Detectives Sgt. Loran “Butch” Baker and Elizabeth Butler were conducting a follow-up investigation into suspect Jeremy Goulet’s prior arrest on Friday. They arrived at his home on Tuesday Feb. 26, in the 800 block of North Branciforte Avenue at around 3:30 p.m. with the intention of questioning him. A brief gunfight ensued, leaving both detectives dead.

Goulet stripped the officers of their weapons and stole Baker’s car before fleeing.

A perimeter was set and teams of SCPD, Santa Cruz County Sheriffs, California Highway Patrol and the FBI immediately began conducting sweeps within the area.

Around 4 p.m. Goulet was encountered near Doyle Street, resulting in a shootout in which firefighters and bystanders had to duck for cover before Goulet was shot and killed. He was wearing body armor. In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Sheriff Phil Wowak said he did not know whether it was stolen from Baker’s car or if he had already been in possession of it.

Branciforte Avenue, among other nearby streets, was shut down for hours following the incident. Two schools near the incident were put on lockdown and residents were advised not to leave their homes as helicopters flew overhead Tuesday night.

The two detectives were both SCPD veterans. Baker, survived by his wife, two daughters and a son, had been on the force for 28 years. Butler, who graduated from Kresge college in 1996, was survived by her partner and two daughters. She had been on the force for 10 years.

“It’s been devastating,” Vogel told reporters. “There are absolutely no words for me to adequately describe what my department’s been going through since yesterday afternoon.”

All officers of the Santa Cruz Police Department were given the day off on Wednesday, with Santa Cruz County Sheriffs and Califonia Highway Patrol picking up the slack until they are ready to return to duty.

“They can’t help you until they help themselves,” Sheriff Phil Wowak said. “So we’ve asked them to take the time they need to repair their agency and develop the internal strength to come back and continue to serve you as they have for the last 150 years.”

Wowak said in a press conference that Goulet had moved to Santa Cruz only months ago. Goulet had a criminal history and was portrayed as mentally unstable. Wowak said acquaintances described Goulet as “despondent” and “distraught” and said they thought he was likely “suicidal or homicidal.”

Candles and flowers were displayed near the site of the shooting on Wednesday and numerous elected officials released statements expressing their condolences, among them California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Congressman Sam Farr (D-Carmel).

“While the words of comfort we offer today are sincere, our actions and deeds will be the true test of our resolve,” Farr said. “If we are truly committed to ending gun violence in our communities, we must be willing to answer that question and seek real solutions to prevent this type of senseless shooting from occurring again.”

The two detectives were both SCPD veterans. Baker, survived by his wife, two daughters and a son, had been on the force for 28 years. Butler, who graduated from Kresge college in 1996, was survived by her partner and two daughters. She had been on the force for 10 years.

“It’s been devastating,” Vogel told reporters. “There are absolutely no words for me to adequately describe what my department’s been going through since yesterday afternoon.”

All officers of the Santa Cruz Police Department were given the day off on Wednesday, with Santa Cruz County Sheriffs and Califonia Highway Patrol picking up the slack until they are ready to return to duty.

“They can’t help you until they help themselves,” Sheriff Phil Wowak said. “So we’ve asked them to take the time they need to repair their agency and develop the internal strength to come back and continue to serve you as they have for the last 150 years.”

Wowak said in a press conference that Goulet had moved to Santa Cruz only months ago. Goulet had a criminal history and was portrayed as mentally unstable. Wowak said acquaintances described Goulet as “despondent” and “distraught” and said they thought he was likely “suicidal or homicidal.”

Candles and flowers were displayed near the site of the shooting on Wednesday and numerous elected officials released statements expressing their condolences, among them California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Congressman Sam Farr (D-Carmel).

“While the words of comfort we offer today are sincere, our actions and deeds will be the true test of our resolve,” Farr said. “If we are truly committed to ending gun violence in our communities, we must be willing to answer that question and seek real solutions to prevent this type of senseless shooting from occurring again.”

Students came together and held candles at Quarry Plaza in response to the recent violence on and around campus. Photo by Daniel Green

A spike in crime in the Santa Cruz community have left many students and residents in a state of shock and fear.

On the evening of Feb. 9, a Santa Cruz local was fatally shot near the Red bar and restaurant in downtown Santa Cruz in what was said to be a gang-related drive-by. A few days later on Feb. 11, a UC Santa Cruz student was robbed and shot in the back of the head while waiting for a bus near Natural Bridges. While many students were away for the long weekend, a visitor to the UCSC campus was assaulted and raped near the Quarry Amphitheater and Classroom Units on Feb. 17. The rape and assault is still being investigated by both UCSC and Santa Cruz Police departments. Most recently, on Feb. 26, two detectives from the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) were shot and killed by a suspect they were attempting to question. The suspect was later killed in a firefight with other law enforcement officers.

Recent efforts to establish safety include a Campus Safety Forum, held on campus Feb. 20, followed by a student-organized candlelight vigil in the Quarry Plaza, as well as several Assault Prevention Workshops at OPERS.

Campus Safety Forum

Among those who attended the Campus Safety Forum were Vice Chancellors Sarah Latham and Alison Galloway, UCSC Chief of Police Nader Oweis, Deputy Chief for SCPD Steve Clark, dean of students Alma Sifuentes and other members of the Santa Cruz community.

During the forum, Oweis and Clark discussed measures they are taking to ensure the safety of students on campus. The Santa Cruz Police Department is offering rewards of $5,000 for tips leading to the arrest of the criminals. Police officers have been working overtime to have extra patrols on campus.

Deputy Chief Clark said the reward money and the pay for the extra patrol hours took quite a chunk of the police department’s budget, but that it was necessary. In addition, Oweis said that all of the reward money comes straight from the budget.

In addition to the extra patrols, Oweis and UCSC’s Community Safety Program have introduced the Night Safety Escort Service, providing escorts to students who would otherwise be walking alone late at night.

Samantha Berlant, a volunteer for SAFE, recited a monologue to increase rape awareness at the Safe in the Dark: Reclaiming Our Space candlelight vigil. Photo by Daniel Green

Candlelight Vigil

Shortly after the campus safety forum, a candlelight vigil titled “Safe in the Dark: Reclaiming Our Space,” was held a short distance away from where the forum took place. Over 200 people huddled together in the cold at the student-organized vigil to listen to students perform spoken word poems, songs and speeches in honor of victims of violence.

The Facebook invite page for the vigil accumulated over 4,000 invites and over 1,000 confirmations in under 48 hours. Cynthia Friedman, who helped organize the event, said the rapid response to the event signified the importance of coming together as a community.

“Part of the event is to not let fear in. Even if you’re afraid, you have to make goals to not be afraid and to stand up against it,” said Cynthia Friedman, fourth-year linguistics and feminist studies major. “If the whole UCSC community is against violence, anyone who wants to try it has so much to fight against.”

The spoken word verses heightened the sense of community by delivering messages of perseverance for victims of rape and sexual assault. Members of the Sexual Assault Facts & Education program, a program at Student Health Outreach and Promotion which provides support, information and resources to survivors of sexual violence, also performed skits to help students defend themselves against sexual assault.

Dean of students Alma Cifuentes also urged students to take advantage of the resources on campus like the Women’s Center and the Counseling and Psychological Services.

Darryl Trinidad attended the forum and performed a spoken word poem at the vigil. He said the news of the rape left him in shock and fear.

“I’m trying not to let this fear overwhelm me because I feel like we should feel safe in our own space,” Trinidad said. “We need to be aware and we need to empower ourselves.”

Assault Prevention Workshops

Self-defense instructor Leonie Sherman offered advice and other assault prevention and response tips to her 32 students during a Feb. 26 Assault Prevention and Self-Defense Class, held from 4:45–6:30 p.m. in the East Field House Activity Room of The Office of Physical Education, Recreation and Sports (OPERS). The class was one of two held specifically for those who identify as female.

OPERS sent out an email Feb. 21 notifying UCSC students, faculty and staff of their ability to participate in this series of free workshops.The class began with students circling up to discuss verbal prevention strategies. Sherman said the simple word “no,” when said in a deep voice can alter the mindset of a potential assailant.

Students learned how to say “no” in a way that shows the assailant “no” rather than only telling it, by using the diaphragm to speak in a deep and commanding tone.

After the 32 female students spent a minute roaring their most commanding “no,” Sherman taught them how to fight back after “no” doesn’t work.

Sherman instructed students in a three-step motion to fight back against an assailant. While simple, Sherman insisted that this motion be committed with the same intensity in which the “no” was roared.

“Even if you were fighting some 6-foot-4-inch mutant, you could still kick their kneecap effectively,” Sherman said.

In the ready position, the defendant stands with his or her stronger leg forward. For step one, step forward with the weaker leg. In step two, bring the strong leg up and kick forcefully at the kneecap of the assailant. In the vital step three, recoil the foot after impacting the kneecap. After these steps, step back and return to the ready position.

After practicing the three-step kick on martial arts pads, each student went on to learn universally vulnerable points of the body to retaliate against such as the groin, eyes and nose.

A Community Effort

These various efforts on the part of UCSC Chief of Police Nader Oweis, the rest of the campus and city police departments and self-defense instructor Leonie Sherman aim to ensure that residents of Santa Cruz can feel safe on campus and in their own town. The candlelight vigil also aimed to stand as a symbol of the community’s resilience and solidarity in facing down the recent rise in violent crime.

“This is a time for our community to come together because we really need to take care of one another,” said Chief of Police Nader Oweis. “Officers from the city, our parking enforcement and our [Campus Security Officers] are all doing extra patrols and extra checks and we are working very well together to make sure everyone’s staying safe.”

Illustration by Christine Hipp.

What do a recent spike in violent crime, used syringes and the homeless have in common? These three issues have spurred the Santa Cruz City Council to pass new public safety legislation, in the process igniting a debate over the way in which Santa Cruz ought to approach the topic. Street Outreach Supporters (SOS), a local syringe exchange, has become the focal point of conflicting viewpoints in the debate, as SOS comes under fire from the city council.

