An Open Letter to The Shit Smearers

Dear Santa Cruz Shit Smearers,

Just in case you haven't gotten the message from anyone else, or from any other communications, and just in case my labeling your actions as "unfortunate and deplorable incidents of vandalism" in my open letter to Ryan Coonerty didn't do the job, I'd like to make this clear: if there is even the vaguest "political" motivation behind your actions, please cease and desist. Immediately. Without reservation. If possible, apologize, profusely and publcly (I'll understand if you do it anonymously). To the homeless people whose interests you've set back, to the protestors who've been blamed and condemned for your behavior (irrationality and unjustifiably so, in my opinion), and more importantly, on a personal basis, to the people who've had to deal with the mess you created.

The logic leading you to engage in this behavior and similar actions of vandalism is inarguably flawed and faulty. No matter how annoyed and frustrated you are with the current situation with regards to public bathrooms, homeless civil rights, the City Council's inhumane, unconstitutional and uncivilized insistence on denying people the ability to sleep in a safe and legal location at night, etc., you are not justified in imposing the burden of cleaning up the shit you smeared all over the walls of the institutions you chose to target on the working people whose job it is to deal with the mess. Your actions are completely reprehensible, and beyond the pale of civilized discourse in a democratic society.

If there is a political motivation behind your acts, please consider that your actions are completely counterproductive - they divert the course of the discussion from the issues folks engaged in public protest are focusing on: the refusal of Ryan Coonerty and the rest of the City Council to provide a humane solution that allows people without homes or the resources to rent a motel or otherwise acquire shelter the ability to safely and legally sleep SOMEWHERE within city limits. Your actions also provide fuel for the reactionary forces (such as the Santa Cruz Sentinel's editorial board) within the city that seek to marginalize this issue and the activists working on it.

In short, your behavior is unethical (first and foremost), and politically stupid. Stop it. Now. Like, yesterday. Make restitution and apologize -- and then do something productive, and within the pale of acceptable discourse. There's always work to be done for the cause of social justice. If you don't, and I find out you've been involved, I'll have no qualms about exposing you publicly and handing you over to the police if I do find out about this. Could I be any more clear on this? I hope not.

If your actions are not politically motivated (and I find it hard to understand whatever logic could lead you to trash the bathrooms at CommunityTV, as I've heard has happened), then I also ask you to stop. You may find it amusing, but the rest of us don't.

Regards,
Thomas Leavitt

P.S. to the general public: personally, I don't believe this will have any effect on the individuals in question, as it is my belief that anyone who engages in this type of behavior is immune to rational discussion (possibly due to mental issues) and doesn't operate by the same values and principles that motivate me, but it is part of the duty of responsible activists to establish what behaviors are normative and within the pale of acceptability, and I don't find it particularly difficult to draw my line far far short of behavior of this sort. I can tolerate having a difference of opinion with someone (and continue to work with them) over the wisdom of actions I find politically stupid and counter-productive (c.f. my friend and activist associate Robert Norse), but within the realm of what has to be tolerated within a free society, but this? No. I hope others agree with me.

If you do, please say so in the comments. If you don't, I'd really like to hear your rationale, because I'm completely baffled as to what you think this is accomplishing.