Various articles covering the police murder of Tyre Nicols in Memphis
[1-22-23] Helga’s herstory of anti-homeless harassment at the Mountain Community Resource Center and elsewhere in Felton
[1-23-23] Dreamcatcher and Arnie give rosy snapshots of the Armory shelter
[1-23-23] Everett Trujillo’s Report Card on Sheriff and Povertypimp Behavior
[1-27] Helga and Bathrobespierre Shoot Questions at Deputy Jason Dune.
[1-28] Helga’s account of her 1 a.m. bust for videoing Everett’s false arrest.
The November 11, 1999 Flashback includes:
Largely Critical Phone Interview with Councilmember Chris Krohn on the Shoulder Tap law, Rent Control, the rushed Dolphin-Lee Project, Council’s stalling on an independent lawyer for the Citizens Police Review Board [CPRB]
Gail Levy, President of the Cabrillo Estates Mobile Home Owners Association [CEMHOA] in Capitola defending their rent control.
FRSC broadcaster and CEMHOA resident Merlin weighs in on the issue.
Van dweller Dennis Rehm, 14-times hauled to court for Sleeping Ban crime, on the Flory-Edwards-Jacobs defense and judicial collusion with police repression.
Catnip Kate Wells, defense attorney, advises CPRB members on the right to use lawful force to resist a false arrest.
Roughrider Richard Quigley on social cleansing harassment of Jerry Henry, counselor to street youth, charged with 11 non-violent misdemeanors
Battling Bob Lamonica on the corrupt past of Judge Art Danner
Homeless recycler Verna Hernandez on City harassment of her work
The January 26 show is a Flashback to the October 21, 1999 Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides show. It includes:
Jeff, a White Separatist, gets grilled by pro-Mumia- abu- Jamal activists.
Aaron Birsch, convicted of assaulting the homeless Joe Barker, discusses his trial and the underlying charge. [Part 2 of an interview that began with the October 14, 1999 show]
Skidmark Bob on his encounter with the Birsch anti-Mumia group and the background of the SC-5 trial, arrested in the Kosovo anti-war protest
Vinnie Lombardo, aka the V man, a FRSC reporter and broadcaster, on his upcoming court hearing in the SC-5 case.
[Oct 10, 1999] Homeless squeegee woman “Patches” describes Bad Times at Dominican Hospital.
Rev. John Phillips of the Rainbow Cross Walk, going from S.C. to S.F.
Becky Johnson on Sgt. “Sticky Fingers” Butchie Baker’s failure to find anti-homeless assailants.
“City’s Take Hard Line on Homeless” by Blair Anthony Robinson and Mathew Barrows
Coffee, cookies, carrots, and cantankerous conversation following up on the Mountain Community Resource protests and Santa Cruz’s failure to open Winter Shelter consistently and regularly.
HUFFMeeting Agenda Prospects1-26-23
++++ Street reports
++++ Mountain Resource Center Protest Follow-Up
++++ Helga’s Follow-Up with Felton Outside Folks
++++ Flash or Planned Protest at MCRC or Community Bridges
++++ Sham Shelter Shenangans: New Stats—City & County?
++++ Winter Shelter in Santa Cruz Protest Action
++++ Drenching the Disabled—Parking Lots Punishments?
++++ Shitty Council & Bored of Stupidvipers Meetings
++++ Updates for SB31;
++++ Injunction Prep; Ratner/Mangler Protest Prep
++++ Tabling & Follow-Up at Clock, Pogonip, Levee for Lawsuit Prep Pressure and Survival Encampment Network
++++ Placeholders: Tickets, Free Guide, OVO, Mad Power
by Robert Norse Tue, Jan 17, 2023 11:26AM Charges of cruel, discriminatory, and unnecessary evictions of unhoused folks into survival-threatening weather at Felton’s Mountain Community Resource Center have prompted this protest. Two fliers describe the situation and ask the community to respond.
Download PDF (431.3KB) Torrential rains and cold temperatures have made this a particularly hard weather for those surviving outside as the San Lorenzo River rises.
HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) has received repeated reports of discriminatory behavior by the management of the Mountain Community Resource Center in Felton. They include denying promised (once-a-week) shower facilities, turning those sheltered under an outdoor awning into the rain, calling sheriffs to harass otherwise peaceful homeless people, and similar actions treating the poor outside like criminals.
