Category Archives: HOT ISSUES

Fighting Back Against City Council’s “Crowd and Crush Street Vendors and Performers Ordinances”

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https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/09/09/18742960.php?show_comments=1#18743107

by HUFF (posted by Norse)

Wednesday Sep 11th, 2013 11:24 PM

HUFF voted to call a protest with food, possibly music, and speakers on Sunday September 22nd at 1:30 PM in front of Forever 21 near Soquel and Pacific Avenues in anticipation of the final vote on the ordinances the afternoon of September 24th at City Hall.

A preliminary organizational meeting will be held Saturday September 14th at 5 PM on the steps of the main post office after the Food Not Bombs meal.

We encourage folks to pass the word to street performers, street vendors, homeless people being targeted by police, rangers, and security thugs, as well as political activists–all of whom will be severely impacted by these downtown ordinances that reduce tabling, sparechanging, vending, and performing space by 4/5.

RECENT REPORTS OF POLICE AND MERCHANT HARASSMENT AND DISCRIMINATION
Reports are coming in of mass harassment at the Red Church driving away sleepers on Tuesday morning and of mass ticketing of sleepers up near the railroad tracks a few days earlier. Travelers newly arrived are getting camping tickets, but not being informed that such tickets are subject to dismissal if the victim gets on the waiting list of the Homeless (Lack of ) Services Center. Trespass tickets are being used as a substitute for camping tickets in order to avoid the mandatory dismissal required by MC 6.36.055.

The downtown Coffee Roasting Company, according to its staff, is now refusing service to homeless people with large backpacks. Brent Adams reports that a family of three (mother, father, and child) bought coffee last night, and then were told to leave after the father brought in a laptop computer. If you are a regular customer or simply concerned about this kind of hateful attitude, please speak to the management and let them now how you feel. Also please post any more recent accounts of such repulsive behavior.

Sean Deluge created the flyer.

Shafting Non-Shoppers: Expanding the Destructive Downtown Ordinances

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https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/09/09/18742960.php

Shafting Non-Shoppers: Expanding the Destructive Downtown Ordinances
by Robert Norse ( rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com )
Monday Sep 9th, 2013 11:33 AM

In a disguised attack on the entire non-commercial street scene, tomorrow’s afternoon City Council meeting will rubberstamp restricting Continue reading →

“Big Top” Bob Panhandles the Public in Santa Cruz!

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NOTES BY NORSE:

Lee’s shortage of funds is not surprising and seems to be of his own making.

His office has already received a rare sanction for stalling and failing to deliver evidence in the Santa Cruz Eleven case.   Lee is appealing the $500 fine iimposed by Judge Burdick last January at a cost of thousands of dollars in a 49-page brief.

At a recent court hearing, Burdick urged him to spare the taxpayers the tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars that a 2-3 week long felony trial for the remaining four of the SC-11 would cost the taxpayers.

The Santa Cruz Eleven were a publicity stunt by Lee in his “Shut Down Occupy Santa Cruz” prosecutions of 2012.  He  targeted peaceful protesters & falsely blamed them for vandalism at the (still)vacant Wells Fargo-lased bank structure at 75 River St.  With no evidence–instead using subsequently discredited “conspiracy” charges and now a tortured “aid-and-abet” theory based on the act that the four were supposedly in the bank, even if they couldn’t have been shown to do anything else.

Since there’s no evidence that any of the remaining four individuals still being hounded actually vandalized anything, this costly trial (now postposted until March 2014) needs to be dropped, obviously, in favor of real public safety concerns.
See https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/08/28/18742256.php and http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/08/27/18742198.php for a more lengthy update and background.

Santa Cruz reactionaries, however, have been successful in diverting attention from the pile-up of real violent crimes that remain unaddressed.  Instead they have focused on their own special scapegoat agenda  to spotlight political protesters and homeless survival campers (raising the old Drug War red herrings with “needlemania”).

This kind of toxic hysteria now has official cover with Mayor Bryant’s “Citizens Task Force on Public Safety” which gathers “testimony” from like-minded bigots every other Wednesday to confirm its obsession with “enabling the homeless menace”.

Lee apparently feels he can do no wrong (even when a judge rules otherwise).  He also seems to think the Board of Supervisors and the taxpayers will roll over every time he screams “crime!”.

