NOTE BY NORSE: The author of this article and the homeless woman Sunny Fawcett have been outspoken criticis of police harassment of the homeless in Monterey. They were guests on my radio show last Continue reading
Category Archives: Activist Articles
Destruction of Homeless Homes in Fresno
NOTE BY NORSE: An extensive list of articles by Mike Rhodes in his Community Alliance newspaper can be found at http://fresnoalliance.com/wordpress/?p=1313 . Please report the destruction of Continue reading
Palo Alto: Fighting Back Against Bigotry
- Petitioning Palo Alto City Council
Palo Alto City Council: DO NOT ENACT A VEHICLE HABITATION ORDINANCE:
Dear Mayor and City Council of Palo Alto, California DO NOT ENACT A VEHICLE HABITATION ORDINANCE:
We the undersigned to hereby declare that Continue reading
Palo Alto PowWow 7-13 2 PM: Fight the Homes-on-Wheels Ban!
Excellent speaker: Paul Boden
Western regional director
R.A.P.
San francisco, CA.INVITATION TO ATTEND A COMMUNITY DISCUSSION
Western regional director
R.A.P.
San francisco, CA.INVITATION TO ATTEND A COMMUNITY DISCUSSION
As long as the government continues to willfully abdicate its moral responsibility to house the homeless, it has no business Continue reading
Bike Boycott and Homeless Harassment at City Council
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/07/10/18739596.php
A Teapot Tempest or Two at Oral Communications
by Robert Norse ( rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com )
Wednesday Jul 10th, 2013 3:13 AM
Wednesday Jul 10th, 2013 3:13 AM
Bike Church supporters lined up to urge City Council to end the SCPD’s political boycott of The Bike Church and restore the flow of abandoned and damaged bikes stopped a year and a half ago. Bike Dojo bozo Rob Mills, the new Bike Mafioso who’s the SCPD’s designated dumpsite for bikes, spewed fire and brimstone at critics of his business. I played the infamous Ken Collins video showing Collins poking a homeless man in a sleeping bag as part of a Clean Team “clean up” operation.
COLLINS VIDEO BACK–BRIEFLY– IN PUBLIC EYE
Four months after the actual incident, and two months after it hit You-Tube (via Santa Cruz Patch) and was then removed, I played the Ken Collins video showing the fiery Ken and his Clean Team bigotistas harass a homeless man in a red sleeping bag.
Though the video has been repeatedly removed from You-Tube, it is still posted along with a lengthy story on Santa Cruz Indymedia at http://www.indybay.org/
Councilmember Comstock responded by denouncing me and attempting to distance her own Take Back Santa Cruz organization (of which she is co-founder) from The Clean Team.
Councilmember Robinson was not there, though reportedly was part of The Clean Team clean-up the day that Collins decided to abuse and denounce the homeless man in the video. She has made no statement on that expedition so far.
A tip of the hat to City Clerk/Administrator Bren Lehr, who assisted me in setting up the video after initially alarming me with requests that I allow “pre-viewing” so Mayor Bryant could “warn parents” to cover their childrens eyes and ears. Something the Council has been pretty good at doing generally regarding its abuses against the homeless.
Videos like this one are vital to show the public what’s really happening beneath the “Public Safety” pontificating and Needle Hysteria of The Clean Team, Take Back Santa Cruz, the SCPD, and associated right-wing groups.
Brent Adams’ video of Officer Vasquez dropping Richard Hardy face-first to the sidewalk in handcuffs is still a shocker (and still unexplained by the ever-evasive SCPD) (See “Use of force investigation not complete in videotaped arrest in Santa Cruz” at http://www.santacruzsentinel.
SCPD BIKE BOYCOTT TO BE LIFTED? MAYBE.
The main action of the afternoon was a series of Bike Church supporters asking that the Council direct the SCPD to resume distribution of bikes cut off in a right-wing retaliatory move eighteen months ago and stalled by higher-up’s in the SCPD and City Manager’s office (specifically Assistant Manager Tina Shuul).
Bike Church supporters were on their best behavior, making little mention of the hostile and unjustified actions of the SCPD, the failure of Councilmembers Lane and Posner to take strong public action on this issue, or the complicity of the Bike Dojo in signing on to this “punish the lefties” action.
I suspect the decision by the SCPD was taken under cover of the Terrezas, Bryant, Mathews majority. See http://www.indybay.org/
(“Help Restore City Youth Bicycle Distributions”) and http://www.indybay.org/
Steve Schnaar raised the issue nearly a year ago (“City Ends Successful Bicycle Distribution Program in Secret Back-Room Deal”at http://www.indybay.org/
Micah Posner claimed victory by noting that (a) the Bike Dojo was no longer receiving bikes from the City, and (b) there was now an open process to apply for that status. The question of why the bikes were stopped in the first place and why this issue was stalled for over a year and a half was “diplomatically” ignored. So apparently the SCPD will suffer no consequences for what appears to be abusive and arbitrary intervention denying distribution of bikes for over 18 months without warning or explanation.
Rob Mills and Paul of the Bike Dojo insisted that they were distributing hundreds of bikes to kids. Mills, however, had no problem with the SCPD’s using his group to steer bikes away from The Bike Church, even though Sandino of Barrios Unidos testified that bikes piled up undistributed over a period of months at the Bike Dojo. Dojo Bozo Mills (who kept insulting activists in a steady stream of invective both during and after the Council meeting) reportedly refused to allow the bikes to be distributed when a Watsonville group tried to wrest them from his clutches. This according to Sandino and Schnaar.
While it’s nice to hear prospects of the bikes being distributed again (Mills insisted the bikes had continued to go out over the last few months)–and potentially via the Bike Church–the failure of Posner, the Bike Church, and the Council to reveal the full extent of SCPD interference here allows them to walk away with clean hands from what seems to me like a rather dirty backroom business.
Mayor Bryant continues to violate the Brown Act by denying the public the right to speak on Consent Agenda items. She had no answer to my recent request as to why she is treating members of the public differentially (See “Mayor Cuts Off Comment in Consent Agenda Crackdown; Brown Act Complaint Rejected” at http://www.indybay.org/
However, to her credit, Bryant did allow all the speakers who wanted to speak do so at Oral Communications (when relatively few people were in the room compared to the normal session)–even though this meant spending 40 minutes or more (the usual time is half an hour) and giving each speaker 3 minutes. The Mayor may also have been more sensitive to this issue because an organized group (the Bike Church supporters) was present. Still, I thanked her for it afterwards.
It was all far too genteel to deter any repetition of SCPD/TBSC mischief in the future. And glossy flyers bemoaning the deaths of Butler and Baker were still stacked in piles to remind members of the community about who’s running the show at City Council.
Homeless-bound Skid Row, L.A.–lengthy video
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
‘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…
…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.
Arvin Temkar
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
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
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/
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/
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.
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/
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.
(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?
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/
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/~
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/
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
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.
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