Category Archives: Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides Radio Show

Santa Cruz Camping Ticket Dismissal Info: Spread It Around

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The City’s camping ordinance MC 6.36 was amended in 2010 after successful protests by PeaceCamp 2010 to require dismissal of all MC 6.36 citations if one was on one of two Waiting Lists–the Paul Lee Loft or the River St. Shelter [or if the Winter Armory is full] Though both agencies refused to give those signed up evidence to show to the police that they were on these lists, the City Attorney’s office did dismiss some if not all citations for those who were on the Waiting Lists. The River St. Shelter is the only “emergency shelter” currently operating in the City of Santa Cruz. Paul Lee Loft still closed except to those taken into the program with a “path to housing” as part of what appears to be an intentional decision to “disinvite” homeless people not in programs likely to get state or federal programming. This has resulted in a cut-off of laundry, shelter, socializing, bathroom, and meal services to the majority of homeless people in Santa Cruz. The one “service” remaining is dismissal of camping citations.

AVOID CAMPING TICKETS:  CALL 459-6644 (24-Hour Number)

THIS IS THE RIVER ST. SHELTER’S NUMBER–ASK TO BE PUT ON THEIR WAITING LIST

LEAVE YOUR NAME (SAY IT AND SPELL IT) OVER THE PHONE

IF YOU HAVE A PHONE NUMBER, ASK THEM TO CALL YOU BACK TO CONFIRM YOU ARE ON THE LIST

THIS SHOULD NULLIFY FUTURE MC 6.36 TICKETS ONLY NOT OTHER TICKETS OR EARLIER TICKETS

YOU MUST CALL BACK EVERY THREE DAYS TO KEEP YOURSELF ON THE WAITING LIST

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE THEIR SHELTER; JUST GET ON THEIR LIST

COPS MAY TICKET YOU ANYWAY—BUT THOSE TICKETS MUST BE DISMISSED IF YOU’RE ON THE LIST

IF TICKETED WHILE NOT ON THE WAITING LIST, CALL 423-HUFF FOR ADVICE

Flier by Norse of HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) 423-4833 www.huffsantacruz.org 309 Cedar PMB #14B 10-3-15
FOR A COPY OF THIS FLIER AS A PDF, GO TO https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/10/04/18778412.php .

On the plus side, River St. Shelter now allows folks to sign up for their Waiting List by telephone on a 24-hour answering machine (though the machine says their “office hours” are 2 PM to 8 AM, so it may be best to call during those times). You give to the machine your name and ask to be placed on the Waiting List. You can also ask for a call-back for confirmation.

Freedom Sleepers tested the process on Friday and found they got a callback when they called to get an unhoused person on the list. It’s not clear when they actually pick up the phones there. I say it’s “24-hours” because we actually called them outside their peculiar 2 PM to 8 AM hours (around noon) and got a call-back confirmation for the person we put on the list.

I was also told that at an earlier point that you must call back every three days to keep your name on the list.

On the negative side, it’s hard to physically access the River St. Shelter with the new prison-like gate, guards, and ID cards. The management there advised us by phone last week that they still won’t write letters documenting that their shelter is full on any particular night, even if it is. This does not serve the many–which includes those who just got into town, who doesn’t want to take up space which more disabled or vulnerable folks might need, or who simply believe in providing their own shelter (whether that be the stars, a tent, or a vehicle). In the past such a letter (usually from the Homeless (Lack of) Services Center’s Paul Lee Loft was sufficient “evidence” for Commissioner Kim Baskett of Dept. 10 to dismiss MC 6.36 citations.

If you find yourself one of the hundreds who get camping tickets every month in town, contact HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) for info on how to subpoena the records of the River St. Shelter into court to document that there was no legal shelter and so invoke what’s called “the necessity defense”. Our phone number is 831-423-4833. It’s not a cell phone so leave a message and/or come to our weekly meeting at 11 AM Wednesdays at the Sub Rosa Cafe, or check us out at Freedom Sleeper Tuesday nights at City Hall where we challenge the Sleeping Ban.

