RCNV and Santa Cruz NAACP Party with Cop Who Broke Elderly Woman's Arm

Partying with a police officer who broke a 60 year old disabled woman's arm in the name of "peace" puts the community at increased risk to police violence, and it shows just how insensitive, and ultimately irrelevant, so many of these so called "social justice" organizations are in Santa Cruz.

Besides mingling with the police, the event featured: food trucks, prize drawings, bounce houses, a performance by Aerial Arts Santa Cruz, an exotic petting zoo by Pet Shop Santa Cruz, music by DJ SPARKLE, an escape room by EXIT Santa Cruz, a cake walk, Pokemon lures, and a Racial bias awareness scavenger hunt and discussion.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel interviewed Lt. Christian LeMoss for their story about the "peace party" which was published on August 28. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Lt. Christian LeMoss of the Santa Cruz Police Department said he was please to be invited.
“It’s great to mix with the community, say hello and support their cause,” LeMoss said. “Pretty good way to spend part of the afternoon.”

The Sentinel also interviewed a Santa Cruz NAACP member who said this about inviting the police to the "party":

“It’s about community building. We invited them in an effort to help everyone get along and get to know one another”.

In 2008 the Santa Cruz Police tried to blame Donna Deiss for what happened to her when Lt. Christian LeMoss broke her arm. The police said that LeMoss was trying to detain Donna Deiss when he was investigating reports of marijuana use along West Cliff Drive.

Donna Deiss said she was simply trying to enter her vehicle and had her back to LeMoss when he approached her. She didn't realize she was being arrested. She described the violent encounter with LeMoss in her own words in 2008:

"I went to my RV to put sugar in a half paper cup of lukewarm coffee. I grabbed the slanted handicap grabbar on the right side of my doorwary as the step is missing and it takes strenth to step inside as it is about three feet up. As I reached behind me to close the door, Sgt LeMoss pinched and deliberately broke my upper right arm twisting my arm behind my back and throwing me out of the RV against the car parked next to me, spilling coffee on my skin, tank top, the yellow 280 Z parked next to me and on my white Sunrader RV. He put me in handcuffs althogh I screamed my arm was brohen, but he threw me onto the blacktop and put his boot on my chest swinging his billy club and hitting me while threatening all others from helping me with his billy club. I screamed for 20 or 30 minutes before anyone would call 911 and was taken to Watsonville Hospital wher xrays claearly show a fracture of the top of the right humurus bone. After 5 days the bruises are still dark purple and I am scheduled to see an orthorpedic surgeon for surgury tommorrow."

When the Santa Cruz NAACP first started to advertise the "peace party" they said it was a fundraiser for "law enforcement agencies" and "local social justice organizations". After an article about the peace party was published on Indybay the NAACP changed the wording of the event and said they were not raising money for the police, but they admitted for the first time publicly that police officers had been invited to the party and would be there.

It appears that the police will still benefit in some way financially from the fundraiser. Garfield Park Community Community Church posted this about where the proceeds from the party will go:

"We are also putting together a free racial bias training seminar for the public in October. The police has been invited and will send some officers to the community seminar. After they attend the public presentation they may be willing to use it for themselves after the community event if it is good quality. There may be costs associated with this and we may need to raise funds for it in the future."

The statement is a form of doublespeak.

The police should be required to pay all of their own costs they incur for racial bias training and the process should be done in a way that is transparent to the public. The community should not have to throw fundraisers to raise extra funds for racial bias training for officers because local police budgets are already huge. Having community groups pay for training police is another way of expanding the police's budget surreptitiously, which is in direct opposition to the demands announced by the Black Lives Matter Movement Platform this month, which called for: "A reallocation of funds at the federal, state and local level from policing and incarceration".

The Santa Cruz NAACP seems to have conceived the idea of the "peace party" after police officers were murdered in Texas and Louisiana in July in retaliation for the police murders of two unarmed black men. Those police murders were caught on video and went viral; Alton Sterling's murder by police was recorded in Baton Rouge on July 5, and Philando Castile's murder by police was recorded in St. Paul on July 6.

