Copwatch will be giving a free Know Your Rights Training on Saturday, May 8 from 1:00 to 5:00 PM in San Lorenzo Park, 137 Dakota St. in Santa Cruz.

Some of the topics covered will be:

• Your rights when you are stopped by the police
• What to look for when you see someone else being stopped
• Staying safe while observing police
• What can be done if the police have violated your rights
• How to document incidents
• Plus an introduction to video taping and using a police scanner

[ Santa Cruz Copwatch I Know Your Rights card in Spanish and English ]

The DA had been prosecuting 25 victims of the police assault which took place on April 7, 2003 in the Port of Oakland. A year later, the ordeal of these people finally ended in a strange twist.

A year ago on April 7th, police assaulted protesters, legal observers, longshoremen and newspeople with "less-lethal" munitions, injuring several dozen people, some permanently. The attack was the most violent police assault on the antiwar movement during the spring of 2003, and it was later mentioned in a report by the United Nations Human Rights Commission. So our city of Oakland is now on the same list as Indonesia, Guatemala and other human rights abusers.

The plan for our port protest on April 7, 2003 had been to peacefully picket the Oakland shipping terminals of two war profiteers, APL and SSA Marine. The goal was to shut them down for a shift by asking dockworkers not to cross our community picket line.

Traditionally, picketing a business is considered a socially acceptable and legal exercise of First Amendment rights. That's because the labor and civil rights movements have spent over a century winning and defending those rights. Now those rights are being called into question once more; had the case been successfully prosecuted, it would have set a precedent that might be used against unionized workers during strikes. After all, striking workers do "disrupt" businesses, and from the viewpoint of corporations, picket lines are a "nuisance."

Indybay coverage: [ Oakland 4/7/03 Compiled Stories I 5/12/03 Return to the Docks Protest I 4/26/03 Rally Against Police Brutality I 4/7/04 Remember the Shots! Return to the Docks! ]

The Najaf Emergency Peace Team, "Peace Between Peoples", includes two members of the Santa Cruz activist community. Meg Lumsdaine and Peter Lumsdaine are among the handful of determined volunteers who have placed themselves "nonviolently, symbolically and physically" between the U.S. armed forces massed nearby and the civilian population of the ancient holy city, Najaf.

As numerous people from nonprofit organizations working in Iraq evacuated the country during the past week, an independent emergency delegation of U.S. civilians was preparing to enter the conflict-torn nation, traveling to the tense stand-off around Najaf, where the U.S. military recently deployed almost 3,000 troops for a looming assault to crush Shiite rebels there.

[ Peace Between Peoples Update: Najaf 4-28-04 I Peter Lumsdaine on Democracy Now (4/27/04) I AP article (4/30/04) ]

[ Indybay's Iraq page I Al-MuaJaha I Occupation Watch I Electronic Iraq ]

As citizens of the United States, we are living at a time when we all know that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are under attack. And we are concerned. Santa Cruz is a community hailed and known for its relatively progressive and liberal positions, for often being a beacon of hope, and a seed pod for initiating change and action about very important issues. I want to share some information and thoughts about discrepancies that I see here at home, and farther away, in our commitment to the Constitution. I believe they need serious attention and redress.

We have done well as a community in expressing right action about issues far away. The City Council of Santa Cruz, UCSC Faculty Senate, and UCSC Student Government took action opposing the invasion of Iraq, which was not only unconstitutional but criminal; we called for the investigation and impeachment of the Bush Administration for constitutional reasons among others; Santa Cruz City Council, high school students, and libraries in Santa Cruz opposed the Patriot Act as a violation of constitutional rights; and we opposed discrimination against the gay community by calling for marriage equality (which does have a local component in the attempt to issue marriage licenses right here!). The question for me is about abuses of the Constitution, and particularly the First Amendment, right here at home, and what I believe is a lack of adequate concern, leadership, and response.

More and more space on Pacific Avenue is becoming privatized, turned into cafe seating or simply fenced off, which further restricts First Amendment activities, since all distance regulations are measured from the farthest point of the fencing. The pleas of activists about very obvious selective enforcement of these ordinances against certain classes of people, which is a violation of State Law and the US Constitution, go, for the most part, unheeded. And many folks believe that the enforcement of the sleeping ban itself violates the principle of "the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

The police have guns, clubs, mace, tear gas, and the ability to arrest people - now they apparently are using money as another form of control. As in the rest of our society, money seems to be the bottom line, and if it costs enough, maybe people will do what they are told, or will decide not to do what they really want to! (One of the most prohibitive costs to organizing events in Santa Cruz is the assignment of extra police personnel, which is left entirely to the discretion of the department.)

I feel that we have failed locally to adequately defend the Constitution, and particularly the First Amendment, both as officials and as common citizens. We cannot create a lasting justice far away until we have created it right here at home. We must think globally AND locally, and act with equal conscience and intention in both arenas.

[ Pacific Avenue Rag I Letter to Santa Cruz City Council - Try Again! I Letter to Congressman Sam Farr ]

The UCSC chapter of The Feminist Majority hosted the Santa Cruz March for Women's Lives on April 16 to support the national March for Women's Lives in Washington D.C on April 25, marking the largest collective pro-choice event in the past decade. Different organizations from all across the nation are participating in the March, including N.O.W. and The Feminist Majority.

The pro-choice march is meant to combat conservative legislation that has been milling through congress in the past few years and publicize important causes that are in dire need of attention. Such legislation includes the partial-birth-abortion law, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (UVVA), and The Cupid Project.

The Santa Cruz March for Women's Lives began with a rally at 2:00 p.m. at Porter Meadows where students gathered before marching through the theater arts center, by McHenry library, and on to the Quarry Amphitheater for speakers and musicians at the main event.

Photos and Audio: Your Body is a Battle and Trouble in Paradise

[ Women's Reproductive Rights Continue to Crumble I Indybay's Womyn page ]

This morning, a San Jose jury reached a 'not guilty' verdict in the voluntary manslaughter trial of state drug agent Michael Walker. According to a Mercury News online report, a scuffle erupted outside the courtroom when 2 dozen protesters encircled Walker's defense attorney as he adressed reporters. No arrests were made.

On December 12, about 50 people attended a candle light vigil against the death penalty held at the Town Clock in Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz Chapter of Death Penalty Focus displayed banners that read, "The State will kill Stanley Tookie Williams in your name tonight!" and "Truth Not Vengeance".

Stanley Tookie Williams III was executed in the early morning on December 13 by lethal injection administered by the state of California.

The death penalty is being abolished in country after country. Less than 30 years ago (in 1977) only 16 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes, while today the number is 86. More than 60 percent of the world’s countries have abolished the death penalty. Every western European country has abolished the death penalty. An average of three countries per year are currently abolishing the death penalty.

In light of Stanley Tookie Williams's looming death sentence, please flood the governor with phone calls and faxes today. We need to let him know that California's death penalty law is flawed and shouldn't be carried out.

Sleep is a Crime in Santa Cruz
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