It’s best to get on the Waiting List even if you have no intention of using the River St. Shelter, feel you are likely to be ineligible for any reason (pets, partner, too much stuff, etc.),or whatever. Because simply being on the list means that MC 6.36.055 requires the City Attorney to dismiss your citation (if it’s a MC 6.36 citation).

For your own use, I include a flier to download and use or pass on to those who might find it useful.

The River St. Shelter number is 831-459-6644. Continue reading →

Words or Deeds? An Exchange of Letters with the City Council

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The “Search for Sleep” Protest will begin on July 4th at 6:30 PM in front of the Main Post Office after the Saturday Food Not Bombs Meal. Councilmember Micah Posner sent the following letter of support for the protest. I responded with the letter that follows (slightly expanded and clarified for publication here) demanding actual action on his part and the part of other Councilmembers rather than pretty words.

COUNCILMEMBER POSNER’S LETTER TO CONSTITUENTS ON THE EVEN OF THE 4TH OF JULY PROTEST

To: Rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com
Subject: the dilemna of homelessness
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2015 22:21:07 -0700
From: micahposner [at] cruzio.com

Dear Constituents,

Well, I can’t say I have really taken a break from City politics. In fact, activists whom I respect are pushing me to work for change whether it is summer or not. In the Good Times that came out on June 24th, activist/ journalist John Malkin exposed the unscrupulous way that myself and a dozen other community leaders have been bullied and threatened by Police Deputy Chief Steve Clark. This hasn’t made it easy to sleep at night, despite the fact that I’m riding my bike a lot.

Now my father, Rabbi Phil Posner, is leading a sleep-out on July 4th to protest the fact that there is not a legal place for homeless people to sleep at night in Santa Cruz. My father, age 77, is a freedom rider who spent 39 days in a Mississippi prison in 1961 for sitting in bus stations with black people. Having moved to Santa Cruz about a year ago, he is shocked by the way we treat the homeless. “At least in the South,” he wrote in a piece to the Sentinel, “black people could sleep in a park.” While I know it is a difficult issue to solve, I agree with him.

This is not to say that I am happy with the behavior of all homeless people. Unlike blacks in the South, many individuals end up homeless due to irresponsible choices. However, the basic phenomenon of homelessness is due to our economic system and our society. We are not responsible for the individual circumstances of each homeless person, but we are responsible for homelessness. We have tried to evade that responsibility by making it illegal to be homeless. Specifically it is illegal for homeless people to sleep at night anywhere in the City of Santa Cruz and most other cities in California. And sleeping at night is a basic function of human beings.

In doing so, we have exacerbated a problem that effects those with homes and without. I completely agree with residents who tell the Council that they are fed up; who tell us that, “We have to end this.” Homelessness is a huge drain on the police, on the courts, on the emergency rooms and on our parks and open spaces. The lack of a place in society for the homeless is not a result of compassion or its lack. It is result of denial and disorder.

There is a light at the end of this tunnel. A plan to largely end homelessness by housing the people who are terminally unhoused has been ratified by the entire City Council and Board of Supervisors. This represents a real solution and I entirely support it. If we were not criminalizing the homeless via the anti-sleeping ordinances, it would be reasonable to simply work on the plan as quickly as resources would allow. As we reorient our resources to this real solution, however, where do we expect the homeless to go? Our one walk-in shelter, the Paul Lee Loft, will soon reopen specifically for transitional housing and will be open only to those who expect to have a home within 90 days. What about those without this expectation?

My intention is to place the issue on the City Council’s agenda this Fall by asking the Council to either repeal the anti- sleeping ordinances or begin a process to identify a place in the City for homeless people to sleep. I invite your feedback: If you don’t want to locate a place for them in the City what makes you think that they will disappear? If you do support a legal place, what would it be like?

