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On March 8, the Santa Cruz city council voted 5-2 to oppose an amendment to municipal code 6.36.010, also known as the camping ban. The proposed amendment would have removed references to sleeping and covering up with a blanket from the text of the law, as well as removing references to sleeping in cars. Effectively, these changes would have made it legal for people sleeping outdoors to do so without fear of citation by police.
Terrie Best of San Diego Americans for Safe Access writes: On March 1, the prosecution began its case against John Mazula, who was being charged with manufacturing medical cannabis concentrates. The case came down to whether the process John used to extract cannabis concentrate made use of butane gas or not. Without hesitation each juror at the table one-by-one pronounced John not guilty. Then they discussed why. The jurors blamed the police. They knew the case was poorly put together with no evidence to convict John.
On February 16, a US District Court in California, responding to an FBI request, ordered Apple to write an entirely new operating system for its iPhone, one that would give Federal authorities full access to encrypted private information on those phones. Protesters in the Bay Area cities of San Francisco and Palo Alto organized demonstrations saying the FBI demand would set a dangerous precedent and threaten the safety and security of millions of iPhone users worldwide.
Elsewhere in the US, demonstrators in more than 40 cities across the US rallied in front of Apple stores to protest the Department of Justice demand that Apple help hack an iPhone used by one of the San Bernadino shooters. One of the major rallies held on the February 23 national day of action was in front of FBI headquarters in Washington, DC.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has said it will be filing an amicus brief in support of Apple with the courts. Shahid Buttar of EFF wrote: "The FBI’s demands reflect a familiar pattern of security agencies leveraging the most seemingly compelling situations—usually the aftermath of terror attacks—to create powers that are later used more widely and eventually abused. The government programs monitoring the telephone system and Internet, for example, were created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Those programs came to undermine the rights of billions of people, doing more damage to our security than the tragic events that prompted their creation."
Photos:
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don'tbreakourphones.org |
Electronic Frontier Foundation
On February 19, State Senator Mark Leno introduced SB 1286, a bill allowing greater public access to police records related to serious uses of force and sustained charges of misconduct. While California statutes and case law prevent the disclosure of most peace officer records, states such as Texas, Kentucky, Utah, and several others, make information available to the public when an allegation of misconduct has been confirmed. At least 10 other states, including Florida, Ohio and Washington, also make these same records public regardless of whether the incident has been confirmed.
The California Police Bill of Rights as it is known today could be on its way out if California SB1286 becomes law, shining increased light on police misconduct in the state. Police "unions" and lobbyists like the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC) are expected to fight to maintain the secrecy that currently shields their bad behavior — and legislators historically tend to kowtow to their wishes. The public, however, clearly wants greater access to police records. Polling data shows that nearly 80 percent of Californians believe the public should have access to the findings of police misconduct.
Read More |
Deadly Secrets: How California Law Has Shielded Oakland Police Violence (2011) |
The Police Bill of Rights, Copley, and Where We Are Today in CA with Police Accountability
(2009)
This month the downtown post office in Santa Cruz was cleared by police of what had been a large and regular presence of sleepers at night. The post office had been used as shelter for 6-12 people a night for some time. A homeless man who was sleeping outside of Bookshop Santa Cruz and cited with two other sleepers for trespassing this month said he thought the police were ticketing at increased rate recently to get homeless people to move along before the next rains arrived.
Freedom Sleepers writes: Beginning last July 4th, advocates for people experiencing homelessness have been working to directly address the criminalization of homelessness and for the repeal of the city’s camping/sleeping ban. Activists have been consistent in their position that ordinances prohibiting and criminalizing lying, sitting, and sleeping in public are unconstitutional and such laws pose a grave danger of being selectively enforced against an entire class of people. In August, this position found unexpected support from the Obama Administration.
Super Bowl City, a corporate playground for tourists paid for by taxpayers, was set up along the Embarcadero in San Francisco in late January. Before it opened, SFPD began pushing homeless people out of the area so that they would not be seen by Super Bowl crowds. Anyone attempting to rest nearby has been continually harassed by police and not allowed to sleep for more than a couple of hours at a time. Supervisor Scott Weiner even proposed taking people's tents away. Militarized law enforcement from every conceivable agency patrolled and surveilled the area in San Francisco and around Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara on game day.
In an interview for The Nation magazine, Davey D explained the rationale behind the large protests that have targeted the Super Bowl. He said, "There’s a lot of anger and a lot of concern over two main things. First, the Super Bowl is coming at a time when massive amounts of people have been displaced. So, it’s added insult to injury to see this pageantry, all this money being spent, record amounts of police, elected officials falling all over themselves, while you have folks who gave this region its soul and its heart who can’t afford to live here anymore... The second thing that’s going on are all the police killings that have been taking place."