During a meeting on Feb. 12, the council voted unanimously in favor of measures intended to address crime, drugs and homelessness in Santa Cruz. Along with a decision to increase the budget of the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD), allowing them to hire more police, the legislation also establishes a six-month-long citizen’s task force on public safety and will give $50,000 to the Parks and Recreation Department to be used in cleaning up parks and beaches marred by trash and criminal activity.

THE FOOD BIN, a natural foods store located at the intersection of Mission and Laurel, was robbed on Feb. 13 by two armed men.

An armed robbery at the Food Bin on the night of Feb. 13 is the most recent incident in a string of violent crimes in Santa Cruz. According to an email sent out by the UC Santa Cruz Police Department, two masked men, one carrying a knife and the other a shotgun, burst into the natural foods store around 7:30 p.m. The men demanded everyone get down and proceeded to take an undisclosed amount of cash from the register. One woman was kicked in the face as she attempted to catch a glimpse of the perpetrators, but was treated and released at the scene. No one was seriously injured during the incident and the identities of the perpetrators are still unknown.

The robbery comes just days after a UCSC student was shot in the course of a mugging near Natural Bridges beach and a local man was killed in a drive-by in front the Red Room in downtown Santa Cruz. Also, early in the morning on Wednesday, Feb 20, a Santa Cruz home was broken into and the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) arrived at the scene to find that the victims had scared off their attackers and captured one of them, who was then turned over to the police.

Steve Clark, deputy police chief of SCPD, said this recent crime pattern was concerning, but ultimately nothing to cause panic.

“Certainly it can be said that we’ve had a spike in violent crime, and we’ve had similar spikes in the past,” Clark said. “Anytime we see that, we try to look at a root cause analysis, which helps us in terms of not only solving the case, but mitigating future crime.”

Clark said the SCPD is “putting their best analysis hats on” to develop strategies to mitigate, disrupt and address the recent crime spike.

“There’s a lot that goes into our crime analysis that isn’t readily apparent to everyone in the community — there’s a lot of information out there that we have our fingers on the pulse of, that we regularly monitor,” Clark said. “In this particular case, we think a lot of it is gang motivated.”

Clark said SCPD is now working on further strategies to try and disrupt the ability of gangs to carry out crimes. This includes impairing their communications and ability to house and store weapons.

The SCPD on Wednesday announced several cash rewards totalling $12,500 for information leading to arrests in each of the cases. Clark said SCPD’s investigations remain ongoing but encouraged community engagement with the recent events.

“There needs to be more community conversations about the root causes of what’s going on in Santa Cruz that’s leading to an environment that allows these kinds of things to happen,” Clark said. “Those are conversations that need to focus on gangs, drugs and our attitudes towards these things — you encourage what you tolerate. We need to take that to heart and not allow it to germinate within our community.”

Illustration by Christine Hipp

Local bike advocate Steve Schlicht recently created a petition and website to combat the sale of stolen bikes in Santa Cruz. He did this due to a large volume of feedback from the Facebook group “Take Back Santa Cruz,” a group whose mission is to “to make the streets of Santa Cruz safe and free from drugs, gangs and abusive behavior.”

The petition, which currently has 56 signatures, demands Goodwill Industries of Santa Cruz, which runs the weekly Santa Cruz Flea Market on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, change their policies to stop the sale of bikes and bike parts at the market.

The petition states, “I along with many others believe that the Santa Cruz Flea Market is creating a free market for the sale of stolen bikes and bike parts in Santa Cruz County. I am asking that [Goodwill Industries] modify or amend [their] exhibitor policies to prohibit the sale or display of bikes or bike parts at the Santa Cruz Flea Market.”

Schlicht criticizes Goodwill’s policies, which he said are enabling and loose.

“It’s basically a black market for stolen bikes,” Schlicht said.

In response to the petition, Goodwill Industries made it clear that they are against the sale of stolen goods and encourage efforts to prevent stolen items from being sold.

“We have no evidence that there have been any stolen bikes on the premises, and the basic position we are taking is that we endorse any effort to prevent stolen bicycles,” said Goodwill public relations director Lloyd Graff.

Goodwill Industries updated their vendor permit card prior to Schlicht’s petition, which now states, “Police and investigatory agencies will be invited to investigate any suspicious activity.”

Detective David Perry of the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) said that SCPD works in conjunction with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff to do occasional sweeps of the flea market. During these searches they have not found evidence of stolen property.

“A good number of our vendors are regulars and they have proper state licenses,” Graff said, “and so they have to show [resale permits] when they purchase their vendors permit.”

Working toward the recovery of stolen bikes, Schlicht also launched a website on Jan. 1, offering free bike registration for people living in Santa Cruz. The site, www.santacruzbikebase.com, aims to quicken the recovery of lost bikes and also attach validation to the owners of the bikes.  It also allows visitors to sign Schlight’s petition.

“Currently one of the problems is the inability to register online,” Schlicht said. “The process only takes about 30 seconds and it’s available to everyone. My goal is to register as many people as possible and recover any stolen bikes.”

The city of Santa Cruz also offers registration through the financial department and the fire department.

Although Goodwill Industries circulated cards among vendors that read, “If you are selling stolen property, counterfeit recordings or otherwise infringing items, we don’t want you here!” Schlicht thinks these policies and the managers at the flea market are not aggressive enough toward finding out whether or not any goods are stolen.

“If you leave it up to the people to police themselves, it’s basically allowing them to sell stolen parts,” Schlicht said.

So far, the petition has garnered 57 signatures since its release on Jan. 2, as of Jan. 16.

For students, the Office of Physical Education, Recreation and Sports, and Transportation and Parking Services at UC Santa Cruz also provide free bike licenses and renewals to ensure the safety and ownership of bicycles.

“You’ve got to have your registration. You have to have stickers on your bikes,” said UCSC bike co-op core member Emily Bonnin. “You have to have your forms in the right place just in case it gets stolen.”

Schlicht’s website also acts as a network for the students at UCSC and the community.

“It’s a very proactive way to protect your bike and you validate that it’s your bike,” Schlicht said. “Given that fact that there are so many students, it’s just another tool to take back the power.”

Illustration by Muriel Gordon.

The world is rapidly developing. Everything from microwaves to iPads has been developed within the last 50 years. New gadgets have appeared, including new methods for dealing with crime. Police now have the potential to curb crime by shooting a GPS tracker at any suspicious car via laser-guided handgun, and track a person’s whereabouts for days or even weeks, something that would have been unimaginable even twenty years ago.

As of April 28, a three-judge panel upheld in the Seventh Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals — comprising the states of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin — that this practice is legal, and it is unnecessary for police to obtain a warrant in this situation.

Disregarding the ill-fitting notion of using James Bond tactics to curb real-life crime, the most upsetting thing about this case is the secrecy of the tracking or “search,” and the idea that it is unnecessary for police to produce a warrant or inform the suspicious person of their audit.

This case’s legality means that it is up to police to decide what is suspicious. One wonders, what factors do the police weigh before they choose to track a car?

It sounds oddly reminiscent of Arizona’s SB1070 bill, which would have allowed police to ask drivers they suspected to be illegal immigrants to produce documentation papers and proof of residency or citizenship, all without a warrant.

But the resounding difference between these two cases is that a federal judge blocked some controversial provisions of SB1070 from ever taking effect, arguing the potential for broad misuse, whereas the majority of judges of the Seventh Circuit panel upheld the GPS tracking decision in U.S. v. Juan Cuevas-Perez.

The U.S. v. Juan Cuevas-Perez case was upheld because ultimately, the judges decided that information gathered from this GPS tracking device, which was used on Cuevas-Perez’s car for 28 days, could also be gathered by police who simply follow what they consider a suspicious car.

In her dissenting opinion, Judge Diane P. Wood said, “The technological devices available for such monitoring have rapidly attained a degree of accuracy that would have been unimaginable to an earlier generation. They make the system that George Orwell depicted in his famous novel, “1984,” seem clumsy and easily avoidable by comparison.”

Judge Wood maintains that as new technologies like the GPS tracking device appear, the margin for error disappears. Police following a suspicious car cannot be as accurate as the GPS devices that are now going to replace them. And by comparing the device to the mass surveillance depicted in “1984,” Wood suggests the new GPS tracking represents a serious invasion of privacy.

And where are Fourth Amendment protections in all of this? Instead of new world uses of the Fourth Amendment that would address new technologies like the GPS tracker, old world applications of it and strict interpretation lead to decisions like U.S. v. Juan Cuevas-Perez, and to the lessening of Fourth Amendment protections for citizens in the United States.

The Fourth Amendment must not remain stagnant, unable to face rising challenges of the modern world.

It is now up to the Supreme Court to invalidate this decision, and broaden protections of the Fourth Amendment to address new technologies in the modern world.

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein

On a balmy Wednesday night, all was quiet on Ocean Street as members of neighborhood watch groups, including Ocean’s 11 and Take Back Santa Cruz, met with the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) at the Sierra Room in the University Inn. The group talked about their most pertinent subject — preventing and addressing crime. About 30 people attended the event.

Take Back Santa Cruz is a neighborhood watch organization that deals with crime in Santa Cruz. Group leaders help the community get more involved with issues like drug control, gangs and prostitution. Ocean’s 11 is also a neighborhood watch group, named after the 11-block area from Ocean Street to the Westside of Santa Cruz.

Crime in Santa Cruz is a rising issue. SCPD recorded 53 burglary arrests in March alone, and the city faces ongoing problems with robbery, gang relations, trespassing and prostitution. Robbery in Santa Cruz increased by 32 percent from 2009 to 2010, while burglary has also risen 6 percent.

This has been particularly alarming to community watch groups. SCPD held a meeting on April 27 so the community could get more connected to its police officers. Police Lt. Larry Richard led the presentations.

“We’re a community police department,” he said. “This meeting today provides an opportunity for us to come out and bring a voice to our community.”

Richard emphasized the importance of contacting local authorities in the face of a threatening situation in the city.

“If you see something that doesn’t feel right, it probably is not,” Richard said. “Get out there and give us a call.”

Regina Henderson, organizer of Ocean’s 11, said robberies often occur in her neighborhood, and that community response is currently insufficient.

