An open letter to the Santa Cruz Community

By Thomas Leavitt

To City Council folk and media: the differential nature of enforcement between the Downtown For All (DTFA) rally and the Santa Cruz Peace Coalition rally (both of which I attend) highlights how these ordinances are inherently abusive and selectively enforced.

Can you imagine the police seizing the signs the peace protestors leave leaned up against posts, or ticketing people because they have props and signs that touch the ground, or telling people sitting on a curb to get up or move? All these things have happened at the DTFA rally, while I’ve been speaking, even. There is far more space for pedestrians to pass through the audience at our rally, than there ever is at Ocean and Water, but you never see cops at the latter event. DTFA participants regularly see five or six police officers gathered near our rally, and at least two police officers continuously monitor our event. The differential can be nothing but political.

Last week, the police seized two signs that had been set in a planter, while ignoring a sign leaned up against a planter, touching the ground, by a Democratic Party voter registration worker. The police officer declined to explain the discrepancy or enforce the laws equally (not that we wanted the Democratic party worker ticketed).

Every single week, some token act of enforcement (token to all but the person getting the ticket or getting tossed in jail) is made against participants in the Downtown For All protest. The evidence is incontrovertible that the police are selectively targeting political protest and protestors - is this acceptable to Santa Cruz citizens? Why have Santa Cruz media not addressed this issue? Why have no City Council members inquired about this?

I look forward to a response from my City Council representatives. I urge the rest of you to contact them and ask these same questions. Your politically inconvenient rally or protest could be next.

Regards, Thomas Leavitt