Court jury deliberated for five hours after a four-day trial before acquitting Jeff Olson Monday of the 13 misdemeanor charges that could have brought 13 years in jail and $13,000 in fines.

Olson, 40, was charged with scrawling messages like “Shame on B of A” and `’No thanks, big banks” in water-soluble chalk on sidewalks outside San Diego Bank of America branches from April to August 2012. He included a drawing of an octopus reaching for dollar bills.
Olson turned to his attorney, nodded and smiled as the verdicts were read.

The trial was the latest in a series of dustups between City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, who prosecuted the case, and Mayor Bob Filner, who called it a “nonsense prosecution” that came in response to complaints from Bank of America.
“It’s washable chalk, it’s political slogans,” Filner said last week. “I think it’s a stupid case. It’s costing us money.”

Jail time is highly unusual for graffiti convictions, which typically result in fines or community service.

The city attorney’s office said it offered to reduce the charges if Olson agreed to perform community service by cleaning up graffiti, but he refused. The office said the case was referred by the police department.

“Graffiti remains vandalism in the state of California,” the city attorney’s office said. “Under the law, there is no First Amendment right to deface property, even if the writing is easily removed, whether the message is aimed at banks or any other person or group. We are, however, sympathetic to the strong public reaction to this case and the jury’s message.”

The judge, who imposed a gag order on participants during the trial, refused to allow Olson’s attorney to argue that the messages were constitutionally protected free speech. Instead, the attorney argued the messages caused no damage and were not malicious.

Olson, who was inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, said he was relieved by the outcome and that the prosecution brought more attention to his views than he ever imagined possible.

“I couldn’t have done better if I rented an airplane with a banner and put billboards up all over town,” he said.

MORE VIDEO AND COMMENTS AT

https://bay165.mail.live.com/#!/!n=1602386955&view=1

Bike Church Calls for Restoration of Bike Distribution to Santa Cruz Kids Blocked by SCPD

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NOTES BY NORSE:  I’ve spoken on this subject and interviewed Steve of the Bike Collective on Free Radio before (check http://www.huffsantacruz.org/brb-descriptions.html and search for “bike”).  Indybay stuff can be found at  https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/06/11/18738278.php (“A Year Later, Youth Programs Still Waiting on City Bicycles”) .

The issue seems to me part of a larger crackdown on services that help poor people spearheaded by the Bryant majority at City Council and “Hysteria Against the Homeless” groups like Take Back Santa Cruz, The Clean Team, the Downtown Association, and Santa Cruz Neighbors (not to mention the SCPD).   Politically motivated & legally suspect backroom deals free from meaningful public comment or notice seems to be increasingly the Council’s Path.

Personally I think mass occupation of the City Manager’s office and protests outside the Bike Dojo and the SCPD would be a more productive approach,  but public pressure on the City Council isn’t a bad thing either as the e-mail below suggests.

> Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2013 10:24:22 -0700
> From: steve@santacruzhub.org
> To:
> Subject: Help Restore City Youth Bicycle Distributions
>
> Dear friends,
>
> Please help us reinstate a valuable City program of distributing
> unclaimed bicycles to youth in need by voicing your support at City
> Council on Tuesday, July 9th, 4:30pm, or by contacting Council members
> ahead of time.
>
> For years unclaimed bicycles were given by the Santa Cruz Police
> Department to the Bike Church, which in turn distributed them to
> various nonprofits like Barrios Unidos, Project Bike Trip, and Green
> Ways to School. The broken and severely dysfunctional bikes were
> salvaged by the Bike Church, which makes used parts available
> cheap-to-free to the community, giving some away through our
> free-to-youth and adult work-trade programs.
>
> Over the last year, the City has given unclaimed bikes instead to a
> for-profit business called the Bike Dojo, which has not invited other
> groups to participate, and which has sold many bikes which are
> supposed to go out for free to youth. Despite admitting these
> problems, the City has not taken any action to remedy the situation.
>
> Please ask the City Council to immediately reinstate the distribution
> of unclaimed bicycles to youth for free through the Bike Church or
> another qualified nonprofit agency, as required by the Municipal Code
> (SCMC 2.24.120). The Bike Church is also calling for distributions
> open to all interested nonprofits in the City, as they were under the
> Bike Church’s management, and for all years prior.
>
> For a more detailed account of the story you can see our blog entry:
>
> http://bikechurch.santacruzhub.org/blog.html
>
> To contact your Council Members, come to Oral Communications on
> Tuesday, July 9th at 4:30pm, or contact the Council on your own:
>
> Hilary Bryant: hbryant@cityofsantacruz.com, 420-5026
> Lynn Robinson: lrobinson@cityofsantacruz.com, 420-5020
> Pamela Comstock: pcomstock@cityofsantacruz.com, 420-5020
> Don Lane: dlane@cityofsantacruz.com,  420-5022
> Cynthia Mathews: cmathews@cityofsantacruz.com, 420-5020
> Micah Posner: mposner@cityofsantacruz.com, 420-5028
> David Terrazas: dterrazas@cityofsantacruz.com, 420-5020
>
> Thanks for your support,
>
> The Bike Church Collective
>
>
> SAMPLE LETTER TO COUNCIL:
>
> Dear Council Members,
>
> Thanks to the City for its years-long program of distributing
> unclaimed bicycles to youth in need through the help of the Bike
> Church. These distributions helped hundreds of youth gain access to
> bicycles, and I hope they are reinstated without delay.
>
> I also want to express my support for the Bike Church, which offers a
> great service by teaching people how to fix bikes for themselves, as
> well as recycling tons of usable parts which otherwise would go to the
> landfill. The Bike Church is the kind of positive community resource
> that the City should be proud to have. They have also proven to be the
> most effective managers of the youth bicycle distributions,
> coordinating with numerous other organizations to get bikes to youth,
> while salvaging usable parts from the junk no one else wants. Please
> reinstate the Bike Church as managers of the program.
>
> Thanks,
>
> **************