Simba Kenyatta, the current President of the Santa Cruz NACCP, wrote an op-ed piece for the Santa Cruz Sentinel on July 30 which said: "the apparently reckless termination of young black lives at the hands of law enforcement in the United States, and the brutal reactions of two black men who exterminated lives of innocent law-enforcement personnel in two separate incidents should not only draw our ire but should also prompt responsible leadership everywhere to defuse the situation very wisely and urgently."

He also made this statement about the killing of unarmed black men by police: "This tragedy should not be allowed to continue because our future matters, all lives matter, blue lives matter and black lives matter!"

And the NAACP President also praised Sheriff Jim Hart in the editorial: "we wish to highlight the higher social sensitivity of the Santa Cruz County sheriff and applaud his novel tactics".

These statements from Simba Kenyatta demonstrate a clear co-option of the Black Lives Matter message.

It should be noted that the Santa Cruz NAACP, the Resource Center for Nonviolence, and Garfield Park Community Church were all silent after two Santa Cruz Sheriffs shot and murdered 17 year old Cyrus Hurtado in Boulder Creek on July 9, 2015. Hurtado was suffering from a mental health episode when the Santa Cruz Sheriffs murdered him. The Santa Cruz NAACP exerted no influence over the Sheriffs Department to help improve their policies in order to prevent a murder like Cyrus Hurtado's from happening again.

It should also be noted that the Santa Cruz NAACP, the Resource Center for Nonviolence, and Garfield Park Community Church did absolutely nothing after 65 year old African American woman Sharyon Gibbs was found dead in the Santa Cruz County Jail on November 5, 2014. Sharyon Gibbs lived in Santa Cruz County for 30 years and was a Mother of four, a Grandmother of six, and a Great-Grandmother of two.

There have been six deaths since October 2012 at the Santa Cruz Main Jail, which is run by the Sheriff's Department. The family of the most recent person who died, Krista DeLuca, has filed a lawsuit against the County of Santa Cruz. Besides the County, the lawsuit lists as defendants the Sheriff's Office, Sheriff-Coroner Jim Hart, Under-Sheriff Jeremy Verinsky, Chief Deputy Jeff March, and Lieutenant Kelly Kent.

Why is Simba Kenyatta playing cheerleader for Santa Cruz Sheriff Jim Hart and the Sheriff's Department?

The Sheriffs Department is being promoted by the Santa Cruz NAACP and other local "social justice" organizations as being safer and different than other law enforcement agencies, when in fact the jail death rate is much higher than average in Santa Cruz, and there was zero accountability when Santa Cruz Sheriffs murdered Cyrus Hurtado.

Simba Kenyatta wrote in his editorial that the Santa Cruz NAACP will be "launching several bridge-building initiatives" in the future with their partners: The American Civil Liberties Union, Santa Cruz chapter, Barrios Unidos, The Resource Center For Nonviolence, Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ ), The Santa Cruz County Community Coalition to Overcome Racism, and Project Pollinate.

More info:

Sgt. LeMoss #114 Santa Cruz PD breaks arm of 60 year old disabled woman without cause
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/05/14/18499096.php

SC Police Sergeant Breaks Elderly Woman’s Arm During Arrest
http://www.cityonahillpress.com/2008/05/22/sc-police-sergeant-breaks-elderly-woman%E2%80%99s-arm-during-arrest/

NAACP throws Santa Cruz peace party, invites community, law enforcement
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/social-affairs/20160828/naacp-throws-santa-cruz-peace-party-invites-community-law-enforcement

Santa Cruz NAACP to Raise Money for Local Police
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/08/03/18789812.php

Simba Kenyatta Editorial
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/opinion/20160730/simba-kenyatta

The Movement for Black Lives Platform
https://policy.m4bl.org/