Santa Cruz is attacking houseless people [link]
2013-04-18 "Since the Homeless (Lack of) Services doesn't have them..."
by Robert Norse
...here's the HUFF receipt! We thoughtfully provided it to HLOSC yesterday to document the fact that the group we brought over to Coral St. to register was on the Waiting List. Hence their camping tickets, if they were given any, would be dismissed prior to court (even without having to mount a Necessity Defense).
Activists and homeless sleepers should note that police can still charge people under PC 647e, the state "anti-lodging"" law (actually being used by sheriff and police as an anti-protest or anti-loitering law in the last few years). However, the documentation that one is on the Waiting List is also a good basis for mounting an affirmative Necessity Defense if D.A. Bob Lee wants to take any such charges through to jury trial.
Hopefully such trials would have a better outcome than those of the Peace Camp 2010 activists, who got screwed thanks to testimony from Executive Director Monica Martinez and others that there were a few spare beds (for the 1000+ homeless outside). The Jones decision--which I'm told by San Luis Obispo attorney Stu Jenkins is still federal legal precedent in spite of being depublished--held in L.A. that one doesn't have to establish there were no beds that night or that one even tried to get one, if it was common knowledge that finding such a bed was highly unlikely given the chronic shelter emergency.
I should add I don't recommend these programs or shelters, as Razor Ray seems to imply. Rather I suggest this Waiting List approach as both a protest strategy and to protect yourself legally as a homeless person who has to sleep at night who's completely uninvolved in protest. Given the legal system the way it is, this approach is my suggestion.
I suggest bringing a copy of the receipt template with you to the HLOSC, and then making a second copy for yourself (so that you can give one to the cop). The cop may not (and probably will not) initially stop ticketing, but in future legal action it will become clear that police ticketing in the face of these receipts is a form of harassment since tickets are to be automatically dismissed under MC 6.36.055.
Santa Cruz Forums on Community Safety & Compassion
2nd Forum: Homelessness and our Home Town
When: Wednesday, April 24 at 7 PM
Where: Santa Cruz High School Theater [415 Walnut Ave., Santa Cruz]
All Welcome! Admission free.
Donations welcome for hall rental. FMI or childcare: contact 831-423-1626
What: Speakers and opportunity for Q&A
*Rev. Steve Defields-Gambrel, The Circle Church
*Susan Brutschy, President, Applied Survey Research, Homeless Census
*Christine Sippl, Program Manager, Homeless Persons Health Project
*Felipe Ponce, personal story
*Danny Contreras, personal story
Cosponsored by:
Resource Center for Nonviolence, NAACP Santa Cruz Branch, United Way of Santa Cruz County, Charter for Compassion, Santa Cruz Community Counseling Center, Homeless Services Center, Women’s Health Center, Community Action Board, The Circle Church, First Congregational Church of Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Friends Meeting, Peoples’ Democratic Club, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
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