The same thing happened this week as last week. No CHP interference with the Branciforte protest. Traffic was slower and more people honked and waved, some with the whole hand, some not. Some with two fingers, some not.

John left a bit early and wasn't around when CHP officer Bruestle came up to us and very politely let us know that if there was an accident, that he would be required by law to get all of our names. When asked if that meant that we would be held responsible for any accident, he quickly said "oh, no, no, no, not at all", and then added that we had every right to be there on the overpass, it's just that the law required him to tell us about the name gathering in case of an accident. We pointed out to him that we were very aware of the traffic flow, and were taking it into consideration by carefully choosing which side of the freeway we were focusing on. Bruestle arrived on scene after an irate Branciforte driver pulled over after angrily yelling something at us and was seen talking on his cell phone. We assume some connection between that phone call and the CHP's arrival, but that is only speculation. We continued protesting for a little while after the CHP officer's departure, and then left shortly thereafter.
It seems we de facto now have two locations for Peace Friday. The traditional Ocean/Water intersection which is being nailed down primarily by Women In Black; and now the Branciforte/Hwy 1 overpass, which has a little more of an edge to it, with law enforcement making an appearance 3 out of 4 vigils thus far. We will not be dissuaded from using the overpass and indeed have every right to continue, according to a local free speech attorney, the SCPD, 2 out of 3 CHP officers, and the Bill of Rights. See you somewhere every Friday from 5-6pm.

In regards to the above post by Joe, the angry driver yelled something like, "you'll see what's going to happen" when I passed him while walking to my car from the peace demonstration on Branciforte Overpass as he drove away. This was after I saw the driver speaking on his cell phone.

I am curious about why a CHP officer would need to take the names of demonstrators in the event of an accident. It seems that the CHP would have no rightful authority over pedestrians not operating a motor vehicle. The only point to doing that might be to collect information for the person who had the accident for the sake of legal proceedings against the demonstrators, IMO.

C'mon, wake up. Any excuse they get to force protesters to show ID, is an opportunity for them to enter your name into their secret case files. Big Brother is watching. This is part of how they single out the most active protesters for greater harrassment later in their activist careers, as well as evidence they'll use against you some day if you're arrested for something greater like a "terrorist conspiracy".

It's just daily fact-finding for the surveillance state. They do it because that's how the system works, and because privately they see all anti-war protesters as enemies of the state.

Considering how poorly most people drive, I'm not sure any signs of any sort should be allowed by the freeway... It's always nice to see the lack of billboards in Santa Cruz...