To meet my patriotic papa and be part of this latest struggle for civil rights, go down to the Main Post Office on Front and Pacific on July 4th for a free meal from 4 to 6PM or join them at 7PM to walk to a nearby open space where people with and without homes will be camping out for the night. To get ongoing updates on the action, to volunteer or help to defray costs, call the cell phone of super activist Steve Pleich: 466-6078.

Your Concerned Council Member,

Micah Posner

MY RESPONSE TO POSNER AND HIS FELLOW COUNCILMEMBERS

Micah:

This is good rhetoric–better than Mayor Lane’s, in fact.

However the proof is in your actions.

You haven’t advised me whether I can tell folks tomorrow at the General Meeting that you have sought and obtained agreement from the Mayor to put the issue on the agenda in August or September. Or that you have gotten a guaranteed second so it can actually be debated. What gives here? PLEASE ANSWER CLEARLY WHETHER YOU’VE DONE THIS.

Further your “light at the end of the tunnel” proposed by the Board of Supervisors to “end homelessness” appears to support another in a long line of “studies” and “intentions” designed to garner federal and state funds for very limited programs without focusing the real resources necessary to provide the housing starts (or building confiscations) that would actually be necessary. It is a lie designed to mislead the community and falsely reassure people reminiscent of Obama’s claims that “we’re getting out of Afghanistan”.

The Paul Lee Loft has never been open to more than 46 people. Even before application was further limited only those with a 90-day hence home, it had little to do with emergency shelter for the 1500-2000 out there. It has generally been true that only the Waiting List has been available and the Homeless (Lack of) Services Center ][HLOSC} has regularly declined to provide those on the list with written documentation to show the police to forestall ticketing. And now that grudging help will not be available to homeless people generally unless they meet the absurd HLOSC “90-day” requirements.

As a City Council member, please request that staff (a) draw up an amendment to MC 6.36.055 that states there will be no prosecution or ticketing of those sleeping outside unless a police officer determine with a phone call that shelter space is available that night; (b) determine just how many sleeping citations were forwarded from the City Attorney, the SCPD, and P &R to the courts for prosecution (i.e. were held not to be protected under MC 6.36.055); and (c) require Parks and Rec to summarize their infraction ticket stats each month instead of requiring those seeking to review them to go through them citation by citation. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU’LL DO THIS AND WHEN.

If you bother to step outside your office and look at the recent tickets issued by the P & R–being held by Anna Brooks at the City Offices desk for us to pore over–you’ll see that (a) the overwhelming majority are for “camping”, “being in a park after dark”, and smoking, and (b) almost every single one has a stay-away order attached subjecting violators to 6 months in jail and/or $1000 fine (as a possible maximum). LET ME KNOW WHEN AND IF YOU’VE REVIEWED THIS GRI REALITY FOR ALL THOSE FOLKS YOU WRITE ABOUT. .

As for “identifying a place in the City for homeless people to sleep”, this phony search was done for six months in 1995 by Councilmembers Beiers and Scott when they were on the City Council, again in 1999 by Councilmembers Beiers, Krohn, and Sugar with the Council’s “Task Force to Examine the Camping Ordinance” when Beiers stated “there’s just no place for them”. ASK THE STAFF FOR THESE REPORTS OR CONTACT THESE FORMER MAYORS DIRECTLY AND FORWARD TO THE COMMUNITY THEIR CONCLUSIONS.

20 years ago, HUFF activist Becky Johnson, a former Board of Directors member of the Citizens Committee for the Homeless itemized a dozen places homeless people could sleep on city-owned property if bans were listed. PLEASE CONSULT HER AND REQUEST AN IMMEDIATE STAFF UPDATE ON THESE PLACES. If middle-class people were wandering around without homes because of a natural disaster, there would be immediate campgrounds set up as happened after the 19089 earthquake.

You can also move to demand authorities respect First Amendment requirements, eliminate curfews around City Hall, the libraries, and the parks that prohibit everyone, including activists, from even being in public areas–requirements imposed unilaterally by P & R boss Dannettee Shoemaker without any substantive justification. IMMEDIATELY REQUEST SHE LIFT SUCH RESTRICTIONS OR JUSTIFY THEM IN WRITING WITH SPECIFIC CONCERNS. MAKE YOUR COMMUNICATION IN WRITING.

