Tag Archives: Sleeping Ban

Fighting Trumpism Against the Homeless in Santa Cruz: Join or Support Freedom SleepOut #71

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Date Tuesday November 15
Time 4:00 PM Tuesday – 9:00 AM Wednesday
Location Details Bunking down on the sidewalk next to City Hall as things get chillier–weatherwise and otherwise. Center St. between Locust and Church.
Event Type Protest
Organizer/Author Keith McHenry (story by Norse)
Email keith [at] foodnotbombs.net
Phone 575-770–3377

The likely election victory of three homeless-hostile City Council candidates a week ago as well as the national Trump victory means continued struggle to hold back the right-wing riptide against the rights of the poor and those outside. No Council meeting this week, though food, morning coffee, and possibly blankets may be available for those snuggling up to the sidewalk.The basic right to sleep without harassment is the focus of the Freedom SleepOuts. Photographer Alex Darocy has captured the form and the substance of the latest SleepOuts at “Attendance at City Hall Sleepouts Remains High” [https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/11/14/18793590.php] .

RANGERS UNDER SCRUTINY
Rangers on the levee and deputies in the County are reportedly seizing homeless property and even destroying it in violation of state law and the federal Constitution. However at the Freedom Sleepouts, videoslinger Abbi Samuels and others are successfull fending off ranger raids. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ4Q7-ZUvw4 . Rangerwrangler Ricardo Lopez reports unhoused folks on the Levee sleep there nightly in spite of ranger raids. He sees a new militant spirit in the wake of the Trump victory rousing “lazy leftists”.

At Freedom SleepOut #70 last week Freedom Sleepers wielding video and cell phones protected sleeping folks from a quartet of rangers. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ4Q7-ZUvw4

RISING DEMAND FOR POLICE REFORM
Both the Sentinel and an Indybay photographer covered the second Cop Corner protest by a small band of HUFFsters and their allies demanding release of the SCPD audio and video of their still anonymous officer(s) killing the mentally disabled Sean Arlt last month. See http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/social-affairs/20161110/santa-cruz-protesters-call-for-full-disclosure-in-sean-arlt-shooting and https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/11/11/18793373.php.

A third protest demanding full disclosure and an end to abusive police practices will be held Saturday November 19 1:30 PM at the Town Clock.

AUDIO REPORTING
Audio visits to the Freedom SleepOuts and street interviews are a regular feature of Bathrovbespierre’s Broadsides, Robert Norse’s twice-weekly Free Radio Santa Cruz [FRSC] show at freakradio.org. Past shows are archived at http://radiolibre.org/brb/index.html . As of last Friday, FRSC lost its transmitter site and is searching for a new one. See https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/11/11/18793387.php .

OUT OF TOWN UPDATES
The Oakland encampment struggle goes on. See http://www.thestreetspirit.org/oaklands-evictions-of-encampments-hurts-everyone/ & http://www.thestreetspirit.org/making-a-home-in-an-oakland-encampment/ .

Berkeley updates can be found at https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999.

Meanwhile in San Francisco, courts are throwing out thousands of “quality-of-life” harassment tickets–while Santa Cruz resists even the most basic (“End the Sleeping Ban”) reforms. See http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/SF-courts-ignoring-thousands-of-quality-of-life-10611766.php?t=e587d6e560&cmpid=email-premium .

Street Spirit, a homeless newspaper, is regularly available at the Sub Rosa Cafe and from those selling it around town.

To post or read comments, go to: https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/11/15/18793620.php.

As usual, this series of updates is written by Robert Norse; Keith McHenry and other faithfuls do the sleeping out.

