Copwatch Again!

Last week we were rained and winded out. This week it looks like sunshine ahead!

The new Copwatch Santa Cruz Blog debuts on line at http://santacruzcopwatch.blogspot.com/

Downtown, we'll be taking accounts of police behavior and videoing cops on the beat as they drive poor people away and give out tickets people can't pay.

Homeless vets are a significant proportion of the community without shelter outside. We demand an end to the obscene and murderous war abroad and the stepped-up war on the poor in Santa Cruz.

This is both a budget and civil liberties issue locally. Police must be discouraged from being a part of the local War on the Police, and the merchant community that supports these outrages confronted.

The new anti-homeless Downtown Ordinance public assembly constrictions are now being enforced by police. They criminalize more than one hour's sitting on a city bench, make 3 unpaid infractions a jailing misdemeanor, and expand the notorious "No Go" zones downtown for sitting, sparechanging, political tabling, and street performing.

Anti-homeless ticketing for sleeping at night continues with shelter for less than 10% of the homeless community. We'll also be supporting calls for a Tent City when the Armory Winter Shelter closes in mid-April and encouraging organizing in that direction.

We will also be gathering accounts of harassment in hopes of joining Santa Barbara and Sacramento in challenging anti-homeless Sleeping Bans. Successful lawsuits and political pressure have already ended Sleeping Bans in Fresno, San Diego, Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, Richmond, and Palo Alto.

We hope to encourage media to counter the City's persecution of those outside using massive police overkill and a new city attorney crackdown with a civil injunction (see Sentinel smear of Anna Richardson and Miguel deLeon at http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_11964700 )

We have video cameras and tape recorders; bring your own as well.

Jumbogumbomeister Joe Schultz's tasty soup may also available again, as well as Copwatch Cocoa.

If you want to volunteer for Public Records Act request work and other behind-the-scenes Copwatching, call 423-4833.

To help plan future events, come to the Human Rights Organization meetings Saturday 3-4:30 PM at the Sub Rosa Cafe 703 Pacific Ave. Or check out HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) at the same place Wednesdays 9:30 AM -11:30 AM.