If you really are providing more than lip service support, you’ll use your office to do what you can independent of vague and unsupportable promises. As well as FOLLOW UP ON PROMISES UNKEPT SUCH AS THE PROVIDING THE HLOSC BUDGET AND DOCUMENTING THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT RECENT 24-HOUR PARKING BAN NEAR THE HLOSC.

Flowery rhetoric means nothing without action. You don’t have to be sleeping out to take any of the actions above.

I am also cc-ing every other Councilmember this letter, since it is clearly their obligation to act as well if they claim to be progressive or liberal on these issues. I shall encourage activists and the community to hold the entire Council and each individual Councilmember responsible on these issues–particularly those who have voted for ordinances further persecuting homeless people in public places (on medians, in parks after dark, at Cowell’s Beach at night, sleeping anywhere after 11 PM at night), etc.

But that burden lies heaviest on those who claim to be supporters of civil rights and services for poor people.

Robert Norse
Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom
(423-4833)

Continue reading →

Councilmember Posner Calls for 24-Hour Bathroom Support at Council today

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by Robert Norse
Tuesday Jun 9th, 2015 1:56 PM

On May 26, City Council voted, at Councilmember Comstock’s initiative, to direct staff to investigate if not add 24-hour bathroom access. See “City Council Unanimously Votes on Two 24-hour Bathrooms” at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/06/02/18773019.php Recently activists, led by Brent Adams, have focused on the lack of adequate cleaning of the “Posner portapotty” at Laurel and Front Streets, and enlisted some community members to do the job, Parks and Rec has declined to do.
Today the final budget comes up for discussion and vote at 7 PM. Councilmember Micah Posner, apparently anxious that staff opposition will kill the proposal, has asked the community to come and support. I forward his e-mail and my response.

Posner’s E-Mail:

Dear Activists,

As you know the City Staff are very concerned about Council’s direction to keep some bathrooms open all night. Their concerns are totally legitimate. After all staff are the ones who will have to supervise the proposed program.

The City Council, led by Pamela Comstock, has, so far, courageously, directed the staff to find some way to keep bathrooms open at night.

If people want to support this direction, you should be supportive. Bring flowers, appreciations and constructive suggestions. This is not a time for a negative protest, not even a polite negative protest. The Council can use your SUPPORT. This is completely different from the BEARCAT thing where you were being ignored and it needs a completely different
response.

AND, the idea of ramping this up into bringing excrement to the Council is completely counterproductive, in addition to being totally rude.

There is no better way to ruin the chances of the City opening bathrooms up at night than to bring shit to a Council that is being supportive of these efforts. I am totally shocked that activists who I respect came up with this idea. To be honest it makes me not want to share information with some of you.

My request: completely change the Facebook Event to encourage people to SUPPORT a City Council that wants to open bathrooms. Meet people at 6:45 and explain why being positive and supportive is the best way for them to get bathrooms open at night.

Thank you hearing me,
Micah Posner

MY RESPONSE

A City that declines to provide elementary sanitation services at night should not have to be wooed with flowers and candy.

The problem seems to be that the Staff (who Micah praises as usual) wants to reverse the will of the Council as expressed on May 26—the reason he’s asked homeless people (and housed folks) to come to the meeting.

And since the staff is usually the tail that wags the Council dog, as one activist put it, there’s not a lot of reason to be terribly optimistic.

I think everyone should present their concerns as they feel them.

No one I know of is planning to bring buckets of shit–though the current closed bathroom policy results in just that happening all over the City, of course—in spite of Brent and Micah’s well-intentioned incremental efforts.

I suggest people speak about the issue forthrightly and clearly and be prepared for the usual Council-follows-staff lockstep.

If that doesn’t happen—if the opening up the bathrooms is kept in the budget, well then, flowers to the Council!