Time to spend money addressing real crime instead of backing the bigoted agenda of those who want to criminalize the poor or inflate their own political profile.

This kind of pernicious panhandling is far more deadly and far more expensive than the sparechanging that shocks the merchants and rouses Take Back Santa Cruz to self-righteous fury.

Santa Cruz County’s top prosecutor declares emergency personnel need

By Calvin Men

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted:   08/30/2013 06:26:05 PM PDT

SANTA CRUZ — In response to an unusually high number of serious violent crimes set for trial within the next two months, Santa Cruz County District Attorney Bob Lee declared a personnel emergency for his office Friday.

In a letter to County Administrative Officer Susan Mauriello, Lee notified her of the need to add attorneys to his staff because of the abundance of serious criminal cases headed to trial.

At least eight homicide trials are slated for September and October, an unprecedented number that is expected to put a strain on his staff, Lee said.

“Unfortunately, it’s just not stopping and it’s going to reach that conclusion where it’s thin ice,” Lee said in an interview. “If we take more steps without additional support, a case may fall through. Our ability to be successful, to get justice and hold people accountable would be compromised.”

By considering an emergency measure allowed under civil service rules, Lee is permitted to hire extra personnel without approval from the county Board of Supervisors for a period of 60 days — long enough to cover the upcoming trials, Lee said.

After 60 days, Lee will have to defer to the board for approving the extra personnel.

He said funding for the extra attorneys will likely come out of the county’s general fund. But he couldn’t say how many more attorneys will be hired, though there is already a list of candidates.

Each homicide case requires two attorneys dedicated to that case only, making them unavailable for other cases, Lee said.

His office has 33 budgeted positions but many of the attorneys would be largely unavailable because of the eight homicide trials, which include a gang-related homicide of a 14-year-old boy in 2011 and a 2009 murder of a homeless man on the river levee, both in Watsonville. There are also five sexual assault and attempted murder cases during the next two months.
Lee said the high rate of jury trials is due largely to suspects deciding not to settle cases.

After the 60-day period, Lee said he isn’t sure what will happen with extra personnel. He is expected to meet with the board to discuss future budgetary matters in January.
 

Follow Sentinel reporter Calvin Men at Twitter.com/calvinmenatwork

MORE COMMENTS AT http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/santacruz/ci_23986539/santa-cruz-countys-top-prosecutor-declares-emergency-personnel?

Picket CruzioWorks Friday August 16 at 1 PM in Santa Cruz

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PICKET LINE AT CRUZIOWORKS

Homeless people are rousted where they sleep or sit, verbally abused in public places, stolen from by police, & officially criminalized by Mayor Bryant bogus “Public Safety” Task Force.

Now CruzioWorks, pandering to the bigoted fears of another Cruzio tenant, cuts off service for a 24 hour workspace,to Dan Madison, a paying peaceful homeless person.

1 PM FRIDAY AUGUST 16

CEDAR & CHURCH STREETS

Music Poetry Sweets Petitions Strong Words Stout Hearts

Speak Out Say No to the Fog of Fear Suffocating Santa Cruz

More Information; https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/08/08/18741236.php

COMMENTS

From: Brent Adams

This is a very unacceptable situation that Dan Madison has experienced.
I wonder if picketing is the best first step here.

Have you considered visiting Cruzio to facilitate a mediated conversation about what happened,  what went wrong and how to

fix the situation and create understanding?
This “picket” will only make “wrong” a company of longstanding in the community.  I assert that nothing good will come of this
picket for the general needs of homeless people and the community in general.   A protest like this would be a consideration following
the failed attempts at finding a workable understanding of what happened and ensure access to Mr. Madison and all others.
I encourage HUFF faciltate a conversation with Cruzio to get to the bottom of what happened and to see if understanding
can be created before an attack on this business happens.  I’d hate to see another homeless person be used by Robert Norse and HUFF
to attack a local business,  the community at large and all hopes of grassroots activism around homeless issues.
Brent Adams