“I was one of eight people who were robbed in my area in the last few months,” Henderson said. “When I first started Ocean’s 11, no one in the neighborhood knew how often robbery occurred.”

Noting a lack of communication between neighbors, Henderson founded Ocean’s 11 with a few of her neighbors as a way to monitor neighborhood crime.

“Communication is key,” Henderson said. “Now we have a much better idea about [robbery] because of our communication.”

For Take Back Santa Cruz, being part of a neighborhood watch group allows members to get more active in watching out for crime.

“We’re sick and tired of complaining about crime,” said Analicia Cube, founder of Take Back Santa Cruz.

Take Back Santa Cruz sometimes takes action against crime in their community. Cube is especially fond of confronting drug dealers standing on a street corner, a tactic the group refers to as “positive loitering.”

“Positive loitering is when we get a group of people to come up to someone and ask them to leave politely,” she said. “We want them to know that if they stick around, we’re going to call the cops.”

The meeting emphasized safety and spotlighted areas in Santa Cruz that have inordinate amounts of crime. Some residents say the Eastside to Westside bridge is particularly crime-laden.

“I call that bridge ‘crackpipe bridge,’” said Regina Henderson, member of Ocean’s 11 in Santa Cruz, “because the first time I walked on it I saw someone smoking crack on it.”

City employee Marilyn Demartini expressed her safety concerns as a resident living on Broadway Street, and commended the Santa Cruz Police Department for their responsiveness to her issues.

“I always take an opportunity to attend events like these,” Demartini said. “The Santa Cruz Police Department has made a big improvement throughout the years. I’ve gotten to know a few police officers on a first name basis, and they remain very responsive to my issues. I like the idea that I can sit comfortably on my porch and have a cup of coffee with no worries about drug dealers or prostitutes walking by.”

Photo by Isaac Miller.

Story updated 2/25/2011 at 7:56pm.

In responsible hands, a firearm can provide solid home security and make feasible for an experienced wielder impressive feats of showmanship. However, in the wrong hands a gun can end a life — or several lives — in just seconds. With every shot, the balance between the costs and benefits of private gun ownership is upset.

In the wake of the Tucson, Ariz. shooting — which killed six, including UC Santa Cruz graduate Gabriel Zimmerman — many have attributed the tragedy to a gaping hole in domestic gun control laws. From the congressional floor all the way down to the local police department, calls for change and action have rippled across the nation.

“Obviously, a gun can’t fire without a person behind it,” said Nina Salarno-Ashford, executive board member of Crime Victims United of California (CVUC), speaking for herself and not the organization, which does not have a formal stance on gun control.

Each year, tens of thousands of people are killed in the United States by acts of gun violence. So far this year, over 13,000 people have been shot or killed, according to death certificates collected by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. The deaths from the combined murders, suicides, accidents and schoolyard shootings have motivated a handful of states in the union to adopt stringent gun control laws.

But outside of the Northeast and California, firearms — handguns, shotguns, rifles, machine guns — are all controlled relatively loosely. In Arizona, for example, anyone over the age of 18 can acquire guns, in bulk, without a state-mandated background check, without being required to report if any of them should become lost or missing.

Kelly O’Brien, the fiancée of the late Gabriel Zimmerman, appeared on “Good Morning America” to voice her criticisms of the nation’s gun control policies.

“[The Tucson gunman] was only stopped when he ran out of bullets,” O’Brien said. “If not Gabe — other people could have been saved that day, absolutely more people could have not had the injuries they had to sustain.”

Yet precisely what change means and how it should be implemented is not entirely clear-cut.

Gun rights advocates and lawmakers in Congress — Democrat and Republican alike — are not certain about how federal gun control laws will change, if at all. Historically, Congress’ legislative response to headline shootings, such as the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre and the 2009 Fort Hood Shooting, has been minimal.

Despite Congress’ historically stagnant legislative response, Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) are spearheading the adoption of stronger gun control laws. In a press conference in Riverside, Calif. on Jan. 19, Boxer named several gun control provisions within California that she would like to see enacted across the nation.

Not everyone, however, is keen about proposed additions to gun control, like Boxer’s provisions.

“Instead of passing laws, the legislators could look to fund the local tools that can help fight [gun violence],” said deputy police chief Steve Clark of the Santa Cruz Police Department. “Out of [shootings], we get bad legislation that puts law enforcement at the forefront of what is really a social issue.”

Among the list of provisions Boxer provided, which included measures to raise the legal age to purchase a handgun to 21 and implement registration paperwork at gun shows, was the reenactment of the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. Prior to its expiration, the federal assault weapons ban had outlawed the commercial sale of high capacity magazines like the ones the Tucson gunman used.

“We have so many freedoms in this nation, but those freedoms must come with a sense of individual responsibility,” Boxer said at the conference. “If we don’t act responsibly, we threaten our rights and freedoms. I also believe we should look at sensible gun laws — the kind we have here in California — that give people their gun-ownership rights while also preventing the sale of guns to criminals, people with serious mental illnesses and people who abuse a spouse or partner.”

The sentiment is shared by O’Brien, who rejected the idea of immunity that the Second Amendment has provided against gun control.

“Everything, within reason, should have limits,” O’Brien said. “You can’t go into a theater and yell, ‘Fire,’ but we still have freedom of speech. With every right comes responsibilities.”

A strong opposition, however, has been brought to bear against the agendas of gun control advocates like Boxer and O’Brien. Ray del Valle, a Monterey County gunsmith, said stronger gun control does not directly translate to stopping gun violence. For del Valle, the only people who respect gun control are law-abiding citizens.

“[The Tucson gunman] was a complete nut job,” del Valle said. “Do you think any number of gun control laws would have stopped him from setting out what he meant to do? Of course not. There were guys there — they had concealed weapons — and they did the responsible thing in not pulling their guns when the shooting started happening. They were worried about shooting someone else.”

At the national level, the National Rifle Association has won significant victories in Supreme Court hearings against gun control. In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in District of Columbia v. Heller to allow individuals to own a loaded handgun for personal use. In 2010, the NRA won again in a 5-4 decision in McDonald v. Chicago. The case, which overturned several local laws in Chicago, has since cast doubt on the government’s ability to put into place limitations on the Second Amendment.

More locally, the NRA has combined efforts with the California Rifle and Pistol Association (LAP) to overturn California state gun control law. Their most recent success came on Jan. 19, when a Fresno Court ruled AB962 to be “unconstitutionally vague.” The law would have banned all mail-order ammunition and required a record of sales for all handgun ammunition sold. However, precisely what qualified as “handgun ammunition” puzzled both police and licensed arms dealers, as many of the thousands of bullets produced worldwide are interchangeable among handguns, rifles and other firearms.

In a series of interviews conducted over phone calls and e-mails, Clint Monfort, one of the LAP lawyers who helped overturn AB962, revealed the extent to which gun control laws are battled. Monfort said the LAP is actively litigating numerous cases at the state and local levels.

“[We are] currently preparing an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for this lawsuit challenging San Diego’s strict requirements for obtaining a [conceal and carry weapons permit],” Monfort said in an e-mail. “This case may resolve the legal question of whether the right ‘to bear arms’ means a right to carry a handgun outside the home.”

The LAP has successfully rescinded bans on handguns in public housing in San Francisco, challenged broad search-and-seizure warrants issued by Los Angeles police, and opposed various ordinances in Desert Hot Springs, Fairfield, Long Beach and Santa Clara.

Despite the overwhelming opposition from gun advocacy groups, there is still a strong push for “sensible” gun control laws by politicians and victims alike.

“Most people own handguns for self-defense, and there’s nothing you can do with 10 bullets that you can’t do with 30,” said O’Brien, who was engaged to the late Gabriel Zimmerman. “It’s so sad to see 19 people gunned down in 15 seconds by these high-capacity clips.”

But the devil is in the details, and the details of gun control are in the paperwork. So how strong are gun control laws?

“The federal paperwork never goes away,” Chris Gillespie, owner of Markley’s Indoor Range and Gun Shop in Watsonville, said. “We never, ever, ever get rid of our federal paperwork. We get audited once a year by [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)], and not once have we ever come up empty-handed.”

At its basic level, acquiring a firearm legally through a federally licensed dealer requires filling out an ATF 4473 form. The form takes note of the buyer’s name, address, date of birth, photo ID and an affidavit stating the buyer is eligible to purchase firearms under federal law in the first place. Additionally, the firearm’s make, model and serial number are also recorded.

Beyond this, states, counties and cities occasionally possess additional forms of legislation demanding stricter records be kept. In the state of California, which is widely recognized as possessing some of the most stringent gun control laws in the nation, the sale of a handgun would require additional records of sale. These include the buyer’s thumbprint, date of sale and proof of lock or safety devices.

This process occurs for each of the 3,000 to 4,000 guns Gillespie sells annually to his clients — paperwork he is legally obligated to retain record of for the entire duration of his career as a firearms salesman.

The paperwork doesn’t end there. In order for Gillespie to remain in business, he must annually update his certificate of eligibility (COE) to possess a firearm, California firearms dealer (CFD) license, federal firearms license, local business license, handgun safety certificate instructor card, as well as licenses to possess firearms, ammunition, and equipment that he may only sell to law enforcement.

For del Valle, a Monterey County gunsmith, the red tape ultimately is more of a hindrance than anything else.

“I’ve got piles of paperwork over here. I spend 95 percent of my time just dealing with it, and maybe get one to two hours of actual time to craft,” del Valle said. “I’ve had to hire some people just to handle all of it. Look, I don’t think you’ll find a better way [than gun control] to stop acts of gun violence, but as it is, they don’t work.”

Many gun enthusiasts, salesmen and even law enforcement agree that there are shortcomings to gun control legislation in preventing acts of gun-related violence. Separate reports filed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2003 and the National Research Council in 2004 — both institutions that have counseled the federal government on policy issues — stated that there was insufficient evidence to suggest that gun control measures were effective.

Gillespie said some gun control laws “might as well be a moot point.”