If the Council caves, then obviously further steps have to be taken to focus attention on the issue.

Folks should be aware, of course, that this whole issue is a smaller part of the much larger proposed shutdown of emergency services at the Homeless (Lack of) Services Center—which is now a locked, gated, patrolled area that requires ID to use.

This all seems part of the broader attempt to “unwelcome” homeless people to Santa Cruz and it is this broader issue that we all need to unite to fight. Or fight it separately in our own ways.

Meanwhile kudos to Brent and others focusing attention on the essential sanitation issue. And to the Council, if–for once–they do the decent thing.

Continue reading →

Today Rained Out, but Tomorrow’s a Charm 9:30 AM Main Library 5-8

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We’re putting ahead the protest and signature gathering to tomorrow at 9:30 AM outside the Santa Cruz Main Library at 224 Church St.  weather permitting.

There will be coffee & cookies (and whatever anyone else brings) !

We have a few days remaining for public comment, depending on whether Public Works Parking Boss Granlund allows it. His office (at Public Works) and that of the Councilmembers is conveniently located right across the street from the Main Library.

Here’s an updated flier with more information. The pdf is downloadable at https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2015/05/07/flier_for_5-7a.pdf

We’ll be distributing it tomorrow morning. Come on down and help, if you’d like, then pile on the Councilmembers, Commission members, and Public Works flunkies to demand they stop this new seizure of public space in the interests of business prejudice and the SCPD agenda.

Fight Homeless Parking Ban at Project Homeless Connect !

9:30 AM Tuesday May 13th 140 Front St. in front of the Stadium

Where do “Service Providers” stand around Civil Rights & homeless survival vehicles?

 

In spite of over 25 signatures gathered in one day from clients and workers at the Homeless Services Center, Marlin Granlund’s Public Works Parking Authoritywill require permits for all parking on Coral Street, Limekiln Street, and Fern Street & ban all non-permit parking with signs to be posted on May 13th. These parking spaces are now used by people experiencing homelessness & disabled folks to access the limited, overcrowded, and growingly authoritarian HSC.The HSC reportedly supports this ban!

Those peacefully gathering signatures on May 5th while providing coffee and cookies were banned from the property by the HSC managementeven from the open area in front of the HSC. After forcing the petitioners onto the narrow sidewalk, Officer Azua then began threatening loitering and block-the-sidewalk tickets. Hestoodostentatiously nearby causing some to say they felt intimidated from talking or signing.

 

On May 6, Granlund e-mailed his department might not pay attention to HSC clients or other members of the public, saying he was “consulting with the City Attorney”. Granlund refuses to provide access to public documents that might show which businesses are urging the Homeless Removal program and why.

 

No Council members or “Service providers” have had the courage or interest to publicly oppose this latest proposal. 

Call City Hall at 420-5020 or e-mail them citycouncil@cityofsantacruz.com .

Sign the Petition Spread the Word!

Continue reading →

17th Annual Homelessness Marathon

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Free Radio will be streaming and broadcasting the Marathon, Tuesday starting at 4 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. at freakradio.org and 101.3 FM.

> Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 13:45:22 -0500
> From: radio@lightlink.com
> To:
> Subject: 17th Annual Homelessness Marathon
>
> The 17th Annual Homelessness Marathon is set to air. If you’ve never seen or
> heard it, it is, literally, like no other broadcast in the world (except for
> our daughter broadcast, the Canadian Homelessness Marathon). This is the world
> turned upside down and looked at from the perspective of the
> poorest-of-the-poor, and featuring their voices as they speak for themselves.
>
> The broadcast will start tomorrow (Tuesday the 17th) at 7p.m., eastern time,
> and it will run for fourteen hours until 9a.m., eastern time, on Wednesday the
> 18th.
>
> A list of stations where it can be heard, all or in part, may be found here:
> http://news.homelessnessmarathon.org/2008/09/where-to-listen.html
> (check local listings for exact hours of carriage).
>
> The entire broadcast will be televised on Free Speech Television’s website at
> http://www.freespeech.org.
>
> And from 1-5a.m., eastern time, on the morning of Wednesday the 18th, the
> broadcast will also be televised on channel 9415 of the Dish Network and
> Channel 348 on DirecTV.
>
> A schedule of the topics to be covered may be found here:
> http://news.homelessnessmarathon.org/2008/08/broadcast-schedule.html
> (but bear in mind that this is a live broadcast that is always full of
> unscheduled twists and turns).
>
> This is not a charity event or a pity party. Homeless advocates have been
> warning for decades that the same economic factors causing homelessness would
> affect more affluent Americans too. Now that just about everybody in America
> is struggling, maybe it’s time to learn what the poor have known all along.
>
> The great secret about homeless people isn’t the percentage that are mentally
> ill or addicted. It’s that almost all of them are American citizens. The
> government should not be in the business of demonizing whole classes of
> people, herding them around like cattle and jailing them for the crime of
> being poor just like in Dickens’ time. But nonetheless, we’ve created a
> society where there is no legal place to be free, once you’ve lost your
> housing.
>
> For this broadcast, we’ll focus on the criminalization of homelessness,
> and remember, the number one thing that homeless people say is, “I never
> thought it could happen to me.” If you don’t want it happening to YOU,
> tune in.
>
> Jeremy Weir Alderson
> director, Homelessness Marathon

Continue reading →

Today: Protest New Anti-Homeless Law and Urban Assault Vehicle

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PROTEST CITY HALL TODAY TO DEMAND:
No Worsened Banishment Law for the Homeless in Santa Cruz!
Repeal Approval of the Cop’s New Urban Assault Vehicle!
Repeal All Anti-Homeless Laws!

January 13th, 2015
Meet at the Santa Cruz City Council
809 Center Street, Santa Cruz CA

Today’s Protest Schedule

Some people will be gathering at city hall at 2 PM and there will probably be food present.

Around 2:30 people will go into city hall to speak out against new decorum rules being set up by the city council to curtail free speech.

SPEAK OUT:  At 5 PM people are encouraged to enter city council chambers to speak out against the city council’s approval of the new heavily armored BEARCAT urban assault vehicle and against police brutality and anti-homeless laws.
Around 7:30 PM or thereabouts (come earlier to be sure) the city council is scheduled to approve its new banishment law against the homeless.  People are encouraged to get up a speak out against the law in city council chambers.

For a description of issues at stake, see:

Protest Shuts Down City Council, Urban Assault Vehicle Approved, Anti-Homeless Law Delayed
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/12/10/18765377.php

To sign up for the event on Facebook, go to:
https://www.facebook.com/events/377910239000830/

Also see:

Murderous Cops, Liberal Snake Oil, & Revolutionary Solutions
http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/222482/index.php

Candidate Craig Bush Faces HUFF on FRSC Sunday 10-5 at 9:30 AM

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Title: Craig Bush–Santa Cruz City Council Candidate on Free Radio Santa Cruz
START DATE: Sunday October 05
TIME: 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM
Location Details:
On the stream of Free Radio Santa Cruz at http://tunein.com/radio/FRSC-s47254/ .

Call-in numbers are 831-427-3772 and 831-469-3119.

The show will archive at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb141005.mp3 .

Earlier shows can be found at http://radiolibre.org/brb/ . Some of these are described at http://huffsantacruz.org/radio.html .
Event Type: Radio Broadcast
Contact Name Robert Norse
Email Address rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com
Phone Number 831-423-4833
Address 309 Cedar PMB 14B Santa Cruz CA 95060
Craig Bush is running for one of the three vacancies on the Santa Cruz City Council with voting due to start within a week. He is one of seven candidates running and the only one so far who has replied to an invitation to come on Free Radio.

His website is at http://www.bushforsccouncil.comxa.com/mypolitics.html

Bush’s platform extensive and specific. You can find it athttp://www.bushforsccouncil.comxa.com/local.html .