Mayor’s Stacked and Packed “Public Safety Task Force” meets

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START DATE: Wednesday May 29
TIME: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location Details:
Tony Hill Room of the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium at Church and Center Streets.
Event Type: Meeting
Contact Name Scott Collins (posted by Norse)
Email Address scollins [at] cityofsantacruz.org
Phone Number 831-420-5030
Address 809 Center St., Santa Cruz, CA
The Public Hysteria Citizen Task Farce (more officially known as the Public Safety Citizen Task Force) meets every other Wednesday, starting May 29.2013 through November, from 6:00 pm – 9:00 .The draft minutes of the last Continue reading →

Sip Soup as you Gag at City Council’s Study Session on Homelessness

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Title: Sip Soup as you Gag at City Council’s Study Session on Homelessness
START DATE: Tuesday April 30
TIME: 6:45 PM – 8:45 PM
Location Details:
809 Center St. Santa Cruz City Council Chambers
Event Type: Meeting
Contact Name Robert Norse
Email Address rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com
Phone Number 831-423-4833
Address 309 Cedar PMB #14B Santa Cruz, CA 95060
The Santa Cruz City Council has scheduled a Special “Study” Session on Homelessness.THE COUNCIL’S RECENT RECORD
Hey, April Fool’s day came and went nearly a month ago!

This is the Council that recently voted an Continue reading →

Thoughts on Escalating Police Violence in Santa Cruz

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VIEW THE VIDEO AT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tyj3yxwy-o.

> Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:02:51 -0700
> Subject: The Artificial Creation of Crime and For What?
> From: dbruceloisel@gmail.com
> To:
>
> The Artificial Creation of Crime and For What?
>
> April 25, 2013
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tyj3yxwy-o
>
> The Artificial Creation of Crime and For What?
>
>
>
> Yesterday I watched the Youtube video of a drunk homeless man being
> accosted by law enforcement I couldn’t help wonder what other options
> could have been employed by the persons responsible for public safety
> (homeless persons are included under the definition of the “public”).
> Let’s explore the options: the police could have walked by, smiled and
> kept moving. This would be my favorite. They could have questioned the
> duo, and then moved on, realizing they were drunk and minding their
> own business and harmless – number two on my list. They could have
> arrested them and when they got belligerent, “tasered” them, saving
> the one guy from a potential brain damaging blow to the head from a
> cement collision and resolving the situation – not the best option
> but better than a hospital stay. Apparently this dangerous situation
> called for backup and a physical confrontation.
>
>
>
> According the Santa Cruz police department there were 3 homicides, 33
> rapes, 83 robberies, 313 aggravated assaults, 527 burglaries, 2792
> acts of larceny, 264 auto thefts and 21 acts of arson. That makes 11
> of these types of crime per day. So I am just wondering if police time
> could be better spent on these types of crimes. Sitting on a bench
> drunk didn’t make the list for 2012 but there will be at least one
> offence for 2013. The good news is the Santa Cruz police department
> has launched Twitter and Facebook Pages and has a Mobile App for
> iPhone and Droid!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Back to the dynamic duo. So let me get this straight, there are two
> guys on a bench, drunk, but doing a whole lot of nothing, and not
> really in any condition to walk, let alone able to creating mayhem. So
> pretty much the sum total of their transgression is akin to speeding
> or jay walking – it appears to me these two guys were totally
> harmless…so, here’s the result, the police initiate a confrontation,
> then the situation escalates, the two become belligerent (they weren’t
> belligerent before the cops arrived, begging the question what’s the
> catalyst?). This results in a booking, hospital visit, jail time for
> one, costing the tax payers tens of thousands of dollars, issuing
> nuisance citations that will never be paid, generating arrest warrants
> (again costing more money), the officers will get paid 1.5 their pay
> for overtime and retire at 45 with a healthcare benefits and a
> generous pension…and the City of Santa Cruz gets sued into oblivion
> (again) by a smart young attorney …not to mention the guy got his
> face bashed in and potential brain damage and pain…and for what? Who
> wins here? The man was belligerent. Who gives a shit? My kids are
> belligerent and so are my employees. So what? Adults handle these
> situations with common sense. The new buzz issue these days is
> bullying, but this is worse than bullying, it’s brutality. The
> standard justification for acts like this is how hard the job of the
> police is – as if this justifies assault? Being a doctor is a hard
> job. Working in the fields is a hard job. Having a hard job doesn’t
> justify being an ass hole. This is crime creation, not law
> enforcement. And they could have just walked by.
>
> Posted by D. B. Loisel.NORSE’S NOTES:

Nicely put, Doug.