Older and Colder- Back for Election Night SleepOut #70

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Date Tuesday November 08
Time 4:00 PM – 9:00 AM
Location Details
Weathering new attacks by First Alarm “security” thugs, out-of-the-park Rangers, and idle SCPD officers, the Freedom Sleepers will plant themselves on the sidewalk and nearby brick areas. The goal: to make homeless sleep after 11 PM is a right and not a crime. This in an increasingly homeless-aphobic town where there is shelter for only a handful of the 1000-2000 outside. Food Not Bombs and Joe Schultz will supply edibles and coffee. The event runs from Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday mid-morning.
Event Type Protest
Organizer/Author Keith McHenry (story by Norse)
Email keith [at] foodnotbombs.net
Phone 575-770–3377
Note: This posting is the perspective of Robert Norse. Keith McHenry is point person and organizer for the Freedom SleepOut.

ELECTION INDIGESTION
As the Council election race ends, none of the candidates still running seem to have been particularly strong or specific in demanding police accountability and legal changes. Or an end to the anti-homeless sweeps now rough and regular. Some find hope in the past writings of some of the “New City Council” slate of Glover, Schnaar, S. Brown, and Krohn. They may be”the lesser evil” to the “Queen of Mean” Mayor Mathews slate of J. Brown, Singleton, and Watkins.

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As Anger at the SCPD Rises, Freedom Sleepers Bed Down for Sidewalk Sleepout #68

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Date Tuesday October 25

Time 2:30 PM Today- 9 AM Tomorrow

Location Details On the sidewalk outside the last pre-election City Council meeting in the wake of the SCPD’s Sean Arlt slaying, housed and unhoused folks are gathering again. The continuing target: the City’s anti-homeless 11 PM to 8:30 AM Sleeping Ban as a shelterless police-heavy winter looms. The safe-but-not-legal-sidewalk slumber event begins on Tuesday afternoon and goes through Wednesday morning.

Event Type Protest

Organizer/Author Keith McHenry (story by Norse)

Email keith [at] foodnotbombs.net

Phone 575-770–3377

 

While folks chow down, chatter, and prepare to bed down, the afternoon Santa Cruz City Council meeting has absolutely nothing on its agenda indicating any awareness of or concern for with the upcoming winter ordeal for unhoused folks.

And nothing on what some are calling the SCPD murder and cover-up of Sean Smith-Arlt Sunday before last when he was gunned down facing four police officers within 20 seconds for wielding a metal rake. Video and audio footage is still not being provided, nor the names of the killer(s).

Activists led by Abbi Samuels and Sherri Conable have called for a mass presence at 4 PM in front of City Hall to be followed by a public speak-out at 5 PM Oral Communications. Some have suggested that the real Speak-Out be outside when Mayor Mathews imposes her “two-minute” speaker limitation (within a total of half hour “allowed”). Repetitive staff presentations on agenda items may take up far more than half an hour.

QUESTIONS OUTSTANDING
Beyond who shot Arlt and where’s the video/audio, some activists have demanded restoration of a stronger Citizens Police Review Board process, the prior one dismantled by Mathews and others when they were on the Council in 2003. Unfortunately government run CPRB’s have been severely limited by the Officer’s “Bill of Rights” and the Copley court decision of 2006 shielding the militarized police departments of the state from public exposure. (See http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigations/1293/copley_v._account-ability/ ).

This has led one activist to suggest that private agencies need to take the lead in any “independent investigations” of police brutality and murder. More broadly, will the militarization of the Santa Cruz police continue to be fueled by acceptance of state and federal grants? Will the City Council keep up its refusal to require police accountability? Its current token review subcommittee is the Public Safety Committee, and its overseer–the $40,000-a-year no-info-to-the-public attorney Bob Aaronson.

A listing of this year’s fatal police shootings nationwide can be found at http://anthemrevolt.com/ . One activist has pointed out that police shootings nationally are usually 1 out of 17 of all fatal shootings. In Santa Cruz, it’s 1 out of 5 this year.


DISTURBING HOMELESS REPORTS
Meanwhile one homeless man reported his arm broken by SCPD in the midst of an arrest; another woman is going to court tomorrow to fight a year old “Resisting Arrest” charge; friends of a third fear she faces loss of her service dog as part of the “Homeless Mistreat Dogs” movement that seems to have become more overt in the past few months. More on this at the HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) meeting on Wednesday October 26 11 AM Sub Rosa Cafe).