We will be responding to these complaints on Thursday morning to urge a change in these practices and to determine the extent of the abuses there.
Say NO to discrimination at the Mountain Resource Center at 6134 Highway 9, Contact Info: Felton, CA 95018 Phone: 831-335-6600 Parent organization: Community Bridges at 831-688-8840 & info [at] cbridges.org For more information: http://www.huffsantacruz.org§Informational Flyer by Robert Norse Tue, Jan 17, 2023 11:26AM
“Heartstrong” Helga has a wrangle of a conversation with Bathrobespierre Robert about recent incidents of anti-homeless discrimination at the Mountain Resources Center in Felton.
Looking back on the 1-10 Santa Cruz Shitty Council meeting with new 4-year Mayor “Fast Lane” Fred Keeley and his authoritarian style
“Scope it Out” Scott Graham reviews the Council wreckage.
Brief squeaks of outrage and rationality from Steve, Hector, Joyh, Sabina, and Abbi during the token 1-10 Oral Communications period
Rainy day news and blues from Katzenjammer Keith McHenry [1-11]
Food Not Bombs fusillades from Alice & “Grok It” Greg.
Preview of the Flashback from Bathrobespierre Robert
The December 20th, 2012 Flashback includes:
[Bits from The Capital Steps comedy troupe throughout]
Piercing the veil of the Poverty-pimpster and Politician-packed 14th Homeless Memorial
Homeless [Lack of] Service Center[HLOSC] rules
The names and ages of the homeless dead over the last 20 years
Memorial notes from a skeptical observer & interviews with: Larry Bordeau
Vets report
Mama Joy McCorkle’s “Cause of Death” poem
Nearly audible encomiums by Beggarbacker Becky Johnson, Dead-on David Silva, and Silver-tongued Steve Pleich
Fact-flee-er Phil Kramer avoids saying many actually housed by HLOSC
A tearful Kalalia Guard (aka “Stormy”) mourns those not mentioned
B. Johnson totals up the homeless death total; D. Silva on Billy’s death
[11-26] Red Church Ravings: Jonathan on police doubleparking
“Freedom” and her copwatcher report
Rick Stipes report on his indecent exposure & camping ticket trials
Mainstream media covers the Homeless Bill of Rights protest interviewing Razor Ray, Mama Shannon, Tom, Julie Schaul + family, Ralph
The small City of Felton has no Winter shelter and its Mountain Resource Center 6134 Hiway 9 (across from Rite-Aid) has been accused of driving people out into rainy weather during the last three weeks. An informational flyering and protest is planned for Felton at 10 AM Thursday December 20th.
Street Interviews: Raymond and Samantha get accosted by Officer Brandt for Open Container and Camping; remarks about Armory Shelter living;
Sherry Conable’s account of musician Thomas Siles being driven away by Farmer’s Market “managers”
Sometime co-host Jeffrey Gale on his struggle to press Mayor Reilly to use the spacious Civic Center Auditorium for a City Council anti-war vote and to persuade conservative KSCO radio to broadcast the Council meeting on the issue.
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2023/01/11/18853776.php by Reggie Meisler (posted by Norse) (rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com) Wed, Jan 11, 2023 7:07PM Reggie Meisler, civil liberties defender of unhoused rights, is waiting for an answer to his January 9th letter to Santa Cruz City Manager Matt Huffaker, Mayor Fred Keeley, Police Chief Rudy Escalante, and the S.C. City Council. Meisler calls for Huffaker to direct his SCPD to stop harassing and uprooting those whose vehicles are their shelter by misusing the “abandoned vehicle” tagging law. City Manager Huffaker, Chief Escalante, Mayor Keeley, and Councilmembers,
I want to bring to your attention an issue that is actively occurring, even during these extreme weather conditions, wherein unhoused folks living in vehicles are repeatedly being given “abandoned vehicle” green tags (See attached photos).
In many cases, folks are actually residing in their vehicle when the green tag is being given and have been parked in said location for less than an hour. I have been told about a couple instances wherein folks literally get out of their vehicle, mid-tag, and the police officer does not offer to rescind the green tag, claiming it was given because “someone called about your vehicle”. In many cases, when a green tag is given, the officer also draws aggressive messages on the vehicle owner’s tires, telling them to “move 1 mile”.
