March to Demand SCPD Release Property Stolen from Homeless Protesters

A march to the SCPD police station arriving shortly after noon will dramatize the brutal, costly, and pointless crackdown on Peacecamp2010 homeless protesters "menacing" the public safety by sleeping at City Hall at night. The point is both to educate the community and the media and provide a group sleeping space which is safer than the levee, the Pogonip, or other spots--where it is equally illegal to sleep. The march will highlight recent police seizures of homeless protest materials and survival gear and demand the return of those items.

March to the SCPD to Retrieve Stolen Property
On Tuesday August 24 at 11:30 AM, the March to Reclaim Homeless Dignity will assemble in front of City Hall on Center St. between Locust and Church and ends at the Police Station at Center and Laurel around 12:15 p.m. Times are approximate

They Steal Our Sleep...They Steal Our Survival Gear
They Steal Our Liberty..They Steal Our Lives

+++ Waiting Lists of 2-4 Weeks for Emergency Shelter
+++ Multiple Tickets and Arrests Each Night for Sleeping
+++ Klieg Lights Waking Pregnant Women After Midnight
+++ A New City Hall “No Trespass” Law to Crush Protest
+++ Political Signs, Tables, Chairs, and Literature Seized

Join Us As We Take Back Our Property!
Help Smash the Sleeping Ban!

Nightly Meetings in front of City Hall 8:15 PM

Don't Let Your Conscience Sleep


Police know their citations and arrests will be dismissed in court under the Necessity defense.

Yet each night authorized by City Manager Martin Bernal and Mayor Mike Rotkin, police roust pregnant women and old men who have no legal shelter.

The latest tactics in sleep deprivation and homeless removal involve high intensity overhead lights, and "security" guards.

The only crime happening at City Hall is the conspiracy to deny poor people the right to sleep, not anywhere and everywhere, but somewhere at night.

In the midst of devastating depression with more and more people becoming jobless and homeless, City police are trying to drive desperation out of sight.

In the last week, police have escalated their assaults and threats, taking a 72-year-old woman to jail, repeatedly ticketing a 9 1/2 month pregnant woman, jailing another pregnant woman, initiating a smear campaign against a protester as a "child molester", stealing political signs and literature as well as chairs and a political table as "unclaimed property", and more...

All this in a city without shelter for those outside it is ticketing. Since authorities know the necessity defense will win in court, they are creating new crimes for those getting Sleepcrime citations (See "New Attack on the Homeless at City Hall" at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/06/19/18651272.php).

Since people MUST sleep at night, this whole "hide out or get out" strategy is a Reptillian Republican gentrification smackdown designed simply to intimidate the poor into abandoning their civil liberties
to sweep poverty out of sight. So that wealthier people can pretend poverty doesn't exist. At least--not here in Santa Cruz!

Come join our march! Come on down to Peacecamp2010 each night to reclaim the public space, reclaim the public conscience, and reclaim the public purse.

Earlier stories at
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/08/23/18656639.php
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/08/22/18656536.php

More contact info, video, and daily updates at http://peacecamp2010.blogspot.com