“Look, I’ll do whatever it takes — whatever paperwork they want me to do, I’ll do it — when it comes to controlling access to guns,” Gillespie said. “Felons, the criminally insane — they shouldn’t have guns, I wholeheartedly agree. But people forget that laws don’t apply to criminals. A law might restrict a certain type of gun or magazine, but for someone who is intent on doing something bad, they’ll find a way.”

Despite California gun laws, which include a ban on assault weapons and require local police departments to approve all concealed weapons permits, the acquisition of firearms illegally is not difficult.

Santa Cruz has its share of problems with illegal arms trafficking, local deputy police chief Steve Clark said.

“Gun control is just a Band-Aid,” Clark said. “You can drive across state lines and get guns. You can buy guns through some guy with a squeaky-clean record. Many gangs here have weapons caches stashed around the county. We’re seeing the same guns reappearing.”

Straw purchasing, or the purchase of a firearm by someone who can legally do so only to hand the gun over to someone who legally cannot purchase a firearm, is a common problem for law enforcement. Additionally, with most of the responsibility of gun control turned over to state legislators, the diversity in gun control laws from state to state makes trafficking all the easier. What may be illegal to purchase in California could be, and probably is, perfectly legal in Ohio, Nevada and Arizona.

“We had a guy robbing banks a little while back,” Clark said. “One day he appears and we see he’s wielding a TEC-9 [submachine gun] and we’re like, ‘Holy smokes, where’d he get that?’ Turns out he was able to buy it through a newspaper ad in Vegas, where he was blowing off the money he stole.”

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), the federal background checking system that handles all 4473 forms, is often able to catch and deny purchases to those who have been “adjudicated as a mental defective,” have felony convictions and other reasons. However, there is still a major problem: disarming gun owners who acquired their firearms legally, only to later lose their right to possess a gun, for reasons such as committing a felony.

Unlike any other state, however, California has an automated system — the Armed Prohibited Persons System — in place to notify local authorities if or when such a change in status should occur. The system, however, is not without its shortcomings. As a state-operated system, it relies on the supplemental state paperwork. However, the state does not typically keep records of most rifle and shotgun purchases, creating significant gaps in state records. Additionally, with names added daily to a list that includes over 18,000 people, local law enforcement is hard-pressed to keep up.

“Among other things, you need proactive law enforcement to stop gun violence from happening,” Markley’s gun shop owner Gillespie said. “Look at how low the police department is cut down to on their budget. Even with the tools available, they’re understaffed.”

Another fault exists at the judicial level. Sgt. Dan Flippo of the SCPD said gun charges can serve as a disposable bargaining chip for judges to convict plaintiffs on more serious offenses.

“Usually there has to be some cooperation between the state and federal levels in order to bump up charges,” Flippo said. “If they get convicted of a federal charge, they’d be done for life. But for these smaller sentences — anything smaller than a federal charge — if they’re not stuck with the gun charge, they could later walk out and get a firearm still.”

Flying in the face of the automated systems, despite the combined might of the federal and state legislatures and the cries from those victimized by gun violence, firearms continue to find their way into the hands of the emotionally distraught, the mentally unstable, and the criminally capable.

“I’m not anti-gun control,” said SCPD deputy police chief Clark. “Gun control does have its merits — it does stop some people from getting a hold of one. But we haven’t seen gun control stop gun violence.”

So what can stop gun violence?

“The question is deeper than that,” Clark said.

Clark said the solution “isn’t around gun control but community.”

“We’ve got to work together,” Clark said. “Gang violence, school shootings — this is community violence, and it’s larger than law enforcement. The community can’t be under the illusion that we can simply arrest away the problem.”

Markley’s gun shop owner Gillespie said an active citizenry is the strongest measure that can be made against gun violence.

“How do you stop shootings? Besides proactive law enforcement, you have to do what you can with your neighborhood,” he said. “An attentive citizenry is better than any knee-jerk reaction in the law.”

Within Santa Cruz, there are a number of community-led programs and initiatives that actively tackle gang violence and encourage at-risk children from succumbing to acts of gun violence.

One program, a combined effort between local schools and the SCPD, is the program PRIDE, or Personally Responsible Individual Development in Ethics. The program, a gang-prevention strategy initiated in May of last year, focuses on educating and mentoring “at-risk” middle school students. The program combines negative reinforcement through prison tours and talks from former gang members with positive reinforcement through success stories and local community leaders.

“PRIDE is about mentors and pointing kids in other directions than joining gangs,” Clark said. “The thug lifestyle has become glamorized and an established cultural norm. A kid may not be a card-carrying gang member, but looking the part is the first step. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and waddles like a duck, for all intensive purposes it’s probably a duck.”

Take Back Santa Cruz, founded in October 2009 by Analicia Cube, is another such program. The group, whose mission statement is to take a stand against drug dealing, violence, and other criminal activity, has attracted hundreds in its outdoor walk-outs — “positive loitering,” as Cube puts it — to reclaim Santa Cruz’s streets.

“We’re an anti-crime organization,” Cube said. “We’ll go out as a community together — neighbors, business owners, everyone — to let the drug dealers and gangsters know they’re not in control. We do whatever the community feels like it needs, even checking that the political leadership in Santa Cruz is doing things that we feel are about safety.”

The collaborative efforts between the politicians, law enforcement and local communities are what make for the strongest defense against gun violence, Cube said.

“It has to be a combination effort,” Cube said. “The community alone isn’t going to solve gun violence. The law itself can’t solve it. The politicians can’t solve it. We all need to be a part of the solution. We can have as many laws as you want, but it’s going to have to come through the actions and voices of many for gang violence and gun violence to come to an end.”

For Cube, such a combination effort is not a far-fetched idea. Despite the challenges, Santa Cruz’s local community efforts offers a window into how the problem may be addressed across the country.

“I’m seeing a stronger collaborative effort between the police, city council and the community than ever before,” Cube said. “I’m excited about it, I’m hopeful, and I believe. We’re going to keep doing what we can. Is it perfect? No. But I’m seeing a lot of positive action to take down gun violence.”

Illustration by Kristian Talley.

Last Sunday, the former head of a dogfighting ring threw a late interception that sealed his team’s defeat. Next Sunday, a twice-alleged rapist will face off with an ex-convict who once stood accused of murder.

So it goes in the NFL, which probably should stand for the Notoriously Felonious League.

Every Sunday, millions of Americans watch football without a second thought about the morality of the masked brutes. Football is a violent game, and fans have come to accept that not all the violence will remain on the field.

But as the drama surrounding Michael Vick has proven, America expects more from our quarterbacks.

Because of his position, Vick’s involvement in dogfighting offended football fans who casually ignore the scores of linemen, receivers and linebackers who have been charged with battery charges and drug offenses.

People could not believe a quarterback would commit such a heinous crime. It didn’t fit the classic storyline of the quarterback as a wise leader of men.

The quarterback is the field general and the face of every franchise. He touches the ball on every play and he, more than any other football player, is recognizable and relatable to the average fan. He is not 6-foot-6 or 300 pounds and he usually can speak coherently and read at at least a high school level.

But what if Vick played linebacker rather than quarterback? Would the public even care that he’d killed a few dogs?

Vick missed two years during the prime of his career, spending 182 nights in a federal prison cell. Still, many fans do not feel the punishment was harsh enough, calling for a lifetime ban from the league.

Jeff Benedict and Don Yaeger’s 1998 book “Pros and Cons: The Criminals who Play in the NFL” found that one in five NFL players at the time had been charged with a serious crime. Twelve years later, players continue to be arrested at an astounding rate. In November, a month when teams practice five times a week and play games on Sundays, three players found time to get arrested for DUIs and one for a brutal domestic abuse charge.

Ray Lewis, middle linebacker and team captain of the Baltimore Ravens, was accused of murder and charged with misleading police in 2000 and did not even receive a suspension from the NFL. He was awarded the Superbowl MVP the following season and Defensive Player of the Year in 2003.

If anything, the murder allegations added to Lewis’s mystique. Linebackers are big, bad bullies meant to be feared. They are behemoths who run like gazelles, crushing quarterbacks and running backs with violent force.

But Vick isn’t a linebacker and because of the public’s desire to frame quarterbacks as heroes, he continues to be admonished for his actions.

However noble, it should be irrelevant that New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees gives money to cancer research. However pious, it should be immaterial that former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner publicly thanked God for his success.

The perception that a quarterback, or really that any athlete, is a man to be looked up to and followed is a foolish mistake that our country continues to make.

Charles Barkley famously said, “I’m not a role model. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.”

As long as we continue to expect poorly educated men blessed with superhuman strength to show us how to be good people, we will continue to be let down.

Last Sunday I rooted for Vick, the convict, Lewis, the alleged murderer, and Brees, the philanthropist. I cheered for Vick’s knee-buckling jukes, for Lewis’ bone-rattling hits, and for Brees’ perfectly placed passes. Morality had nothing to do with it.

Football players are entertainers. They are gladiators born out of time. But they are not heroes.

Vick treated pit bulls in an unforgivable way. Lewis may have had a hand in the death of another man. But on Sundays, they’re just two more face-masked monsters, no different from any other NFL player.

Check your moral compass at the door. It’s playoff time.

Photo by Julia Reis.

Photo by Julia Reis.

The setting sun ushered in a cascade of bottles and rocks set to the tune of shouts and smashing windows in downtown Oakland on Thursday, as a peaceful protest against Johannes Mehserle, the BART police officer who shot and killed passenger Oscar Grant on a crowded BART platform on January 1, 2009, quickly turned violent around 8PM.

An estimated crowd of 1,000 people converged on the corner of 14th and Broadway shortly after four o’clock, when a twelve-person jury in Los Angeles found Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter, a verdict that infuriated many protestors.

“I think it’s an outrage that a cop who cold bloodly murders a black citizen in front of the whole world gets involuntary manslaughter,” said Berkeley resident Chris Taaffe. “This is more of the same kind of police violence against black people and people of color in this world…and everyone in the Bay Area should be out protesting this.”

A protestor who wished to remain anonymous said that they had mixed reactions when the verdict was announced.

“Part of me was [surprised] and a part of me wasn’t,” the protestor said. “The part of me that was surprised was because I thought he was going to get a harsher sentence, but the part of me that isn’t is just, ‘Well it’s just another long line of events where people can get killed and it doesn’t matter. The cops can get away with everything.’”

