Public Hysteria Task Force Has 1st Meeting Tonight 6 PM Tony Hill Room Civic Auditorium SC

HYSTERIA-HEAVY ORIGINS OF THE PUBLIC SAFETY TASK FARCE
The Public Safety Task Force was hastily cobbled together as a patch-up job to respond to the loud criticism of Take Back Santa Cruz and The Clean Team, who came to City Council shaking cans of hypodermic needles they'd picked up over the previous days, weeks, and months.

The fact that they found less than 750 needles in less than half a year compared with the 250,000 reportedly turned in to S.O.S. volunteer Needle Exchange didn't stop City Council from meeting in closed session, closing down all needle exchange in the city limits, and treating this political hysteria as though it were a real public safety concern.

The Clean Team recently was exposed as homeless harassers in a You-Tube video, which disappeared several minutes after it was posted, as CT members denounced and abused homeless people in their sleeping bags, threatened to return and pour water on them, demanded they get up, and clean up the area.
I've stopped waiting for Take Back Santa Cruz to announce it has told its "clean up" crews not to disturb homeless camps as Save Our Shelter folks are reportedly advised in their regular clean-ups along the beaches and river.

NO HOMELESS INVOLVEMENT ON TASK FORCE NOR REAL ACTION TO DEAL WITH TRASH & NEEDLE DISPOSAL
What Council did not do is involve the homeless community in assisting with improper needle distribution, trash dispersal, and real environmental protection.

This could be done by--say--setting up public bathrooms (or at least portapotties) for the 1500-2000 who sleep outside (because there are facilities for less than 50 in the Paul Lee loft for the next six months and a Waiting List of 4-6 weeks), taking seriously Brent Adams' Sanctuary Campground proposal (or something similar), or at least providing trash pick-up's, garbage bags, and clean-up incentives for those who camp of necessity. Instead there's a police hotline to snitch on survival campers, which makes all the more reluctant to be publicly seen hauling trash out of the Pogonip.

REAL AGENDA
Part of the real agenda of Take Back Santa Cruz seems to have always been to treat homeless campers as criminals, drive them out of Santa Cruz, harden the hearts of those who recognize they have rights with venomous rhetoric, and scapegoat them as bums, addicts, drunks, and "foreigners". Out-of-towners with money to throw into shops or lavish at the Boardwalk, of course, regardless of the traffic, trash, and police problems they create are welcome.

The visible poor are falsely blamed and targeted for impeding the escalation of property values and discouraging upscale shopping on Pacific Avenue as well as leaving feces, trash, and needles on (now closed at night) Cowell Beach. Hence in the last two decades we've escalated from the Sleeping Ban to the Sitting Ban, removal of benches (check Walnut Ave. outside of the Silver shop), and massive over-policing and security guard thuggery downtown.