I understand how you could consider this to be some kind of compromise between giving into the bigoted demands of some of our most extreme anti-houseless community members, and what you may view as complete inaction on the issue of actually abandoned vehicles. I think that thought process would feel much more true to me if our officers at least investigated these “Karen calls” and erred more on the side of human survival and harm reduction.
Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case. From my own investigation into this situation, we seem to be currently operating under a model of bigoted neighbors calling the police, and then police promptly showing up to harass our unhoused neighbors with inappropriate citations. This is a clear abuse of the law, unjustly harassing and targeting our unhoused residents; and possibly even just people with “ugly” vehicles. Given how these tags are being given out, the effort it would take to demonstrate to a court that this constitutes a lack of even-handed enforcement, would not be difficult. That’s why I’m reaching out to you, please save us the effort.
I would like to give you the opportunity to correct this behavior within the Santa Cruz Police Department before this situation escalates into some kind of legal action against the city.
by Robert Norse (and Matt Huffaker) (rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com) Sun, Jan 8, 2023 2:28PM Yesterday, City Manager Matt Huffaker sent me his first-ever e-mail in response to my denunciation of the closing of the Civic Auditorium Emergency Shelter as torrential rains approach. E-Mail Sent to the Community (including City Manager Matt Huffaker):
LATE FLASH: The Civic Center Flooding and Wet Weather Emergency Pop-Up Shelter—open for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights—is reportedly closing down in spite of 8″ of predicted rain by Monday. A worker reports that folks were ousted at 9 AM on the order of the new Mayor (Fred Keeley), some still unable to secure their property indoors, though staff are within denying entrance (as of 1 p.m. Saturday).
There is no indication that the Civic will reopen as emergency shelter in time for torrential rains predicted for early next week (as well as showers through the weekend)
So, the City is spending money harassing homeless folks in the rain (see below) but refuses to extend Civic Auditorium shelter in spite of flood conditions.
City homeless funding is still unaccounted for.
City shelter programs are inaccessible to the majority of those outside.
Now, as for the last few years, there has been no drop-in winter shelter as in past years.
The City has refused to fund Brent Adams’ Footbridge Services—causing the only free storage program in town to shut down along with his laundry, women’s support, and other daily services.
On the Thursday netshow described below there is also a brief interview with Arnie, a Civic Center Shelter occupant on Wednesday night, who reports he was harassed and directed to move along twice by police in the rain, and even threatened when under the parking garage shelter (“be gone by 8”). [Interview at https://www1.huffsantacruz.org/lost/1%20FRSC%201-5-23.mp3 (8 or so minutes into the audio file)]
THE CITY MANGLER’S REPLY Mr. Norse,
To be clear, it was my decision, in consultation with our Emergency Operations Center Team, to close the temporary emergency shelter at the Civic Auditorium. While our team, with County support, did tremendous work to stand-up the shelter in short order, the Civic is too large and resource intensive to continue operating over an extended period. I want to recognize the many City staff that proactively worked to outreach to those in flood prone areas prior to the storm.
With that said, we are actively working with the County to stand-up additional warming centers. We will share more details with the community as these resources come online.
I have many questions regarding the City’s current shelter options and expenses. I’m hoping you’ll be able to direct me to the answers or provide them yourself in the days ahead. My first question, if you have a quick answer, is what was the per night expense of opening the Civic as Emergency Shelter? How does that compare with the total budget you’ve set aside for shelter (or more realistically, police expenses for harassing, citing, and/or arresting those unsheltered outside)? What would persuade you to open the Civic or its equivalent for tomorrow night and throughout the winter as emergency walk-in? What would be required in costs and volunteer labor?
I ask these questions because they are not theoretical and have a direct impact upon those swept outside and the community generally. And they are, of course, time sensitive.
original image (850×1170) I wasn’t able to reach any additional City information at City of Santa Cruz Facebook page at the address mentioned on the attached flyer. However for those who have trouble reading the attached flyer, here is the text:
“Emergency Shelter at Depot Park! Temporary Emergency Shelter opening at 8 PM on Monday January 9, 2023, and operated by Santa Cruz Free Guide. the shelter will be in the Freight Building at Depot Park 119 Center St., Santa Cruz for anyone needing to get out of the rain overnight. This site will be open 8 pm – 8 am through Thursday, January 12th at 8 am.
This half-assed response of an open-during-the-night-only shelter receives some pertinent and scathing comments on the City’s facebook page. Could the City Manager be trying to save face on the cheap? http://www.huffsantacruz.org
