Americans for Safe Access, based in Oakland, is the largest member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens working to ensure safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic uses and research. ASA works in partnership with state, local and national legislators to create policies that improve access to medicinal marijuana for both patients and researchers. ASA claims to have over 30,000 active members with chapters and affiliates in more than 40 states.

Gail, a member of the Wo/Man’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) who was born with glaucoma and is blind, was grateful for the opportunity to meet and socialize with others who benefit, physically and mentally, from cannabis. As an eighteen year old student at UC Santa Cruz, Gail was passed a joint for the first time. That is when she discovered that marijuana eases the pain she experiences from glaucoma. Read More and View Photos

photo gallery >>

Numerous prizes were raffled off throughout the evening and into the night. After having their doctor’s recommendation for the use of marijuana per California prop 215 scanned, people were allowed to make donations for raffles tickets in hopes of winning handmade pipes, cannabis seeds, a vaporizer and cannabis infused ice cream. However the most desired prizes seemed to be certificates redeemable at Greenway Compassionate Relief for cannabis plants, a joint, 1/8, 1/2oz and ounce. There were also raffle tickets for prizes that were not medicinal.

The fundraiser featured Dr. Deborah Malka, a family medical practitioner and mental and physical wellness counselor based in Santa Cruz. After getting inspired by the WAMM collective in 2006, Dr. Malka chose to use her background and skills to help people learn about the safe effective use of medical marijuana.

“We took it to the city because it’s a city problem,” said Red. “So we’re camped outside the mayor’s office.” Bob, one of the demonstrators, was reportedly cited for falling asleep in violation of the city’s municipal code against sleeping.

In a frank voice, Red proclaimed, “They chase us around, but there really is no place for us to go. They don’t have shelter space for us. They are prosecuting us for something we can’t help. That’s what the Jones decision was about.” Read More and View Photos

photo gallery >>

Red was referring to the 2006 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision, Jones v. City of Los Angeles, in which the court struck down a Los Angeles ordinance criminalizing people who sleep on the streets when no shelter is available.

“The Eighth Amendment prohibits the City from punishing involuntary sitting, lying, or sleeping on public sidewalks that is an unavoidable consequence of being human and homeless without shelter in the City of Los Angeles,” wrote Judge Kim Wardlaw.

Although Sleeping Bans have been ruled unconstitutional and overturned in several California cities, including San Diego, Laguna Beach, Los Angeles and Richmond, it is still enforced vigorously in Santa Cruz.

“I got three tickets,” revealed Red. Then she clarified that Wiley, her Long-haired Chihuahua who is becoming the Peace Camp mascot, actually received one of the three citations. Red reports that Wiley was singled out amongst other dogs with their humans on August 9th while resting in San Lorenzo Park where four-legged barkers are officially banned. Wiley was next to Red and her bag of clothing, while the ticketing Ranger was ignoring other pooches in the park, who apparently were of a higher pedigree.

According to Red, Peace Camp 2010 is now an ongoing, around the clock protest at Santa Cruz City Hall. She said that people can sleep there during the day, which is something spokesperson Chris Doyan was trying to do for a little bit. However, that fundamental human function may be interpreted as being in violation of California’s anti-lodging law, PC 647(e), which was used repeatedly by County Sheriffs against demonstrators in the first week of August as they protested at the Courthouse.

During Santa Cruz Sleeping Ban hours, 11pm to 8:30am, Red stated that people had to sit up and be awake while protesting at City Hall, or risk being ticketed for falling asleep. She also said that demonstrators agreed to maintain peace and cleanliness.

The Peace Camp 2010 demands, reports Red, are “lift the Sleeping Ban and amnesty on all tickets.” She added, “Give us a place, a tent city. Until we can get back on our feet again.”

Actually, it’s hard for Red to stand on her feet at all. Sometimes she is pushed around in a cart and other times walks with a cane. Red has a painful degenerative bone disease, also called osteoarthritis, and says that she has been checked out at the county hospital.

Although Red has plans to be back in a vehicle very soon, she says she will, “still demonstrate against the Sleeping Ban because it is wrong.”

–

I also spoke with Red on August 10th, which was the previous day, and published an article with photos titled after a couple signs she displayed: One Big Earthquake and You’re All Homeless: End the Sleeping Ban

Red and Crow have been sleeping outside since their van and personal possessions were impounded. They say they have received only positive looks and feedback from passersby, speculating that people are understanding that homelessness can happen to anybody and anytime.

“If there was a big earthquake, a lot of people would instantly be homeless,” said Crow. “But then the sleeping ban would be lifted,” he added. Read More and View Photos

photo gallery >>

Crow and Red said that sleeping is a fundamental human right, not to mention a civil and constitutional one as well. They recognized laws already in place to maintain a safe and healthy community, such as littering laws, which they agree with, however there are times when people need to be able to sleep.

Meanwhile, between 5-10 people were talking in the Hugh DeLacy Memorial Garden at the Santa Cruz County Courthouse. They were maintaining Peace Camp 2010, a demonstration that has sustained for six weeks against the city, and now state, laws used in Santa Cruz to criminalize the basic human need to eventually close your eyelids and fall asleep.