Oscar Grant Senior, the grandfather of Grant, said he was not particularly shocked by the verdict but that he had been hoping for Mehserle to be convicted of second-degree murder, the highest possible sentencing since Judge Robert Perry took first-degree murder off the table.

“I didn’t expect no more or no less,” Grant Senior said. “I felt he should’ve gotten second degree murder, but then I wasn’t on the jury.”

Grant Senior added that he came to the protest to ask participants to remain calm and peaceful as they voiced their displeasure with the verdict.

“I came down here to try to rally these people together not to tear up this city, not to tear up the Bay Area,” he said. “You don’t tear up where you live in…. Don’t dishonor my grandson by being violent.”

BART Board President James Fang also called for civility in a statement released shortly after the involuntary manslaughter verdict was read.

“Oakland, indeed the whole Bay Area, is one of the best places to live in the entire world,” Fang said. “We must not let the initial emotional reaction of the verdict have long-lasting negative effects on the place we call home.”

Their words were not heeded come sundown, however, as the violence and destruction that the Oakland Police Department had prepared for and that many Bay Area residents and Oakland businessowners had feared for came to fruition.

Shortly after eight o’clock, after the official organized event ended peacefully, a group of protestors, many of whom were later verified as anarchist agitators, began shouting at police and throwing bottles and rocks.

As a result, officers declared unlawful assembly and ordered remaining protestors to vacate the premises or risk exposure to tear gas and arrest.

That did not deter the group, however as they began smashing windows and looting nearby storefronts. Foot Locker and the Far East National Bank on Broadway were amongst the first businesses to be vandalized. Protestors also set off fireworks and set fire to several dumpsters and trash cans in the area.

All in all, 83 people were arrested and booked on a range of crimes, everything from failure to disperse and resisting arrest to burglary and assault of a police officer.

As Oakland businessowners picked up the pieces of their damaged storefronts and Bay Area residents reflected on the night of mayhem that stemmed from a peaceful protest, many people realized that this case is still not over. Mehserle still has to be sentenced on August 6 and faces a possible sentencing ranging from probation to 14 years behind bars. In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division has announced their intent to investigate the incident.

Protestor Lucille Beaty, who came to represent the Justice Council of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Oakland, said that she intends to get more involved with community outreach in the aftermath of the Grant case.

“[I plan on] working more within in the community and working for justice not only with the criminal justice system but also with the immigrant rights within the city,” Beaty said. “We need to find unity and change in the way the system is right now.”

Meanwhile, Oscar Grant’s grandfather spoke on behalf of his family and the city of Oakland as a whole when he said that one thing will remain true no matter what happens next.

“We gonna survive,” Grant Senior said.

Photo by Julia Reis.

Photo by Julia Reis.

Photo by Julia Reis.

A planned post-verdict protest of the trial of BART Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed passenger Oscar Grant on a crowded BART platform on January 1, 2009, escalated into violence around eight o’clock Thursday evening.

The rally started off peacefully around four o’clock in the afternoon shortly after Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter by a twelve-person jury in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom. However, it turned raucous when protestors began throwing bottles and rocks at police officers. Shortly thereafter, looters broke into a nearby Foot Locker and shattered the windows of the Far East National Bank on Broadway and other stores not boarded up for the protest. Break-ins of several other buildings in the vicinity, as well of reports of fires, fireworks and possible gunshots, continue to mount as the evening goes on.

Police in riot gear continue to make arrests and are ordering people to leave the premises, threatening those who don’t with tear gas.

Earlier in the day, Oscar Grant I, the grandfather of Grant, spoke to the crowd of roughly 1,000 people who had gathered downtown at the corner of 14^th and Broadway asking participants to remain peaceful and calm as they voiced their displeasure with the verdict.

“I came down here to try to rally these people together not to tear up this city, not to tear up the Bay Area,” he said. “You don’t tear up where you live in…. Don’t dishonor my grandson by being violent.”

An extended version of this story was later posted and is available on cityonahillpress.com.

Stab Santa Cruz founder Helbard Alkhassadeh talks about Operation Snitch, the new feature of his website. Photo by Nita-Rose Evans.

For somebody who spends a good deal of his time learning about and reporting on violent crime, Helbard Alkhassadeh is surprisingly upbeat. When City on a Hill Press met with him at Café Delmarette in downtown Santa Cruz, he was all smiles, joking with the photographer and cheerfully complaining about the wind.