SILENCE ON LOCAL SURVEILLANCE
Both the SCPD and the ACLU seem to have had little to say about surveillance devices funded by government money in Santa Cruz that look out and video record public places. A Public Records Act request for a listing of these places was initially met with the ridiculous claim that no such records exist. A second request was met with delay until mid-November–well after last night’s ACLU Surveillance Forum.

This forum, of course, reportedly had little mention of the current police surveillance–how extensive it was, how long the records are retained, whether the public has access to them. Nor has the local ACLU shown any concern about this issue (nor about homeless issues generally unless pushed to the wall by unhoused folks and activists).

OUTSTANDING QUESTIONS
Where are the SCPD audio and video tapes? What will folks do to demand their return?

How about a video-in at the police station with person after person walking up to request they be made public?
(A sign in the police lobby bans video or audio recording, something also posted in other city offices. But since there is no expectation of privacy in public places and since these so-called “public servants” are supposed to be accountable to the public, this is a complete (if often effective) bluff.

Will the public move beyond a ceremonial mourning session at the Town Clock on Sunday and a polite “stand-in-line-and-then-go-home” protest at City Council today at 5 PM?

What next public pressuring event is planned by those outraged by this latest killing (and the SCPD’s shoot-to-kill training and practice)? Or will the good liberals all trek home after a token showing today as they did when the BeatCat was slipped by the public?

HUFF will be grumbling about this issue over coffee tomorrow, as mentioned above.

This is the last Council meeting before the November 8th vote deadline when voters will decide whether to return Mayor Mathews and her slate of police apologists to office.

For more event information, to make and view comments:
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/10/25/18792673.php

Rain or Shine–Freedom SleepOut #67 Rolls On

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Date Tuesday October 18
Time 3:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Location Details Cityhall Land–where sleep for the homeless is banned and armed Sleepbusters get their paychecks at 809 Center St. After the First Amendment closes down at 10 PM on the City Hall grounds, many will choose to sleep along the Center St. sidewalk between Locust and Church Sts. The event goes on until Wednesday morning, after which houseless folks face harassment at the whim of police, rangers, and security thugs for the rest of the week.
Event Type Protest
Organizer/Author Keith McHenry (story by Norse)
Email keith [at] foodnotbombs.net
Phone 575-770–3377

BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON BAD CONDITIONS IN SHERIFF HART’S JAIL
Freedom Sleeper Lucero Luna, many times arrested and jailed, for peaceful protest against the Sleeping Ban on Pacific Avenue, reported her attempts to create alleviation of bad conditions in the women’s jail resulted in a “crazy” designation. Her report noted women were held on the men’s side of the jail; male jailers watched her while she was stripped; women were packed into a cell like sardines; the floors covered with women trying to sleep; She was wakened every half hour with a flashlight in the face for “suicide checks”. Reportedly bunk beds were put in shortly after her departure in possible response to Lucero’s expose.

FREEZING FREE EXPRESSION ON PACIFIC AVENUE
Visual artists Joff Jones and Alex Skelton were assaulted with $1300 in fines for displaying their paintings “outside the blue boxes” in the courtroom of Commissioner “Bash the Bums” Baskett. She dismissed and ignored all Constitutional arguments after making a show of keeping to court protocol. It’s unclear whether two, who have (in my view unwisely) kept their defense and their case under wraps, will appeal.

Ramini–an Iranian musician and craftswoman–was fined $233 for having her artwork on display without any evidence of sales as part of a cultural background to her musical performing. The City Attorney’s office has refused to clarify whether it now regards any display of handicrafts, even if handmade and not offered for sale or donation, a crime.