On Social Services, he writes:

Here in Santa Cruz we do not refer to “homeless” but rather those who are environmentally challenged in between places. At any given time there are 8000 people in this area to fit that description. There is no sense in labels to group people. There are no “those” people being referred by our council. Stereotyping, profiling,and prejudice creates an atmosphere of fear that diminishes all of our rights and liberties. It robs us of our human dignity. Everyone has a face, a name and a story. There are homeless teachers here.

Our city council has proposed a registration system for all “indigents” in Santa Cruz. How much would that program cost? Doesn’t the council understand all indigents on social services are already registered? Are we going to require a homeless logo patch to wear on their arm sleeve? What if an indigent comes here planning to commit crime and just decides they’re not going to register first? How are we going to be safer with this program?

This sounds like more fear mongering, hate baiting bigotry to get a politician elected. Ask ourselves, “who is more dangerous to this community”? Is it a homeless old man sitting on a bench on west cliff? Or, a politician planning to build a desal water treatment plant in your backyard?

Single income families no longer qualify for home ownership in CA. They can rent for more but cannot own for less? The same homes my grandfather built here 80 years ago for single income families now 2 incomes are required to own. Two incomes for the same shelter? Our money is not worth as much anymore. For those who bought homes here in the last 8 years the value of their home could be less then when they bought. They are paying taxes on a liability. This is not the American dream. This is an American nightmare. Where would you go if you lost your home?

Regarding the Santa Cruz Eleven, Bush writes:

Our DA decided to pick eleven out of hundreds to prosecute as felons. This is frivolous prosecution for personal gain. The prosecution will cost this community a staggering amount. Fallen sheet rock does not compare to what the banks have done to this community. This heavy hand approach will not crush dissent here.

Compare this prosecution action to the recent bank money laundering trials. Big banks guilty of criminal drug money laundering get off with a ticket or fine. Which in the end the consumer ends up paying. No time served at all for anyone. We have a two-tiered justice system. Where is the real justice in our society?

How did the DA pick the ones chosen for prosecution? Did they hold their hands up to their eyes raising a finger a little and scan the area, picking the ones they saw? In our free society we elect the office of district attorney and our judges. We choose the ones who swear to uphold the constitution and protect our rights. Freedom of speech and right to assemble are important rights. We will not forget.

On Law Enforcement:

In recent years law enforcement has carved out 60% of our budget. It has been historically at 40%. Other cities are asking the questions about the real cost of law enforcement to our society? We must do the same. Some proposals include cost sharing between communities. We do not need overlapping services in every area of law enforcement. The service of Police Chief, SWAT teams, Police Psychology, and specialized detective work can be shared on a regional arrangement. The city saves money. Law enforcement is more efficient.

Ask yourself the question. Why are we paying city police chiefs more money then the president of the United States? How could their service be more valuable then the president? There are prison guards making more on retirement then working teachers. There are new programs that include gps tracking on our license plates. There is money for a new fleet of drones for domestic spying.

A senior was tased not long ago walking his small pooch dog for not having him on the leash. He was in the park in the woods. No one else was around except the county ranger. The senior was hard of hearing and didn’t hear the command to stop. He was tased in the back. If the officer had tased the dog, the officer would have lost their job. It is illegal to tase animals in CA by civilians. It is considered cruel. It might get you a visit from animal control. Who approved this “Frankenstein” technology to be used on American citizens?

More people die in the U.S. from tasers then any other country. We lost a young man by taser here while incarcerated in our jail. There must be a better way to deal with claustrophobic anxiety then a taser? With the use of baton the man would be alive today. The young man had a mom and dad just like you and I. To process the tragedy for them and the officers will be most difficult. We prevent that from happening again by making SC a taser free community.

Bush tells me he has lived in Santa Cruz since the 70’s, so I’ll be asking him some “then and now” questions as well as my usual “what will you do the day after the election results show you’ve lost?”–which I’ve asked of every candidate. I”m more interested in activism all the rest of the days of the year, than election results.

Tune in and call in.

Or e-mail your questions to me at rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com