COMPOSITION OF THE INQUISITION
Public Safety Citizen Task Force Applicants

Emily Ager Eric Mark Aldrich Katie Aldrich Dave Anderson Michael Becker Andrew Booth Peter Boscacci
Brad Brereton Charles M. (Stoney) Brook Alison Buchter Jim Burns Sylvia Caras Chris Carlock Pat Christie William B. Christie Jeff Cole Kai Cole Carolyn Coleman Annouschka Collins Monique Cook Gena Connelly
Cynthia Crennell-Conroy Analicia Lesnowicz Cube Catalina Cruz Jessica Delgado Maggie Duncan-Merrell
Charlie Eadie Teren Ellison Deborah Elston Stacey Falls Janet Fardette Gena Finch Elizabeth Gaona Peter Gelblum Sally Ghilarducci David L. Giannini Renee Golder Benjamin Hartel Nicholas Hawley
Lloyd Hedenland, Jr. Wesley Heim Jill Hitchman Jim Howes Ryan Thomas Johansen Jim Jones
Kari Jordan Alexander Josselyn James Lafferty Michael Laird Richard C. Larson Salvetoria (Sally) Larter Naomi LeGate RN, MSN-FNP Colonel Edward J. Lesnowicz USMC (Ret.) Andy Lewis Marv Lewis Rod Libbey
Claudia Llamas-Padilla Rick A. Lofvendahl Danielle Long Kristin Long Rick Longinotti Christina Lupano
Brian MacDonald Joy Magi Casey K. Main Aimee S. Mangan Bill Manov Ryan Masters Christie McCullen George W. Mead IV Thomas Miller Andrew Mueller Lucia Orlando Robert Orrizzi Steve Pleich
Michael Pisciotta Carol Polhamus Ron Pomerantz Kelly Porter Sanchez Mike Pruger Gary Reaves Michele Lee Reed Kris Reyes Ben Rice Jeff Rockwell Don Roland Doug Ross Reyna Ruiz Sara A. Schell Margaret Schifando Steve Schlicht Steve Schnaar Todd Schomer (Henry) Reed Searle Erika Sehestedt Amy Sibiga Dennis L. Smith Nathaniel Smith Cristy Sorenson Adam Spickler David Spitz
Mark Stephens Kim W. Stoner Dimitry Struve Tim Sylvester Bernie Tershy Beth Thurman
Deborah Tracy-Proulx Shaz Umer Craig Waltz Martine Watkins Alie Welch Jeff Whiting
Patricia (Patti) Whitlock Patty Zoccoli


Public Safety Citizen Task Force Final Membership

1) Jeff Cole, Mountain View fire captain
2) Carolyn Coleman, executive director of Santa Cruz Community Counseling Center
3) Renee Golder, teacher at Bay View Elementary School, Santa Cruz
4) Jim Howes, retired Santa Cruz police officer and assistant director of Regional Occupation Program at county Office of Education
5) Rod Libbey, executive director of Janus of Santa Cruz County
6) Danielle Long, county social worker
7) Kristin Long, family attorney who retired as an assistant district attorney
8) Kris Reyes, director of general services and external relations for Santa Cruz Seaside Co.
9) Reyna Ruiz, member of city's Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women and former director of Beach Flats Community Center
10) Steve Schlicht, marketing director for Easy on the Eye branding firm
11) Dennis Smith, member of Santa Cruz Port Commission and retired county sheriff's lieutenant
12) Kim Stoner, real estate appraiser and consultant
13) Bernie Tershy, adjunct professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz
14) Deborah Tracy-Proulx, president of Santa Cruz City Schools Board of Trustees
15) Patty Zoccoli, co-owner Zoccoli's Deli

Mostly cops, merchants, and bureaucrats. No homeless folks, homeless advocates, public defenders, and scant social service representation. No surprise, even though Bryant had many to choose from--as can be seen in the list of applicants above.

MAYOR BRYANT'S STONEWALLING CONTINUES
Bryant has continued to stonewall on providing any e-mails for the last year other than 3 "newsletters". The SCPD continues to refused to provide bikes to the bike church with no explanation--from Tina Shull, Assistant City Manager, Council members Don Lane, or Hillary Bryant, whose husband reportedly has a financial arrangement with the Bike Dojo boss--where the SCPD has been sending the bikes. And Council member Posner declines to make any public statements on the matter.

REAL PUBLIC SAFETY IS NOT THE ISSUE: DRIVING AWAY THE HOMELESS IS
Real Public Safety, of course, is being significantly compromised by the SCPD's political anti-homeless agenda of over-policing downtown, engaging in survival-gear-destroying sweeps, and encouraging bigot snitch activity against visible homeless people. Ironically, the data documenting this obvious fact was long unavailable but then supplied in a ham-handed attempt to demonize homeless people.

Public statements from old-time bullies like Deputy-Chief Steve Clark suggesting that nearly half of the police budget goes to address "homeless crime" sounds fearsome until you realize the "crime" he's talking about has been created and magnified by the SCPD. These "crimes" include drug use, urinating, defecating, llegal sleeping, recycling, using shopping carts, open container, and other victimless activities that most people do behind closed doors.