But, when talking about his web site, StabSantaCruz.com, as well as his new project, Operation Snitch, it becomes obvious that beneath the 30-something professional product photographer’s pleasant demeanor, he’s serious about stopping violent crime in Santa Cruz.

~~~~~~

City on a Hill Press (CHP): Your current website, StabSantaCruz.com, reports all stabbings that happen in the area. What inspired you to start it?

Helbard Alkhassadeh (HA): I worked in welfare for five years. I saw it all: poverty, child abuse, gang violence … my whole thought process changed about how we’re supposed to handle things. You can’t just pretend it’s not happening … I started off with the stabbing problem that we had in town. And, most people don’t realize it, but we’re having a lot fewer stabbings this year than we did the last couple years. We’re up to 22 at this point this year … If we keep at this rate, we’ll probably keep under 70 stabbings, which is going to be less than last year, which is sort of the goal of Stab Santa Cruz.

CHP: What can you tell us about your new project, Operation Snitch?

HA: When I realized that people weren’t calling the police because they’re so scared of retribution, or because they don’t want to deal with the cops … I built a site [Operation Snitch] where people can just send in their information and I’m the information middleman. I get it and I give it to the cops. It’s that easy.

In a week, we’re going to start the streaming of the police dispatch and fire dispatch … so, for example, today I was sitting there and I heard that there’s two people doing heroin down the street from us … so I went to my window and looked to see if there were any cars that fit that description. The cops just got another pair of eyes on the road. … That’s what Operation Snitch is. And, little by little, we’re trying to get webcams up and streaming them [onto the web site].

CHP: Although the subject of your web site is obviously very serious, the tone is less than somber. For example, you sell shirts that say “stabalicious” on them. What is the purpose of that?

HA: It had to do with what John Stewart of “The Daily Show” does. He takes the same garbage that comes out of CNN and FOX and puts a punch line at the end of it, and people listen to him, and they start paying attention. I never make fun of the victims. … There’s this frosting around it, just to attract you to the cake, and then, when you get to the cake, you realize the cake sucks, and the frosting was the best part, and then you walk away thinking to yourself, “Man, 72 stabbings last year?”

CHP: Has anyone ever been offended by your site?

HA: I’ve gotten hate mail. … I think I’m up to five at this point. Compared to all the ones I get about people loving the site, I think that’s pretty good. One of them was awesome, it was ‘Fuck you’ written over and over again, about 300 times. ‘Fuck you, fuck you!’ (laughs). And I was like, ‘I wonder if that’s the mayor!’

CHP: How do you feel about the Santa Cruz Police Department teaming up with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to reduce gang violence?

HA: I’m what I call an equal opportunity stabbing reducer. I don’t care where it comes from, I want the stabbings to stop. … [However] I don’t think it’s going to reduce stabbings. I think it might put a dent in the crime. I think there’s more of an economic reason for the crime, and a huge portion of the crime is being caused by drug use.

CHP: You must care a lot about Santa Cruz if you go to such lengths to make the community safer. What do you like about living here?

HA: I moved here in 1993. I was in San Jose before that, and I made a day trip to Santa Cruz to a friend’s house, and I never left. There’s nothing that I don’t like here. … We live in such an amazingly beautiful place, and there’s no way we’re going to let it get trashed or ruined or messed with.

It is 1:05 a.m. on a Saturday morning, and I’m riding shotgun in a police car with Santa Cruz Police Officer Alexander Ganzel. Before joining the police force, Ganzel served in the Marines for four years, and I had no difficulty imagining the lean, crew-cut haired man next to me in army fatigues.

“You should have been here last night. I had a guy run from me,” he said with a smile.

The “Ride-Along” program allows curious citizens to sit in on two hours of a police officer’s shift, provided they stay within the proximity of the car. Originally, I arrived at the police station at 11:45 p.m. — but because of a possible stabbing, they didn’t manage to get to me until 12:40 a.m. Then my “Ride-Along” began.

Friends asked me how it was. I told them it’s cheaper and more informative than a movie, and certainly a more sober Friday night than you may be used to.

“It’s definitely a good way to get a firsthand look of what we go through. We want people to know how we operate. We want to create trust, and you know a lot of the officers live here,” Ganzel said.

I silently thanked God that I had decided not to drink at my friend’s 22nd birthday party just before the “Ride-Along,” and waited to see if the program would measure up to Ganzel’s high estimation. I wasn’t anti- or pro-police, just extremely curious about knowing how things run.

Early on, we drove laps around downtown, sampling the alcohol-soaked night life. As we passed by Benicio’s, Ganzel slowed the car and rolled down his window to get a better look at a group loitering under the liquor store’s neon sign. The loiterers’ conversation withered, and two or three of them turned to openly stare.

I was disoriented and unsure who to identify with. Like Gregor Samsa in “The Metamorphosis,” I had woken up and found myself in an unrecognizable position. Only I wasn’t a giant cockroach; I was making small talk with a completely likeable police officer, patrolling the streets that my friends and I usually made a habit of being delinquents on.

The night progressed in ill-formed episodes that did not necessarily follow the rules of beginning, middle, and end. At one point, a man and his dog ran up to the car, shouting at us about a girl “choking the shit out of another girl down by the Jamba Juice.” Ganzel passed on the call to another officer, and we sped off to continue patrolling the night.

At one point, I was sandwiched with Ganzel on my left and another police officer on my right. I got the nagging impression that I was an obstacle interrupting the natural flow of their police buddy-talk. The other officer was gently impersonating a woman he had just dealt with, and Ganzel would occasionally send glances in my direction, as if to point out my notebook and hovering pen.

We pulled past a bar and saw a large, balding man sitting by the curb with his head between his knees. Ganzel focused a spotlight on him, and the man jumped to his feet like an actor who had forgotten his cue. “We’re behaving, we’re behaving,” the man shouted, throwing a somewhat sloppy arm around the friend standing next to him.

“When you first start working, everyone’s looking at you. You’re looking for a small percentage of people, but everyone thinks that you’re out to get them,” Ganzel said.

I sympathized, but thought it would be hard not to feel like someone was out to get you when you were blinking at the opposite end of their spotlight.

My moral queasiness continued when a subject suspected of drunk driving was pulled over after hitting a girl’s car in a fast food drive-through. His door was open, and a police officer already stood over him, asking questions. It was strange being where I was, between the computer screen and glowing keyboard and the barred backseat. I had a close-up, but somehow still boxed-in view of the law. I saw the officers a few feet away, gesturing to the subject, but I couldn’t make out a word they were saying

This absurd sensation of being behind enemy lines continued throughout the night. I had entered the “Twilight Zone,” and was watching all the parties I might have been at on a normal night getting busted up. Disgruntled college kids drifted out of the house, down the sidewalk. I saw a friend walking his bike, and was unsure whether to wave or hide my face. I decided to hide my face. I couldn’t figure out whether it would one day be a humorous anecdote or simply a betrayal to possibly be in the same car with him should he get arrested.

For many of us, our defining interactions with the police have occurred as we sift out of busted parties trying to hide our drunkennness, or at a protest, eyeing them on the opposite side. Maybe the anxious small talk involved in a traffic violation was the most you ever got to speak with a cop. Others, like a housemate of mine, have had more opportunities to get to know the police. He was arrested for protesting at the Republican National Convention, and, after several harrowing days, found himself released from jail without his shoes. But, even if it doesn’t give you sympathy, at the very least, the “Ride-Along” program allows you to hone your criticism.

In the spirit of the open communication that the “Ride-Along” promotes, I would suggest a reverse program that allows off-duty police officers to shadow an activist at a march or protest. Perhaps a “Riot-Along” could be a gesture of reciprocal transparency.

Illustration by Patrick Yeung.

Troubled by the increase of violent crimes in Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) is filling eight officer positions and bringing in the help of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The City Council made an emergency decision last Tuesday night to fill eight police officer slots, previously vacated because of retirements.

This decision was made despite the strain it could put on the budget with its approximated $1 million cost, according to Councilmember Tony Madrigal.

“There has always been a need to fill all the vacancies, and the recent riot, the violent destruction downtown, and recent killings added an even greater sense of urgency to the council’s decision,” Madrigal said.

Madrigal said the council is making plans to discuss how to pay for these officers. “Now more than ever, our council is going to take a serious look at … ballot measures in the next year to ask voters if they would approve a tax increase to pay for the added expense,” he said.

SCPD spokesperson Zach Friend explained the important improvements that eight more police officers can bring to Santa Cruz.

“The eight additional officers will allow us to increase the amount of officers downtown and in the gang unit,” he said.

Eight police officers were on duty during the night of the infamous riot, a number that some say illustrates the need to fill the vacancies as quickly as possible.

In 2000, the SCPD peaked with a force of 104 officers, which has since fallen to 87.

The decrease in officers coincided with an increase in 911 calls — 85,774 in 2009, up 25 percent from 2006.

In addition to hiring eight new officers, the SCPD also recently announced a new partnership with ICE to control gang crime, a move that has many in the community feeling apprehensive.

ICE will be in Santa Cruz to “augment the numbers and investigative skills of our gang unit,” Friend said.

Doug Keenan, director of the Santa Cruz County Immigration Project (SCCIP), works with people living in Santa Cruz County who wish to become citizens by providing legal services such as naturalization, appeals, and waivers.

He questioned the benefits that will emerge from this relationship between the SCPD and ICE, and is concerned about the impact it could have on undocumented immigrants.

“I’m not sure exactly how this partnership will work,” Keenan said. “Will it lead to raids and sweeps? Will it increase the anxiety and level of mistrust between the police and the community? An end to gang violence is something that we all want to see … but I don’t know what ICE adds to the effort.”

Tony Madrigal also questioned the role ICE will play, and how wise it is to give them a presence in Santa Cruz — a sanctuary city.

“People are calling, asking me ‘Will I get stopped on the street? Why are they here specifically? Will they be doing immigration sweeps because they happen to already be here?’” Madrigal said.

After hearing these concerns, Zach Friend asserted that ICE will not spend its time in Santa Cruz pursuing anything that does not pertain to gangs.

“[ICE] is here to deal with gang-related crimes, not to deal with petty immigration violations,” he said.

Friend went on to point out the benefits of ICE, explaining that most gang members in Santa Cruz belong to a much larger web, with national or even international connections, and having federal resources on-hand will be a huge help.

Madrigal is of a similar opinion. However, he expressed concern with the level of communication between the police and the community.

“A simple explanation by the police, in English and Spanish, could help a lot to promote more cooperation, trust, and willingness to call in with information,” Madrigal said. “There’s a willingness to cooperate that we continuously want to strengthen and foster with everyone in the community, regardless of their legal immigration status.”

Regardless of how many new officers the SCPD hires, or how effective the ICE partnership turns out to be, Madrigal said that the community must work together to make a more secure future.

“We are not going to stop the violence by simply dividing people,” he said. “We need to be looking out for one another and not be fearful of each other.”

On a bench adjacent to the community center of the Grandview apartments roses, palm fronds and candles have been left, serving as a memorial for Carl Reimer. Photo by Kathryn Power.

Evergreen Cemetery is one of many locations in Santa Cruz county where Take Back Santa Cruz has orchestrated positive loitering and cleanup events. Photo by Kathryn Power.

Tyler Tenerio’s memory lives on in bumper stickers reading “Never Forget Tyler Tenorio,” which can be found all over Santa Cruz. Photo by Kathryn Power.

One liked to draw and skateboard, while the other was passionate about surfing and studying spirituality, in particular the Rastafarian religion. They both attended Santa Cruz High School, where they maintained a close friendship despite the three-year age difference.

Tyler Tenorio and Carl Reimer crossed paths both in life and death, as both teenagers — ages 16 and 19, respectively — were murdered in a six-month span at the hands of alleged gang members in Santa Cruz. Tenorio was stabbed and beaten to death on October 16, 2009 near the 7-Eleven on Laurel Street after his group of friends exchanged words with a group of gang members, while Reimer was shot at a park near the Mission Gardens Apartments this past Saturday night after going to retrieve a skateboard and bike that he and his friend had left there earlier.

But this problem is bigger than the tragedy of these two teenagers, as these incidences are just two examples of the increasing prevalence of gang activity in the county which has sparked community outrage and action on the part of individuals, local law enforcement agencies, and activist groups.

Gang Activity On the Rise

Rudy Escalante knows all too well about the criminality of local gangs, both from his 24-year tenure with the Santa Cruz Police Department and his current position as the deputy chief at the Watsonville Police Department. In Watsonville, he saw gang crime rise 41 percent between 2008 and 2009 and gang-motivated aggravated assaults increase 21 percent.

While Watsonville has not had any homicides in 2010, Santa Cruz has dealt with four, three of which were gang related. This total matches the total number of murders for all of 2009, three of which also had gang ties.

The records management of the Santa Cruz Police Department can’t access similar specific statistical information related to gang activity in Watsonville. Santa Cruz Police Department spokesman Zach Friend says they don’t keep such statistics in their computer system. But a perceived increase in gang activity led the agency to form a gang task force within the department a little over a year ago.

“What we noticed is an increase in overall gang activity and high-profile gang incidents, meaning numbers aside, the brazenness of what gang members have been willing to do over the last few years has increased,” Friend said. “We’ve had public stabbings [and] midday shootings … and because of that we felt the need to create a team dedicated to that.”

The past two weeks alone have shown the growing issue of gang violence in Santa Cruz. Aside from the homicide investigation of 19-year-old Carl Reimer, there was an attempted homicide of a man walking his dog on Woodrow Avenue on April 17 who was approached by four to five gang members and shot. The victim said he did not have any gang affiliation.

Clarkie, who goes only by her first name, leads the Garfield Park Neighborhood Watch and is an active member of Take Back Santa Cruz, an organization dedicated to community safety. She expressed dissatisfaction with the SCPD for what she calls a lack of response to the increase in gang crime.

“I am disappointed in the police response to crime — we see things they don’t, apparently,” Clarkie said. “They have diverted funding for our neighborhood watch program and community service officer, and our neighborhoods are suffering badly as a result.”

The Santa Cruz Police Department has faced cutbacks over the past 10 years. The department has 87 officers, down from a peak of 104 in 2000. Also, according to a February press release from SCPD, the department received a record number of 85,774 calls, up 9 percent from the previous year and up 25 percent from 2006.

Friend added that the key aspect of much of the gang-related crime that occurs within the boundaries of Santa Cruz is caused by non-residents.

“People are coming here to commit a crime or retaliate for crime that was committed, [which] shows that this problem cannot be localized or controlled by any jurisdiction,” Friend said. “It requires every city to recognize [that] gangs are a problem and that this needs to be prioritized.”

The Culture of Gangs

Although gang activity — and a public awareness of it — has grown in recent years in Santa Cruz County, gangs are not new to the area, Escalante said.

“Gangs have been here for a long time … they’ve been in existence for [the] 25 years that I’ve been in law enforcement and prior to that. They all have the potential to be extremely violent,” Escalante said.

According to Escalante, there are approximately 600 known gang members and their associates in Watsonville whose ages range from the early teens to the mid-twenties. As in Santa Cruz and many other locations throughout the country, they can be separated into two main factions, the Norteños and Sereños, which are then divided into different subsets depending on the city.

Escalante says there are a variety of reasons that a person decides to join a gang that depend on several different factors.

“For some people it’s a family tradition where you’ve got members of a family and the gang tradition has been passed down,” Escalante said.

He added that other common reasons for joining a street gang include a yearning to gain acceptance or seek attention that one may not receive in their home or school environment.

SCPD spokesperson Friend says that the recruitment efforts of gangs have been successful over the past decade, particularly with youth.

“Numbers aren’t decreasing and in response we’re taking an early intervention approach,” Friend said. “Realistically, by the time police get in contact with a gang member, there have been a lot of failures along the way at the educational level, family level, social program level. … Kids are joining gangs earlier and earlier and these are issues that as an agency of less than a hundred we can’t address alone.”

Preventative Medicine: Educating Adolescents

Santa Cruz County law enforcement agencies and community organizations are doing their best to find an answer. They want to increase awareness about the growing prevalence of gang activity by focusing their efforts on the members of the population who are most susceptible to join a gang — preteens and young adults.

“Middle school is pivotal because kids haven’t made up their minds yet — they’re being influenced by who they’re living with and hanging out with, but they’re still on the border,” said Mission Hill Middle School Principal Valerie Quandt.

Out of this sense of urgency to intervene with high-risk youth came the development of the Personally Responsible Individual Development in Ethics (PRIDE) program, spearheaded by SCPD Detective Joe Hernandez, who adapted it from a similar program in Los Angeles.

The 10-week program, which is set to start in May, will cater to 10 total students from Mission Hill Middle School and Branciforte Middle School who have been deemed at “high risk” for joining gangs by the police department and school administrators.

“We had two parent information nights here, and from there families needed to fill out an application and go through an interview process,” explained Branciforte Middle School Principal Kris Munro. “Students who participate will be given adult mentors from the community and will do different kinds of activities as a part of that program with a focus on the impact of negative and positive choices in their life.”

The activities for these students will range from showing the consequences of bad decision-making by visiting a state prison and morgue to meeting positive members of the community, such as local elected officials and professional baseball players from the San Francisco Giants. Parents of the children involved in PRIDE will also take classes and receive information on how to keep their kids out of gangs.

Despite the increase in gang-related crime in Watsonville last year, the city has found success with a youth prevention and education program. In the program, a gang prevention team with the Watsonville Police Department works with at-risk youth to discourage them from taking part in gang activity. At a Watsonville City Council meeting in January, they reported that out of the 61 adolescents who most recently finished the program, none of them had new gang offenses.

Friend hopes that the PRIDE program will have similar results in Santa Cruz to the Watsonville counterpart and its Los Angeles predecessor, where students who participated in the program improved their attendance rates, test scores and overall behavioral issues.

“We’re hoping this first program will be successful,” Friend said. “It’s definitely eye-opening to see how young kids are falling into the traps of gangs and how early they’re being recruited, which is why we’re going all the way into middle school age.”

Meanwhile, Principal Quandt would like to see the PRIDE program show students that gangs are no laughing matter.

“I want these high-risk students to realize this is serious business and not just a game, as is evident by what’s happening in town right now,” Quandt said.

Community Steps In

Several Santa Cruz residents have also been spurred to action to combat crime in the community.

One such person is Helbard Alkhassadeh, who has lived in Santa Cruz since 1993 and works as a product photographer. In September 2008 he launched the website StabSantaCruz.com, which tracks the number of stabbing incidents in Santa Cruz County and posts information for the public.

Some may call Alkhassadeh’s website crass. He concedes some have accused him of “glorifying” stabbing on his website, which features a “stab-o-meter,” a merchandise section, and a section entitled “The Shanked,” which lists famous people who died as a result of a stabbing.

But Alkhassadeh says the premise of his website is simple — to educate the public with the hope of reducing the number of stabbings, which last year totaled 71 (an average of 1.5 per week) and is already at 20 so far in 2010.

“Last year we had 71 stabbings and this year we want to be under that … the goal is to make the site go away,” Alkhassadeh said.

He added that although he believes the “majority” of stabbings are gang-related, his goal is to reduce all such acts of violent criminality in the city of Santa Cruz, gang-related or not.

“I’m an equal opportunity stabbing reducer,” Alkassadeh said. “I don’t care if it’s a gang who does it, I’m saying there’s got to be a way of educating the population on how to resolve conflict. You can walk away — there’s no reason for someone to drive a sharp piece of metal into someone’s torso.”

The site keeps the community informed. Such statistics, which he gatherers from information in local newspapers, are not kept by the Santa Cruz Police Department or the county Sheriff’s office.

Alkassadeh’s Stab Santa Cruz website isn’t the only local community activist group that started with the Internet, however.

Santa Cruz resident Analicia Cube founded the organization Take Back Santa Cruz on October 31 of last year with the creation of a Facebook group that now has over 3,200 members.

Since their formation six months ago, the group has held events such as Take Back Tuesdays, which encourage people to go downtown on Tuesday evenings to “fill this space with positive vibes,” Cube said. They also hold Positive Loitering gatherings that ask Santa Cruz residents to step away from their computer and TV sets and come outside to talk to their neighbors.

“A great way to empower a neighborhood is to get to know your neighbors, so if something doesn’t seem right you feel comfortable contacting people,” Cube said.

Vice Mayor Ryan Coonerty lauds the work of community organizations and individuals and says their efforts are essential to the fight against crime in Santa Cruz.

“We’re not going to solve this problem purely with arrests,” Coonerty said. “It takes a community, it takes families and it takes individuals stepping up to address this issue.”

The Future of Fighting Gang Crimes

Law enforcement members and Santa Cruz citizens alike have long-term goals and plans in mind to continue their efforts in fighting gang activity in the community.

Helbard Alkassadeh is launching the newest feature of his website StabSantaCruz.com just in time for Memorial Day weekend. Called “Operation Snitch,” it works in conjunction with the SCPD to provide a 24/7 online live dispatch feed for the public of the calls that police offers get from the 911 call center. The premise of “Operation Snitch” is to enable citizens to be additional eyes and ears for the police department and be witnesses to crimes that occur before the police can arrive on the scene, Alkassadeh said.

“I can’t think of any other police department that I have as much respect for as the Santa Cruz Police Department,” Alkassadeh said. “They can’t stop stabbings because they don’t know when it’s going to happen, [so] we’re here to utilize them to tell them when it happens. We need to be the ones to stop crime.”

Watsonville Deputy Chief Rudy Escalante emphasized not only the importance of continued collaboration between community members and the police department in Watsonville, but also between neighboring law enforcement agencies such as the SCPD.

“You’d be amazed at how critical the sharing of information is,” Escalante said. “We find that people from Watsonville come to Santa Cruz to commit criminal activity and vice versa … So for law enforcement it’s cost-effective and advantageous to work together and collaborate not only when doing enforcement efforts, but also education efforts.”

Besides continuing to keep all local law enforcement agencies informed about gang activity that occurs within the county, the Santa Cruz Police Department will continue gang suppression operations which are aimed at contacting and arresting gang members. The last such operation was held on April 15 and led to the arrest of four gang members on charges ranging from DUI and narcotics possession to outstanding warrants.

They will also continue with a pilot program launched in November. Called the Neighborhood Empowerment Initiative, it encourages face-to-face contact between the police department and Santa Cruz residents by having bilingual officers go door-to-door providing crime information and resources to neighbors.

Meanwhile, although Take Back Santa Cruz President Analicia Cube says that there are action plans in the works for upcoming clean-ups and similar events, she is well aware of the fact that Santa Cruz will not reach its ideal status right away and will continue her efforts to combat gang violence in the community.

“I love this town and we’re not leaving — we’re going to keep fighting and keep pushing for however long it takes,” Cube said, her voice exuding a firm passion which crackled through the phone lines like electricity. “I’m prepared for the long-haul and prepared to be doing this for the rest of my life.”

