{"id":1323,"date":"2013-09-21T00:36:09","date_gmt":"2013-09-21T00:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/?p=1323"},"modified":"2013-09-24T00:37:53","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T00:37:53","slug":"fiddling-with-the-sidewalk-snatchers-in-berkeley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/fiddling-with-the-sidewalk-snatchers-in-berkeley\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiddling With the Sidewalk Snatchers in Berkeley"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NOTES BY NORSE:\u00a0\u00a0 Carol Denney has been puncturing pompous panjandrums up in Berkeley monthly for nearly two decades with her Pepper Spray Times<\/strong> (which comes out monthly in the Berkeley Daily Planet on-line) as well as her work with the satirical Jolly Roger Comedy Troupe<\/strong>, which I occasionally play on the stream of Free Radio Santa Cruz<\/strong><\/em> ( (http:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/FRSC-s47254\/<\/wbr><\/a><\/strong> )\u00a0<\/strong> down here.
\nUnlike Santa Cruz, Berkeley activists mounted a successful campaign against a Sitting Ban last year.\u00a0 The last significant successes Santa Cruz has had were to overturn the original 1994 total sidewalk Sitting Ban, passed in the spring of that year by the Rotkin-Kennedy Council.\u00a0 It resulted in a nearly-unprecedented local court victory when Judges Salazar and Barton both ruled the ordinance unconstitutional.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This was prompted by scores of arrests when hundreds of people flooded downtown to protest by sitting down at eating food with Food Not Bombs at Cathcart and Pacific.
\nUndeterred, the Council quickly passed a more limited Sitting Ban (6′ from buildings).
\nEssentially rubbberstamping and ratifying illegal police behavior that selectively enforced and arbitrarily expanded the Ban, the Council gradually expanding it in 2002 (14′ from buildings) to include all manner of other objects that created “No Sitting” zones\u00a0 (buildings, street corners, intersections, kiosks, drinking fountains, public telephones, public benches, public trash compactors, information\/directory signs, sculptures or artwork, ATM-style machines, outside street cafes, vending carts, and fences).
\nThis reduced real Sitting space to less than 5% of the Pacific Avenue sidewalk and constitutes a total ban in other business districts where there are buildings adjoining with a sidewalk less than 10′ wide.
\nIn a successful attempt to split street performers from the homeless people and peaceful panhandlers that were true targets of these laws, the Council agreed to limit “forbidden zones” to 10′ distances from all those objects.
\nAt 3 PM on Tuesday September 24th, City Council (809 Center St.) will broaden its attack to include street performers, street artists, political tablers, & street vendors by expanding the forbidden zones to 14′ and\u00a0 requiring an additional 12′ distance between all of these. \u00a0 In addition all “non-free standing” display devices such as blankets and tarps will be banned as an aesthetically unappealing “trip and fall” hazard\u00a0 (and far too easy to use)
\nThis second reading of the Ordinance if passed will make it law on October 24th.
\nPerhaps Carol Denney will come down to Santa Cruz to do a little fiddling here.
\nMore info at:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.indybay.org\/newsitems\/2013\/09\/12\/18743122.php?show_comments=1#18743584<\/wbr><\/wbr><\/a> .<\/p>\n

Sitting on a Chair Playing the Fiddle: A Crime? The PRC Hearing<\/a><\/h2>\n
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By Carol Denney<\/em><\/div>\n
Thursday September 19, 2013 – 09:37:00 PM<\/p>\n

http:\/\/berkeleydailyplanet.com\/issue\/2013-09-20\/article\/41452?headline=Sitting-on-a-Chair-Playing-the-Fiddle-A-Crime-The-PRC-Hearing–By-Carol-Denney<\/wbr><\/wbr><\/wbr><\/wbr><\/wbr><\/a>
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\"Sitting<\/a><\/p>\n
Carol Denney<\/div>\n
Sitting on a Chair Playing the Fiddle<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Berkeley\u2019s last election had a contest between anti-sitting law proponents and those who opposed making simply sitting down a crime. \u201cMeasure S\u201d, the anti-sitting law, was defeated at the ballot. It was considered a civil rights victory. But who really won?<\/p>\n

It was the most expensive campaign in Berkeley history. It was funded by well-heeled real estate interests and supported by merchant associations, most of the Berkeley City Council, and the Chamber of Commerce. Criminalizing the simple act of sitting down was described by otherwise intelligent people as a humane<\/em> response to human need, since living on the streets was so hard<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So can you sit on the street and watch a cloud go by? The results are still not in.<\/p>\n

I worked on the campaign opposing the anti-sitting law. A large part of our work was simply educational. Misleading pro-anti-sitting law materials in expensive, shiny colors were everywhere. But once people found out the extremity of the anti-sitting law, they generally opposed it. Most people realized that the law would most probably be used against some people but not others; it\u2019s hard to ignore the Cheeseboard pizza eaters sitting undisturbed by the \u201cDon\u2019t Sit on the Median\u201d signs on Shattuck in North Berkeley.<\/p>\n