Hugh DeLacy, for whom the courthouse garden is named, was a secret member of the Communist Party USA and spent the last years of his life in Soquel, a town near Santa Cruz. In 1983 Leon Panetta placed a tribute to Hugh DeLacy and his wife in the Congressional Record celebrating them as “lifelong activists for social justice.” It read in part “the causes to which they have dedicated their lives – peace, jobs, an end to race and sex discrimination, a halt to the costly and dangerous arms race, are causes for which we are still working today…”[1]

Hugh DeLacy worked on the campaigns of several Santa Cruz ‘progressive’ candidates, including city council member John Laird.[2] In a special election on August 17th, 2010, Laird is running for the 15th District California State Senate seat, which represents the Central Coast.

If alive today, I wonder how Hugh DeLacy, a contributor to the Communist Party USA’s West Coast paper, People’s World[3], would feel about the Santa Cruz Sleeping Ban and the protest taking place in his memorial garden.

On September 6, 1986, Mike Rotkin performed songs at a memorial for Hugh DeLacy, held at the Louden Nelson Center in Santa Cruz.[4] Would DeLacy respond in a fashion similar to Rotkin, the ‘progressive’ Santa Cruz Mayor, UCSC Lecturer in Community Studies, Board Member of the Santa Cruz ACLU, and ardent supporter of the Sleeping Ban, who in response to the demonstration said, “I’m glad sheriffs finally decided to prosecute these people.”[5]

Or, would DeLacy react more along the lines of People’s World contributor Ira Birkenfeld who works with homeless people in Reno, Nevada. At the 29th Convention of the Communist Party USA, held in May 2010, Birkenfeld spoke passionately about their survival struggles. In a short video, he describes his work and outlines the severe crisis of everyday living that the homeless face.[6]

In People’s World, Scott Marshall writes, “As the economic crisis continues to throw thousands into the streets, it seems that some major ‘relief’ efforts are aimed at hiding the homeless from the world. Many of the homeless are people who continue to work but have lost their homes or apartments. Ira and many other homeless advocates believe that it’s time to unite and mobilize a national network of the unemployed and the homeless to fight for jobs and decent housing for all.”

At about 4pm on August 10th, as the 38th night of protest against the Santa Cruz Sleeping Ban was quickly approaching, SCPeaceCamp2010 sent out a tweet stating what Red and Crow, and the folks at the courthouse, had already told me: “Peace Camp 2010 remains resolute and determined in our cause. We will persevere, and we are not afraid. We won’t surrender.”

For more information, see: Santa Cruz Peace Camp 2010 Perseveres Through Six Sheriff Raids.

Sources Cited:

1. Santa Cruz Sentinel, Aug 20, 1986, A12
2. ibid
3. Letter from PW editor Al Richmond to DeLacy Jan 31, 1967
4. Memorial program brochure, Sep. 6, 1986
5. Santa Cruz Sentinel, Aug 7, 2010
6. Scott Marshall, People’s World, May 26 2010

Encouragingly, someone used black to cross out the “SS” lightning bolt tag in yellow chalk on the wall next to the pay phone on Lincoln Street, and wrote “Kill Nazis” underneath. It is a good practice to cross out racist and nazi graffiti, even if it is written in chalk. Crossing out racist graffiti allows passerby to see that there is that element out there, and also opposition to it, whereas merely covering it up makes the problem invisible.

For those unfamiliar, “SS” refers to Nazi Germany’s Schutzstaffel, the paramilitary force that ran the concentration camps (among other functions), and is a common Neo-Nazi symbol. Read More and View Photo

photo gallery >>

photo gallery >>

Frey, and others who have been arrested at Santa Cruz Peace Camp 2010, was not charged with violating M.C. 6.36.010, the city law which the demonstration targets. Instead, Santa Cruz County Sheriffs are citing and arresting people for allegedly violating California Penal Code Section 647(e), an anti-vagrancy statute which dates back to slavery laws. Read More and View Photos

photo gallery >>

In the afternoon, Ronee Curry, a supporter of folks on the street, brought much joy to the camp with a delivery of burritos, sandwiches and donuts. The traditional Wednesday drum circle, which for years played at the farmer’s market, and then on the river levee for several weeks, migrated the weekly ritual to the courthouse lawn.

At about 11:15pm, five sheriff’s deputies individually approached, awakened, interrogated, warned, and photographed homeless people sleeping at the County Building and Courthouse. Robert Norse, a homeless rights advocate, reports that angry Peace Camp 2010 residents followed the deputies, denouncing the harassment and invasion of peoples’ privacy, as they shined flashlights in the faces of sleeping people. No arrests were reported, however according to Santa Cruz Peace Camp 2010, less than 45 minutes after the action by the Sheriff’s deputies, a disabled protester with a heart condition was treated by paramedics then taken by ambulance. Read More and View Photos

photo gallery >>