A dozen homeless folks were driven out into the rain, reports Jessica Nash, late Friday morning as they took shelter under the trees across from the Civic Auditorium. See “Police and Ranger Raid on Homeless In the Rain Reported” at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/10 ./14/18792238.php

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HUFF Updates: Cruelty in the Rain in Santa Cruz; Fresno Activist on Free Radio Sunday 11 AM; Tips for Those Fighting Police/Ranger Property Seizures

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Police and Ranger Raid on Santa Cruz Homeless In the Rain Reported
by Robert Norse (rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com )
Friday Oct 14th, 2016 7:22 PM

Around 11 AM today, activist and car-dweller Jessica Nash reports that two vans of “Park Rangers” from Harvey West followed by 5 cars of SCPD in uniform pulled up on a dozen homeless people. They were sitting on the wall and under sheltering trees from the rain by the side of the sidewalk across from the Civic Auditorium today. The armed officers threatened to seize blankets, bikes, food, and belongings if the homeless didn’t move out into the bad weather.

MAKING SANTA CRUZ “LESS FRIENDLY” TO THE UNHOUSED
According to a phone report from Ms. Nash, the police told homeless people “get your stuff and get out or we’re gonna bring a truck, load it up, and take it away.” The rangers–already in trucks– appeared ready to remove homeless survival gear. Some were there watching property for others. Everyone was threatened to force them to leave.

The police raid came upon homeless sharing food and sheltering themselves from the first winter storm. The threats to take their blankets, their bikes, their food, and their belongings frightened the homeless into silence.

This apparently was not enough. Ms. Nash reported that when she tried to help folks gather up their stuff, one cop began threatening her. “You’ve got a car? Well, get in it and leave. I can impound it right now–I’m so pissed off.”

Nash reported the dialogue continued: “Don’t make me inpound your car. You have expired tags. I’m sick of people not listening.” Nash, with her sheltering car at stake, said she was forced to leave.

The “deportation and removal” action reportedly took about an hour. She noted rangers were also armed with tasers and guns.

DEEPER DISCRIMINATION AND INDIFFERENCE BY MAYOR MATHEWS, CITY COUNCIL, CITY STAFF, AND POVERTY PIMPS
Ms. Nash has sought legal help to deal with disability discrimination at the Homeless (Lack of) Services Center [HLOSC] at 115 Coral St. She claims she was repeatedly being denied services because of bedbugs she claims came from the still vermin-ridden Paul Lee Loft. She spoke before City Council on Tuesday about the wretched conditions and left in tears. Officials promised no action, claiming it was a County matter. However the City provides over $100,000 a year to the HLOSC and the HLOSC Board usually includes a Council member.

There is currently no walk-in shelter in Santa Cruz. Waiting lists for the HLOSC are either full or require a “pathway to housing” (i.e. a monthly check). The City Hall sidewalk is the site of a weekly Sleep-Out there by the Freedom Sleepers, now going into their 67th week next Tuesday.

Nash noted Mayor Cynthia Mathews had not returned her calls. Mathews–running for reelection–voted to continue to make the act of sleeping outside after 11 PM a crime costing several hundred dollars in fines, for which hundreds of citations have been issued in the last few years. Even the token 100-space Winter Shelter Armory is not slated to be funded and opened this year (with the homeless population at 1000-2000)

Under Mathews, the City Hall bathrooms have frequently been locked during the day.  Two 2nd class homeless portapotties (located at Cedar and Locust, and Cedar and Lincoln) were recently set up supposedly to open at 10 PM at night.    All existing brick-and-mortar bathrooms with sinks have been closed during the day in spite of the need for community use at night.  Activists report that even these portapotties have not been open on occasions when homeless folks have tried to use them.

POLITICS AS USUAL?
Mathews is running for Santa Cruz City Council for her 6th term on a business-as-usual slate, opposed by the New City Council slate of Schnaar, Glover, Brown, and Krohn.  Outspoken Sleeping Ban opponent Steve Pleich has withdrawn from the race and thrown his support to the New City Council slate.  HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom) has made no endorsements with none of the candidates other than Pleich presenting specific proposals to decriminalize homeless folks and deal with the upcoming winter shelter/police violence crisis.