Two days before the election on Sunday, November 4, 2012, I put poetry opposed to the anti-sitting law from poets all over the Bay Area up on the fence near the corner of Haste and Telegraph and sat down with some musicians to play. We were trying to illustrate that simply sitting on a chair playing music, perfectly legal behavior under the law, would become a crime in two days if Measure S were to pass.
\nI got a ticket.<\/p>\n

Artists were inside the fence perimeter touching up the mural facing Haste Street. People trickled by, enjoying a sunny day. We sat close to the fence, so there was seven feet of unobstructed nine-foot wide sidewalk in front of each of us, more than enough space for two wheelchairs to pass without issue. Our instrument cases were beside or under us, out of the way.<\/p>\n

A few people stopped and asked about the \u201cThis Is Legal\u201d sign and its significance, but our demonstration was pretty unobtrusive until Berkeley Police Officer Heather Cole rode up on her bicycle. She accused us of obstructing an empty sidewalk, and since I had carefully researched both the ordinance and the best place on Telegraph to make sure to cause no hardship for merchants or passersby, I found it pretty funny.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t civil disobedience. This was carefully planned obedience<\/em> to illustrate the absurd overreach of the proposed anti-sitting proposal. I had checked the law, checked with attorneys, planned every aspect of the demonstration so that no one and no one\u2019s instruments would be jeopardized.
\nOfficer Cole continued to threaten us, arguing that we were in the way despite there being no complaining party. The muralists were amazed. News that someone was getting a ticket for sitting on a chair playing the fiddle traveled fast up and down Telegraph. A reporter snapped pictures for the local paper. A Channel Two news crew began filming.<\/p>\n

Officer Cole kept insisting that other people had no right to be on the sidewalk, either. She moved a nearby plein air painter to the curbside and hassled a guy about twenty feet away collecting signatures.<\/p>\n

I had heard about this police harassment from friends on the street and people who worked at the Homeless Action Center and the East Bay Community Law Center, but it never occurred to me that an obviously political demonstration would be targeted, especially with Channel Two News cameras running.<\/p>\n

We kept playing. Officer Heather Cole kept shouting \u201cI\u2019ll take you to jail if you don\u2019t stop playing,\u201d while we played Soldier\u2019s Joy, a moment which made the news that night. But it was turning into a strange scene. People were shouting at the cops. Two attorneys showed up who tried to explain to Officer Cole that she was misapplying the law. Officer Cole\u2019s supervisor showed up and argued with them. I finally said, fine; give me a ticket, hoping to get back to playing.<\/p>\n

But our effort to illustrate legal behavior was in ruins. I still don\u2019t know what Officer Cole\u2019s problem was that day. Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O\u2019Malley dropped the case against me after a couple of court dates.<\/p>\n

I filed a complaint with the Police Review Commission which was not sustained. Can you sit on the sidewalk? The law is pretty clear about it, but no one else seems to be. A couple of the police review commissioners asked questions which implied that someone could be accused of obstructing the space one occupies with one\u2019s body, a patent absurdity which, if true, would put us all in jail.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t accidentally block a sidewalk under Berkeley\u2019s law as written and clarified by former Police Chief Meisner\u2019s memos. People can\u2019t be accused of blocking a sidewalk for just being there, or for having a backpack or other personal items beside them, the law makes clear. But the police either don\u2019t realize that or realize it and don\u2019t care what the law actually says or what it was intended to do. The Police Review Commission, the Police Department, the City Council all look the other way as people continue to get these absurd tickets which at some point, if unaddressed, turn into jail time and court costs for which the public picks up the bill.<\/p>\n

My ticket cost me at least three days of work, about ten cumulative hours of police officers\u2019 time both in and out of court, court time for several pre-trial dates, and baffled a boatload of reporters, students, and Channel Two News watchers who are probably as confused as I am about why Berkeley would conduct the most expensive campaign in its history against sitting down if it is already against the law.<\/em><\/p>\n

Is sitting down against the law? Maybe it depends on who you are. The Cheeseboard pizza eaters obviously get a pass. Maybe it depends on whether or not you are demonstrating against something like Measure S, a kind of content-based provision. Or maybe Officer Heather Cole hates traditional old-time music, a kind of fiddle-based objection.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an Alice in Wonderland world up there on Telegraph. The hookah smoking caterpillar can\u2019t figure it out, and neither can I. The muralists painted me into the mural after that day, for which, I suppose, I should thank Officer Heather Cole.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTES BY NORSE:\u00a0\u00a0 Carol Denney has been puncturing pompous panjandrums up in Berkeley monthly for nearly two decades with her Pepper Spray Times (which comes out monthly in the Berkeley Daily Planet on-line) as well as her work with the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56,58],"tags":[3,60,79,70],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1324,"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions\/1324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}