I wouldn’t suggest tasering,  which can also be lethal and tends to be misused as curbside punishment for less-than-swift-compliance.   But rather calling for a few more cops to help  move the guy into the squad car.

The new strategy seems to be to use fear and punishment if people don’t fully cooperate,  seems like.

I’m normally not a fan of megacopping on Pacific Avenue–I’ve seen half a dozen instances of it in two weeks around things like “leaning against the railing of the fence near the New Leaf Market”  (an incident involving Brent Adams and Officer Ahlers), 4 squad cars blocking traffic on the street while a fifth parks across the street (near community TV) to handle one drunk on the sidewalk who’s already handcuffed (and may have also been slammed down–I got their late and his face was bleeding).   Actually both these and a third happened on the same day–I witnessed the first, got a first hand account of the second, and a more distant account of the third–I think it was Friday April 5th.

Maybe there’s a “message” police are trying to send out to drunks similar to the message their vigilante cousins are sending out to homeless people:  “get out of town or get hurt”.   Just wonderin’.

Finally, the cops also often use this “drunk in public” charge to haul people in, seize their property, and sequester it for days–notably homeless people and their backpacks and blankets, when folks simply have an open container or are mildly buzzed and “have the wrong attitude”.  They are then held in a cell for a few hours and released in the cold wee hours without charges.

It looked like Richard Hardy–the name of the man assaulted by Officer Vasquez–was perhaps too drunk to take care of himself–the actual definition of drunk in public, rather than the police misusage above.  So perhaps he had justification, but what really tells is the subsequent behavior of the cops (“Are you all right, Richard?”) where they attempt to whitewash their brutality for the watching videocamera and the cover-up of the matter by the SCPD (not aware that Vasquez has been relieved of duty pending investigation).  Also with the Copley decision of a decade ago, there’s no public revelation of any disciplinary consequences unless someone leaks it.

Hardy, by the way, was reportedly released from Dominican yesterday, but I’m not sure if that’s because they’re cheap, or because he’s truly recovered.

The aggravated anti-homeless climate in Santa Cruz (I got another report yesterday of 4 guys jumping a man named Gabriel as he headed for Cabrillo College–which you  may have heard on the radio–report to be posted soon) is ramping up and solidifying this long-time police corruption.

I’m hoping to begin creating a video on-line library of such local incidents and turn them into a well-edited video that demonstrates both police brutality locally and the abusive anti-homeless laws to pass on the public in another of my (often seemingly ineffectual) Calls to Conscience.

Thanks for your analysis.

R

From: rnorse3@hotmail.com
To: compassionman@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: [huffsantacruz] Thoughts on Escalating Police Violence & in Santa Cruz
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:05:28 -0700

Unless we’re talking some new laws, jaywalking doesn’t mean not crossing at a crosswalk, but crossing in a block between two stop lights or obstructing traffic.  Were you doing either?   What’s the ordinance they cited?

From: compassionman@hotmail.com
To: rnorse3@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: [huffsantacruz] Thoughts on Escalating Police Violence & in Santa Cruz
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:33:21 -0700

11pm officers winston and “coffy”?.. in front of new leaf as they were scaring off drunken street performers.

I crossed a vacant well lit street to pass by them.  He recognized me from afar and said, “SIR!!  COME HERE NOW!!”
….. and asked me to produce my ID.   it was because i had crossed the street outside of the cross walk.

they both indicated that they knew about the police violence video.

From: rnorse3@hotmail.com
To: compassionman@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: [huffsantacruz] Thoughts on Escalating Police Violence & in Santa Cruz
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:23:35 -0700

Thanks, Brent.  When and were did this happen–if you remember?  Any video or further commentary?  Number of officers involved, for instance.  Time of day, etc.  As well as the ultimate consequences (did the ticket show up in court?).

From: compassionman@hotmail.com
To: rnorse3@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: [huffsantacruz] Thoughts on Escalating Police Violence & in Santa Cruz
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:21:05 -0700

i was given a ticket for Jay walking and officer Coffy tried to give me a ticket for an unregistered bike untilWinston told him that they don’t do that anymore because its illegal.