TO READ OR MAKE COMMENTS GO TO:  https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/10/14/18792238.php

Follow-Up on ACLU’s Forum on Houselessness–Mike Rhodes Phone Interview
Date Sunday October 16
Time 11:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Location Details Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.3 FM, streams at http://www.freakradio.org.

Call in after 11:30 AM at 831-427-3772. Leave comments off-air at 831-423-4833.

Archives at http://radiolibre.org/brb/brb161016.mp3 (an hour and a half into the audio file).

Activist and writer Mike Rhodes, author of Dispatches from the War Zone and principal speaker at the ACLU Forum, follows up on his talk with a discussion of his tour and current strategies for fighting attacks on the poor in Fresno and elsewhere.
For more event information:
http://huffsantacruz.org

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POLICE AND RANGERS ROUST HOMELESS IN RAIN IN SANTA CRUZ

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by Robert Norse (rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com )

Friday Oct 14th, 2016 7:22 PM

Around 11 AM today, activist and car-dweller Jessica Nash reports that two vans of “Park Rangers” from Harvey West followed by 5 cars of SCPD in uniform pulled up on a dozen homeless people. They were sitting on the wall and under sheltering trees from the rain by the side of the sidewalk across from the Civic Auditorium today. The armed officers threatened to seize blankets, bikes, food, and belongings if the homeless didn’t move out into the bad weather.
MAKING SANTA CRUZ “LESS FRIENDLY” TO THE UNHOUSED
According to a phone report from Ms. Nash, the police told homeless people “get your stuff and get out or we’re gonna bring a truck, load it up, and take it away.” The rangers–already in trucks– appeared ready to remove homeless survival gear. Some were there watching property for others. Everyone was threatened to force them to leave.

The police raid came upon homeless sharing food and sheltering themselves from the first winter storm. The threats to take their blankets, their bikes, their food, and their belongings frightened the homeless into silence.

This apparently was not enough. Ms. Nash reported that when she tried to help folks gather up their stuff, one cop began threatening her. “You’ve got a car? Well, get in it and leave. I can impound it right now–I’m so pissed off.”

Nash reported the dialogue continued: “Don’t make me inpound your car. You have expired tags. I’m sick of people not listening.” Nash, with her sheltering car at stake, said she was forced to leave.

The “deportation and removal” action reportedly took about an hour. She noted rangers were also armed with tasers and guns.

DEEPER DISCRIMINATION AND INDIFFERENCE BY POLITICANS AND POVERTY PIMPS
Ms. Nash has sought legal help to deal with disability discrimination at the Homeless (Lack of) Services Center [HLOSC] at 115 Coral St. She claims she was repeatedly being denied services because of bedbugs she claims came from the still vermin-ridden Paul Lee Loft. She spoke before City Council on Tuesday about the wretched conditions and left in tears. Officials promised no action, claiming it was a County matter. However the City provides over $100,000 a year to the HLOSC and the HLOSC Board usually includes a Council member.

There is currently no walk-in shelter in Santa Cruz. Waiting lists for the HLOSC are either full or require a “pathway to housing” (i.e. a monthly check). The City Hall sidewalk is the site of a weekly Sleep-Out there by the Freedom Sleepers, now going into their 67th week next Tuesday.

Nash noted Mayor Cynthia Mathews had not returned her calls. Matthews–running for reelection–voted to continue to make the act of sleeping outside after 11 PM a crime costing several hundred dollars in fines, for which hundreds of citations have been issued in the last few years. Even the token 100-space Winter Shelter Armory is not slated to be funded and opened this year (with the homeless population at 1000-2000).

READ AND LEAVE COMMENTS AT https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/10/14/18792238.php

Around 11 AM today, activist and car-dweller Jessica Nash reports that two vans of “Park Rangers” from Harvey West followed by 5 cars of SCPD in uniform pulled up on a dozen homeless people. They were sitting on the wall and under sheltering trees from the rain by the side of the sidewalk across from the Civic Auditorium today. The armed officers threatened to seize blankets, bikes, food, and belongings if the homeless didn’t move out into the bad weather.

