Public Hysteria Task Force meeting

The phony "Public Safety" crisis has spawned a "Task Force" which is likely to escalate rather than dissolve the false issues raised by Take Back Santa Cruz [TBSC] and The Clean Team [TCT]

NEEDLE-MANIA
It was created in response to TBSC and TCT's manufactured public alarm. This was created by regularly bringing improperly disposed of needles to City Council (less than 800 compared with the 250,000 turned in to Needle Exchange last year) and releasing scare videos of abandoned campsites & fecal debris.

The hysteria created has already prompted City Council to close the City's only Needle Exchange program on Barson St., ironically making more improper needle disposal a near-certainty.

They did this behind closed doors with no public input and no advance notice.

No City Council members have acted or made public statements opposing this true Public Safety crisis which City Council itself created.

MISLEADING POLICE CHEER-LEADING

Police officials have signed on to this deception, concealing the fact that there was no rise in crime at the Needle Exchange location & no additional needles improperly disposed of.

Chief Vogel and Deputy-Chief Clark have also misled the community by not countering inflammatory nearly-daily Sentinel "crime in our community" stories. The crime rate in Santa Cruz, particularly violent crime, has not risen.

They've also signed on to the "blame the homeless" bedtime story, but neglected to mention that it's the SCPD's own decision to enforce non-crime crimes (like sitting near a building, sleeping, and personal drug use) that have padded these stats.

CITY COUNCIL COVERING ITS OWN FAILURES

Take Back Santa Cruz and the Clean Team have got one thing right: the City has refused to both clean up environmental messes and/or provide the 1500-2000 homeless people who have shelter with campgrounds, trash pickups, Sharps containers, and other obvious sanitary needs.

The Task Force is also designed to cover the ass of the City Council and City Staff and forward the agenda of reactionary Council members Lynn Robinson and Pamela Comstock who seek to "purify" the community by demonizing the homeless and cutting back the pathetically limited homeless services.

Comstock is co-founder of the rabidly anti-homeless TBSC, which poses as a "Public Safety" group.

For more extensive description and discussion, go to
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/05/07/18736444.php

This item was posted by Robert Norse, but Scott Collins is the City staff person who will presumably be recording it and providing staff assistance.