Amongst the protests were one on January 30, when hundreds of Justice for Mario Woods protesters gathered in Union Square and marched to Super Bowl City. On February 3, hundreds of women and children, former and current homeless residents of San Francisco, and advocates for the homeless held a protest along the Embarcadero in front of a Super Bowl City entrance. On February 6, hundreds of activists marched through downtown to the site to protest unrelenting economic displacements. SFPD repressed all of these protests with at least one hundred cops each time.
Read More with Photos, Video, and Audio:
 SF Housing Activists Protest Displacement at Super Bowl Site |
Super Bowl 50: Super Militarization and Super Inequality |
 Large Police Presence Greets Homeless Advocates near Super Bowl City |
Justice for Mario Woods protesters taking their message to SuperBowl City |
Super Bowl Protest For Mario Woods |
Why Bay Area Residents Are Protesting the Super Bowl
See also:
Millions For Superbowl From SF While City Services Suffer — SEU1021 Brenda Barros Speaks |
Let's not squander movement energy with respectability politics |
Capitalism, Sports & The Super Bowl: The Cost, The Politics, Privatization And The Game |
Stupid Bowl Plaza: Machine Gun Guards & Police Helicopters |
Stupid Bowl SF TV Kiosks & SFMTA city workers "volunteer" at Stupid Bowl City |
Stupid Bowl prevents SF bus service for 3 weeks |
 Tom Paine pamphleteering and the SF real estate biz |
Promote SF Values on Super Sunday--Toss a football in the Marina |
The Whole World Is Watching & The Cost and Politics Of The SuperBowl Billionaire's Party |
Protest the Superbowl: This is OUR home |
"SAPA Bowl" (an alternative to the superbowl) |
Stop Super Bowl City Garbage |
Super Bowl?
Previous Related Indybay Feature:
Protesters Disrupt SF Mayor Ed Lee's Inauguration Over Police Killings
At about 10 am on February 3, a gardener and supporter of the Beach Flats Community Garden relayed the following information via text message, "City is clearing out gardeners stuff right now." By noon, a fence was up and the city's crew was gone. On the previous day, supporters of the garden announced the launch of a grassroots fundraising campaign to assist the City of Santa Cruz in purchasing the current garden from the Seaside Company, but the city is threatening legal action.
A small but dedicated group of "Freedom Sleepers" are facing all the conditions winter has to offer them as they continue to sleep outside of Santa Cruz City Hall on Tuesday nights to protest laws that criminalize homelessness and the simple act of sleeping in public.
Chanting "no business as usual" and "ICE out of SF", activists in San Francisco's financial district demonstrated against the treatment of immigrants on January 26. Protesters chained themselves together and blocked two intersections downtown for several hours. At least 15 people were arrested.
Hundreds of people from more than two dozen groupings responded to the Anti Police-Terror Project’s (APTP) call to come together for 96 hours of direct action over the Martin Luther King Day weekend, January 15-18, in San Francisco and Oakland. Mayors and police chiefs were targeted for protest. The weekend’s events culminated in a Reclaiming King’s Radical Legacy March and a surprise shutdown of the Bay Bridge on January 18.
On January 8, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s 2016 inauguration was disrupted by protesters calling for the firing of Police Chief Greg Suhr. Demonstrators continue to call for justice following the notable police shootings of Alex Nieto and Mario Woods, which have traumatized the community in San Francisco.
Edwin M. Lee was sworn in as Mayor for another term. The ceremony was held inside City Hall and the public was invited. Lee narrowly won the 2015 election, and many in the community are furious that he is their Mayor, again, with the recent incidents of police brutality disrupting the community.
D. Boyer writes: The protesters staged outside City Hall and developed their strategy. Many had signs, but they were small and easily hidden. It appeared that most of the protesters gathered on the second floor, but they moved around a lot. The protester's were often kettled by police with riot gear on, or by the sheriff’s. The protesters who were deemed too loud or extremely disruptive were grabbed and escorted away from the scene. At least 5 protesters were taken away, and some were arrested. During the inauguration screams from protesters could be heard throughout the whole building, and throughout the whole ceremony, so it seemed to be effectively disrupted.
Read More with Photos and Video
Previous Related Coverage:
Black Xmas Action Blocks Highway 101 at SFO |
SF Police Execute Mario Woods in the Bayview |
Shutting It Down For Alex Nieto |
Hundreds in San Francisco Protest the Murder of Alex Nieto
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