Chief Vogel himself did not deny there was no rise in the "crime rate"--though he willingly accepted the new officer recruit bonuses being thrown at him by City Council in its haste to show it was "doing something".

ANALYSIS OF THE LATEST STAFF REPORT
Becky Johnson's analysis of the staff report to the Homeless Study Session can be found at
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/04/29/18736055.php?show_comments=1#18736111
She discussed it over the air at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb130502.mp3 (1 hours into the audio file).

The Homelessness Study Session Staff report can be found at http://sire.cityofsantacruz.com/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=495&doctype=AGENDA and click on "Homelessness Study Session" link, then on the Staff report, the first of six documents in the right-hand box).

Some of Becky's comments:

THE PHONY CRIME WAVE
"the data collected were focused to answer questions posed in advance, many of which inquired about calls for ser
vice in the Harvey West Area and those of persons who self-affiliate with the Homeless Services Center complex by providing the 115 Coral Street address at the time of arrest." page 26
BECKY: So in order to create the impression there is a "crime wave" around Coral St. services area, they ONLY provide data around Coral St? What kind of data gathering does this represent? You can't compare apples to oranges if you only talk about apples.
Table 1 page 26 shows number of arrests & citations of only homeless people: SCPD 2012 arrests = 2,044 and Citations = 3,616 SCPD total arrests in 2012 = 4,908 showing 42% of those arrested are homeless. Considering that there are only 1070 homeless people counted in Santa Cruz, the SCPD are on the average arresting every homeless person in town twice each year.
Compared to Capitola police, Watsonville police, and Scotts Valley police, which only cite or arrest homeless people 7% - 13%

"These data show a few trends. First, SCPD is significantly busier than the police departments of the other cities in the County. With SCPD topping over 100,000 calls for service in 2012—an all-time high—this data are consistent with an overall trend of increasing demands for police services in our City that is disproportionately large. SCPD has also noticed a steady rise in the number of calls for service in the Harvey West Area from 2008 to the present. " page 27
BECKY: The data clearly show an over-the-top trend of making multiple arrests and writing voluminous citations by the SCPD. Since homeless people represent 1.7% of Santa Cruz population, yet constitute 42% of all arrests, no other conclusion can be drawn than the practice shows harassment, discrimination, and selective enforcement of homeless people under existing laws. Readers should remember that "Calls for service" are not calls for service. They are just in many if not most cases self-generated markers to record "work" done by police including regular patrols where no one called for anything.

"SCPD has also noticed a steady rise in the number of calls for service in the Harvey West Area from 2008 to the present." --- page 27
BECKY: While not providing the actual data to compare the Harvey West area with in order "to keep this information to a manageable level" we are to accept this anecdotal claim that crime is rising in these areas where homeless people are found.

"Of total citations in 2012 and 2013, about 30% are issued to persons who list 115 Coral Street as their address." --- page 27
BECKY: Since the City Council has chosen to pass laws againsts sleeping, using a blanket, camping, sitting, lying down, BEING in a parking lot or parking garage, begging, singing, using a sign, feeding birds breadcrumbs, smoking in huge swaths of public spaces out of doors, draconian closings of massive amounts of public space while selectively enforcing all of these laws against homeless people, you see the situation we have today.

"SCPD’s data show that multiple arrests are common and that 325 unique individuals who supplied 115 Coral Street as their address were arrested 1,259 times in 2012."
BECKY: This is a textbook case of harassment of individuals based on their housing status. Santa Cruz will likely be sued for this and lose in court costing enormous legal costs with huge fines likely levied.

"Accordingly, a smaller pool of individuals are incurring a staggering number of arrests and consuming an inordinate amount of public safety resources." page 27
BECKY: Seems like the SCPD is generating a lot of their own job security by scapegoating a few hundred people over and over and over again. this is torture. And it kills people with the stress too.