 

HUFF meets yet again; today (10-12) 11 AM at the Sub Rosa 703 Pacific Ave. next to the Bike Church

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On the HUFF agenda:   Homeless (Lack of) Service Center Clients Speak Out!–Discussion of the Latest Petition Denouncing Bedbugs and Bad SErvice; Solidarity with Marysville facing Deportation on October 17th; Tabling at the UN Street Fair; Confronting the City Council Election; Update on the City Council Meeting and Freedom SleepOut #66…and more.   All laced with coffee and catcalls.

As Weather grows Chilly, Freedom SleepOut #66 Keeps the Homeless Fires Burning

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Date 10/11/2016

Time 3:00 PM Tuesday – 9 AM Wednesday (approximately)
Location Details Concrete beddown along Center St. between Locust and Church across from the Main Library
Event Type Protest
Organizer/AuthorKeith McHenry (story by Norse)

THE VIGIL CONTINUES
The weekly public education and do-it-yourself safe sleeping zone squad will be on the sidewalk starting around 3 PM for the 66th time tonight. Food Not Bombs will be providing food, along with likely soup from India Joze’s kitchen, compliments of Jumbo Gumbo Joe Schultz. Coffee usually appears in the morning.

Smart phones, cameras, and/or video cameras are always welcome. Donations of blankets, sleeping bags, food, and friendship are also encouraged.

Freedom Sleepers and their supporters are invited to dose down a second time with coffee and commentary at the 11 AM HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) meeting at the Sub Rosa Cafe at 703 Pacific

SIGN THIEVES ON SKATEBOARDS
Food Not Bombs cooks report some wandering skateboarders made off with the Food Not Bombs signs last weekend–on two successive days. Whether this was done to express political hostility or to get tokens of FNB by admirers is unknown. However the FNB gang would like the signs returned if possible.

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Organizing a demonstration /homeless mayor

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Freedom SleepOut #65 on Eve of ACLU Forum,
Follows Salinas Shutdown of Flagpole Community
Date Tuesday October 04 Time 5:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Location Details At the center of City Government–where peaceful protest is only allowed before 10 PM–when peaceful assembly becomes illegal on the City Hall grounds. Folks then assemble with sleeping gear on the sidewalk at the entranceway across from the main library on Center St. between Locust and Church. It goes from late afternoon Tuesday to mid-morning Wednesday.
Event Type Protest Organizer/AuthorKeith McHenry (story by Norse)
RELENTLESS PERSISTENCE
Building on more than a year of weekly defiance to the gentrification Sleeping Ban law, Freedom Sleepers and well wishers will again gather to create a Safe Sidewalk Sleeping zone for the houseless community October 4th.

Activists elsewhere credit the Santa Cruz Freedom SleepOut’s with inspiring both Berkeley’s “First They Came for the Homeless” protest encampment at their Old City Hall last winter and Salinas’s six-month long nightly Flagpole Community at Salinas City Hall.

The latter ended Saturday night as Salinas police threatened enforcement of a new harsh anti-sleeping law passed by City Council there on September 20th. (See Final Rally at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuNxm1BliuY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVOuvpnk-I .

Flagpole freedom fighter Wes White says he’ll be continuing the fight in the courts, on the street, and in the upcoming election campaign where he is running for Salinas City Council.

FREE SPEECH FREEZEOUT
Last week, the Mayor Cynthia Mathews, defying the Brown (Public Meetings) Act, moved Oral Communications from its printed agenda time at 5 PM nearly two hours ahead shutting out half a dozen would-be speakers. With no indication of this radical shift on the printed agenda, the cranky queen of cutback ended the meeting at mid-afternoon, ignoring tenants rights, homeless suffering, and other outstanding issues that are not acknowledged, must less debated at the City Council Talk Shop.

