Tom, do you have any info on "Broken Windows" the template for policing in Santa Cruz? My understanding is that the policies developed by a right wing think tank have been expanded to form policy on policing which have been adopted by San Jose as well as Santa Cruz.

Broken Windows places the police officer as the gatekeeper for our community. The police officer scans his beat and looks for who "belongs" and who "doesn't belong". Those who don't belong are generally considered "strangers."

In a city like ours, where we encourage visitors year round to enhance our economic base, this policy seems ill-founded at the start.

Ways to see how "Broken Windows" is implemented in a discriminatory fashion would be to find out how many citations for sitting on the sidewalk, conduct on public property, and dog on the mall (to pick three of several ordinances which could be looked at) have been issued to people identified as "homeless" "transient" or "115 Coral St." as an address. If more than 3% of the tickets are issued to these people, selective enforcement will be documented. And selective enforcement is illegal denying individuals equal protection under the law.

"Broken Windows" considers the first panhandler in an area as a "broken window" needing to be "fixed" (not helped mind you. but arrested or driven from the area).