"As 82% of the department’s $22 million annual budget is composed of personnel cost s, and there are over 100,000 call for service annually (104,946 in 2012), a general cost of $180 per call for service is reached."
BECKY: $22 million a year for the SCPD and homeless funding for the HSC & homeless funding = $224,000 from the General Fund.

"In 2012, there were 5,660 arrests or citations for persons listing 115 Coral Street as an address, which yields a
cost estimate of $1,018,800 to service those public safety needs." -- page 27
BECKY: That’s 4 times the amount we spend to feed, house, provide medical services, laundry, showers, bathrooms, and counseling for homeless people. What possible value do all of these arrests and citations of homeless people accomplish other than job security for cops and jailers?

"These guards have produced an improvement in safety and quality of life in these areas and the community has responded very positively to their presence. The program, however, comes with a cost of about $350,000 annually."
BECKY: This First Alarm program to provide security guards for City Council offices costs $125,000 MORE than we pay for social programs to HELP homeless people.

'Accordingly, this funding will be requested in a separate budget line item for FY 2014." page 28
BECKY: $22 million and 100,000 "calls for service" aren't enough? We need MORE MONEY for cops??? In what rational universe does this make sense?


CREATING CRIMINALS: TURNING THE HOMELESS INTO THE HUNTED
"The most common crime types are: 14 California Penal Code (PC) PC § 484A – Theft PC § 647(f) – Public Intoxication PC § 1203.2 – Probation Violation SCMC § 6.36 – Camping in City Limits Prohibited SCMC § 9.10 – Panhandling (Prohibited Locations, Manner, Time) SCMC § 9.12 – Consumption of Alcohol in Public SCMC § 9.50 – Prohibited Conduct on Public Property" --- page 28
BECKY: Note that intoxication and consumption of alcohol are legal on private property, hence they are ONLY enforced against homeless people who have no legal place to drink. Panhandling is a "crime" done by very poor or homeless people. It is questionable if it even IS a crime or protected under the 1st amendment as right to speech. "Conduct on public property" is where cops cite homeless people for sitting on the concrete lip of a treewell on Pacific Ave. or for sitting on a park bench wrong, or for standing on a water box, or for sitting on a drinking fountain. Again, housed people do these things all the time but generally are not cited. A probation violation could be as minor as jaywalking or smoking a cigarette on Pacific Ave.

"Also of note is the 2009 strengthening of SCMC § 4.04.015 “Failure to Appear or Post Bail” by the City Council, which allows law enforcement to obtain a warrant for arrest of any person who, in a six-month period, fails to appear in court on three occasions in connection with a citation issued for criminal violation of the SCMC." --- page 28
BECKY: And they say that there is no debtors prison in the USA!

"The City had been having problems with recipients of citations ignoring citations as there were no repercussions." ----page 28
BECKY: If you call "no repercussions" a ruined credit rating, garnisheed wages, leans on bank accounts, losing one's drivers license and income tax refunds forfeited.

"This code section establishes a misdemeanor offense for three failures-to-appear in a six-month period and allows for a warrant for arrest. This process proceeds through the City Attorney’s Office. " --- page 28
BECKY: This custom-designed draconian criminalization effort by City Attorney John Barisone reversed a trend to reduce over-crowding at area jails. It is not done in any other City.

"The City was not able to obtain information about court costs as these types of data are not collected." page 28
BECKY: So in ADDITION to the $180 EACH for a "call for service" the taxpayers pay undisclosed OTHER costs for courts, lawyers, bailiffs, file clerks, jailers, and jails.

COME EARLY AND WEAR A NOSE PLUG
If you wish to attend this packed Task Force, make sure you go early, since there's likely to be little space. There's also likely to be plenty of Take Back Santa Cruz partisans armed with glass jars of needles.