The previous City Council practice was to hold the token speaking time for the public at or after 5 PM. If Council business were concluded before that time, the Council would recess and return. Not under Mayor “Two Minute” Mathews (so called because she has regularly cut back public comment, even when no other items were pressing and few speakers were in line).

There’s no meeting of the Shitty Council this week (though the public bathrooms at City Hall will presumably continue to be closed “for repairs” or “because of vandalism”).

AN ACTIVIST SPEAKS OUT
Santa Cruz Bus Rider’s Association Founder and Freedom Sleeper Supporter Elise Casby wrote: “Last Tuesday, I went to view the agenda for the day, which is usually posted up next to the public council chambers in glass cases. The doors to the chambers were locked, and there were two (2) notes taped up on the door. Both notices announced that the council had more or less done away with any way to participate that day. Oops.

On the notes taped up to the locked doors, in the city council chamber room where I thought an actual City Council meeting would be taking place at that time, there was something stated about an agenda item that had been pulled at the behest of a certain citizen. There was something else stated about the fact that the council would be having a closed session somewhere- in a different part of the city. There was a little more, but in truth, this was a very problematic move by Santa Cruz City Council and possibly the city attorney, and most of all, for all of us citizens.

EX-PATRIOT FREEDOM SLEEPER ANNOUNCES BOOK
Curbhugger Chris Doyen, a tireless and articulate media activist who led the 2010 PeaceCamp protest at the County Building and City Hall, has announced a new book (https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/09/29/18791787.php) on his work with Anonymous.

Now going by the nomme de guerre of Commander X, Curbhugger provided a storm of media for the 3-month long protest against the Sleeping Ban that apparently forced the City Attorney and his yes-men on City Council to pass MC 6.36.055 which required dismissal of all Camping Ban tickets if victims were on the River St. Shelter or Paul Lee Loft waiting lists.

The Homeless (Lack of) Services Center Phil Kramer and the HLOSC Board have narrowed the Paul Lee loft entrance criteria to having a “pathway to housing”. This requires participants to have government or private income; additional “don’t enable the homeless” policies ban folks outside without funds from the meals during the day. The River St. Shelter under Monica Martinez’s Encompass program still “allows” phone sign-up and confirmation at 459-6644.

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Party, PowWow, and Pushback in Salinas Tonight and Through the Night! Support the Homeless Flagpole Community Under Police Threat !

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Inline image
Inline image

Thank you,

Wes White
(510) 274 9275
luckyagentwes@yahoo.com

FURTHER NOTES BY ROBERT NORSE

The Salinas City Council’s September 20th meeting suddenly discovered an “emergency” from the orderly and peaceful protest encampment nightly outside City Hall.

The Council–over almost unanimous public opposition–made it a jailing crime to be there (or anywhere on public property) with survival sleeping gear even though facilities for the hundreds of homeless folks to sleep at night somewhere–anywhere–safely do not exist.

The outgoing Police Chief presented no evidence of ” illicit and unsanitary activity on downtown Salinas property, including drug sales and sex on the library’s front lawn” as claimed by City Attorney Callihan.  He along with the City Manager and the Mayor apparently cooked up this unconstitutional measure behind closed doors with no input from service providers, civil liberties folks, or the homeless themselves.

This cruel and anonymous smear of a whole community of poor and disabled people shows the depths to which local bureaucrats and politicians will sink to keep the spotlight of protest away from them.   The police chief presented one police report documenting only one complaint in the last six months.  Only one Councilmember spoke out against this body blow to the survival community of homeless people.

The superfluous urination and defecation bans (already banned under state law) are particularly outrageous given the closed city bathrooms at night and lack of facilities generally around the City. 

The smear is just another putrid cover for the quick and dirty dismissal of a whole class of people and the introduction of more threats and tools against the poor–even when they take care to provide for themselves the survival campground that the City refuses to set up (not to mention shelter or housing).

See “County supervisors surprised, chagrined over proposed Salinas city overnight camping ban”

at   http://www.montereyherald.com/article/NF/20160920/NEWS/160929921