~~~~~~

Take Back Santa Cruz will be having a Positive Loitering event this Friday, April 30, in the wake of the homicide of 19-year-old Carl Reimer. It will be held at Grandview Park, 90 Grandview Street, Santa Cruz from 7 to 8 p.m.

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

UC Santa Cruz recognized Rape Awareness Month this week with campus events designed to highlight the importance of rape awareness.

However, UCSC Rape Education Center director Gillian Greensite says the university has not been taking rape prevention education as seriously as she had hoped. After only one year, administrators recently chose to cut the Sex and Consent Assembly, a new program the center designed in order to educate this year’s incoming freshman class about rape prevention.

“I’m very sad to say that the Student Affairs administration has decided to replace it with an online module next year,” Greensite said.

The decision to eliminate the program followed decreased interest in hosting the program from the 10 colleges.

The program will now be included in the online AlcoholEDU course, which students are required to complete when they begin their freshman year. The online program complies with Assembly Bill 1088, which mandates that every public postsecondary institution in California offer rape prevention education to its students. However, Greensite expressed concern that students will not benefit as much from the online program as they did from attending the seminar in person.

“I think [cutting the seminar] takes us from being on the cutting edge of the forefront of universities nationwide to pretty much one of the back few,” Greensite said.

Greensite stated that eliminating the course will have a negative impact on the awareness of sexual abuse issues among the student population, and will also diminish the number of students reached.

“It will not be an education of the quality that we have been able to give through rape prevention education in the past,” she said.

Greensite worries that cutting the program will have an impact on what she says is an already low number of students who are aware of and utilize the on-campus resources for victims of sexual assault. About five students report rape each year at UCSC, but, according to national studies, a school of UCSC’s size could have up to 300 incidences a year. Though the number may not be that high, Greensite said there still may be a discrepancy between actual and reported numbers.

“I think we are better than the average university but I know that the [real] numbers are nowhere [near] as low as five,” she said.

Nina Milliken, a fourth-year Latin American and Latino studies major, has been part of a group of male and female peer educators for the Rape Prevention Education Center for three years now, and agreed that eliminating the seminar would leave some students without the education and resources they need.

“I am a rape survivor and one of the most difficult problems that I have found since being raped is that I know a very large number of women have been raped like me, but that there’s no way to access those women on our campus,” Milliken said.

To address the students who are staying silent on the issue, Milliken co-founded the Rape Survivor Network. The network comprises a group of survivors that meets weekly to discuss any issues they have faced after a forced sexual experience.

“I think the university does a pretty good job about trying to hide this issue, which is not good in my mind,” Milliken said. “It needs to be an easily accessed resource.”

The Rape Survivor Network is not the only thing that is being profiled this month to spread awareness. Events put on by the center this week wrap up Rape Awareness Month outreach.

Peer educators have been helping to table in the Quarry Plaza and organize events like Denim Day, the largest event of the month. It is scheduled to take place April 29 as part of a worldwide campaign to challenge rape myths.

Tiffany Wetherell, a second-year feminist studies and economics double major, has been a peer educator for two years now. She said she is also disappointed with the cancellation of the freshman rape education seminar after only one year.

Wetherell said she became a peer educator because of her interest in feminist activist groups. The main reason she continues the work is because statistics show that one in four women will be raped or experience attempted rape at one point in their lives.

A study done at 32 colleges in the United States reported that one in 12 men out of 3000 surveyed had committed rape or attempted rape as the term is legally defined.

“The scariest part, though, is that 84 percent of those men insisted that what they had done could not be called rape,” Wetherell said. “If that is not a terrifyingly clear call for awareness then I don’t know what else is.”

For Santa Cruz, the revolution has begun.

With CrimeMapping.com, a website that the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) began partnering with about two weeks ago, current information that was once more difficult to attain is now available to the public with the click of a mouse.

“We’ve had crime-mapping for a couple of years, but the maps were static,” SCPD spokesperson Zach Friend said. “We were receiving requests for more updated information or the ability to search by address.”

CrimeMapping.com allows users to view individual occurrences of specific crimes — like burglary, assault, and DUIs, for instance — as well as observe trends over time.

“Every 24 hours, agencies upload their data … once it’s set up, it requires zero effort,” said Talal “Trip” Albagdadi, Director of Marketing for The Omega Group, a privately owned company that launched the site.

Although CrimeMapping.com is barely two years old, The Omega Group has been providing crime solutions and working with law enforcement agencies for much longer.

“We’ve been doing this for 18 years,” Albagdadi said. “We never, ever scrape data from other sites.”

Albagdadi considers CrimeMapping.com powerful, both as a source of information and as a preventative tool against crime.

“Keeping the public informed is going to prevent crime,” Albagdadi said.

Multiple police departments nationwide have caught on and begun partnerships with the website — like Fort Worth, TX, and Sarasota, FL — but numerous large cities like Los Angeles and New York City remain absent from the list of viewable agencies, making Santa Cruz one of the pioneering cities.

Between March 29 and April 5, there were 11,000 unique people visiting CrimeMapping.com from California, said Albagdadi. Of that number, 2,218 of them were from Santa Cruz, a large portion for a relatively small city.

In response to these requests from the community, the SCPD began to look for new services that would provide these features.

“This was the easiest to integrate in our records management system,” SCPD spokesperson Friend said.

For the community of Santa Cruz, CrimeMapping.com is making waves because it instantaneously extracts data from police department records. A process that was once time-consuming for the department is now automatic.

“People didn’t recognize the workload of the department or the amount of crimes occurring in the neighborhood,” Friend said.

“[CrimeMapping.com is] an incredibly great tool because it’s real-time,” said Deborah Elston, a founder of the nonprofit organization Santa Cruz Neighbors. “The moment a crime is committed and has a crime number assigned to it, it makes it to this map.”

Representing a collection of neighborhoods in the city, Santa Cruz Neighbors provides resources for community members interested in local organization and also partners with other institutions — like the SCPD, for instance — to provide a voice for the community.

“The police cannot be everywhere,” Elston said. “The neighbors are the eyes and ears to keep the community safe.”

Elston added that the high concentration of crime in some areas of the map, particularly in downtown Santa Cruz, should not turn people away from the affected areas.

“If you feel like you want to help make a difference and help crime go away, you don’t go away from it; you go toward it,” she said. “The more residents and neighbors are engaged in the community, the more involvement the community has in high-crime areas, [the more] that crime will go down.”

For Friend, CrimeMapping.com provides an important reality check.

“Sometimes one of the most difficult things to provide [residents] is the reality they’re living in. With the website, you can judge for yourself whether there are issues in the community,” Friend said. “If the community has the knowledge, then they have the power.”

“I can’t wrap my head around the mentality of vandalism and the satisfaction that someone would receive from something like this,” Salguero said.

Around 11:40 p.m. Tuesday night, 10 large, storefront-sized windows were smashed and broken at the Bay Tree Bookstore by two unidentified males throwing rocks.

A janitor working nearby heard the commotion and yelled at the vandals to stop. The janitor then witnessed the two men run through Quarry Plaza toward the stairs leading to McLaughlin Drive and shortly after notified the UCSC Police Department, who arrived at the scene after the men had fled.

Police told Bob McCampbell, Store Director of the Bay Tree Bookstore, that anyone responsible for the damages would likely be indicted with felony vandalism and prosecuted. No suspects have been identified and no arrests have been made.

“I am really saddened that something like this has happened. I don’t understand why. Lots of students were expressing grief,” McCampbell said.

Nothing was stolen from the bookstore and no signs of graffiti were found, yet further investigation is currently underway and motives for the damage are unclear.

Pieces of assorted cardboard boxes currently replace the space where windows once stood, but repairing the damage will require more than that.

According to information released by Jim Burns, Staff Director of University Relations, the “preliminary estimates suggest that the price tag could get as high as $25,000.”

The damaged windows of the bookstore are double-pane windows and four of them are made of light reflective glass that is made to insulate the building, reducing heating and cooling costs.

“These are unnecessary expenses we shouldn’t have to pay,” McCampbell said. “We try to keep costs as low as we can at the bookstore, and these things don’t help.”

Many upset students and employees shared concerns about the reparation of the damages and the amount of money and work that it would require, considering the current impact budget cuts are having on the UC system.

“We’re going to end up paying for it,” said Nadia Vargas, a undeclared second-year College Ten student, “so I’m pretty upset.”

It could take up to an estimated six weeks to repair the windows, but “in the meantime, campus grounds crews are taking interim steps to seal and secure the cracked windows,” Burns said in an e-mail.
Students and faculty are still trying to comprehend the damages that resulted from the vandalism and are hoping to find out more information.

Salguero conveyed further dismay regarding the incident. “We [as employees] work really hard for the students and something like this hurts them,” she said.

Any information regarding the criminal activity can be given to Detective Steve Garcia, who may be contacted through the UCSC PD Office at (831) 459-2231 and reports may also be made anonymously at (831) 459-3847 or submitted online via: www2.ucsc.edu/police/crime.html.

{City}

Man paints police car and downtown buildings

March 6, 12:05 a.m. — A SCPD officer was investigating an incident of graffiti in the Red Restaurant and Bar when they stepped outside to investigate another incident. The officer found a man vandalizing the patrol car with yellow spray paint. The man was found to have large silver markers matching the color of the marks in the restaurant bathroom. The yellow spray paint and tags found on the car have been found on various parts of Pacific Avenue and Laurel Street. The suspect was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail on felony vandalism charges.

Suspected robber arrested

March 6, 5:55 p.m. — SCPD stopped and arrested a man wanted for several robberies in a parking lot at Mission Street and Younglove Avenue. On March 2, the suspect entered Sylvan Music with a gun and forcibly took a vintage electric guitar. SCPD believes that the same suspect is behind several other recent robberies and thefts, including one at the nearby Valero gas station. While searching the suspect’s car during the stop, officers found a replica handgun that fit the description of the weapon seen by the armed robbery victims. The suspect was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail for armed robbery and grand theft.

Domino’s Pizza driver robbed at gunpoint on Westside

March 6, 9:50 p.m. — Officers responded to the 500 block of Woodland Way after a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver was robbed at gunpoint. The 21-year-old victim reported being approached by three men as he got out of his car with his delivery. The men demanded his cell phone, wallet and pizza, all of which he handed over. The victim was not hurt. The three robbers remain at large, and are described as being about 25 years old, between 5’10” and 6 feet tall, and wearing ski masks.

{Campus}

Student punched after taking pictures

March 4, 12:36 p.m. — A Crown student was punched in the face after taking pictures of protesters on the bike path near the Music Center.

Reports of mentally challenged man sexually battering female students

March 5, 1:32 p.m. — Female students at various on-campus residences reported that a mentally challenged man hugged and groped them. He also attempted to engage them in inappropriate, sexually suggestive conversation and tried to find out where they lived. The same man also gained entry to student residential buildings and approached female students in their rooms. The man is described as 6 feet tall, African-American, and approximately 20 to 25 years in age. He was recently seen wearing khaki pants, brown loafers, a striped button-down shirt and a navy beanie, sometimes carrying a large backpack.

Car has window smashed, door dented at Family Student Housing

March 6, 1:22 p.m. — A car parked at Family Student Housing was found with the driver’s side window broken and a dent in the rear passenger door.

{City}

Man Flips Truck on Empire Grade

Feb. 25, 3:18 a.m. — California Highway Patrol responded to a report of a pickup truck on its side on Empire Grade near UC Santa Cruz. When officers arrived on scene, the driver was nowhere to be found. Around 7 a.m., a Santa Cruz city worker spotted the 29-year-old suspect, intoxicated and injured from the crash, at the intersection of High Street and Tosca Terrace. He was taken to Dominican Hospital for his injuries and then booked into Santa Cruz County Jail on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Wanted Man Runs From Police

Feb. 25, 2:46 p.m. — A 37-year-old Santa Cruz man wanted on a stalking charge fled from police on the San Lorenzo levee and into downtown. About an hour later, officers spotted the suspect at the Santa Cruz Metro Center on Pacific Avenue and took him into custody. He was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail for an outstanding warrant and evading a police officer.

{Campus}

Jogging Woman Sexually Battered

Feb. 25, 1:35 p.m. — A woman jogging in UCSC’s upper campus was sexually battered near Fuel Break Road and Chinquapin Road. A suspect approached the victim on his bicycle and grabbed her buttocks. She described the suspect as a white male in his 20s, with a slender build, light brown spiky hair, and a very light complexion. He may have followed her from the parking lot near the fire station.

Hateful Graffiti Found on Campus

March 1 — A image of a noose, with the words “San Diego” and “Lynch” written on the sides, was found on the inside of a bathroom door at Earth and Marine Sciences. It is currently under investigation by UCSCPD as a possible hate crime, as well as an act of vandalism.

March 1, 2:43 p.m. — Graffiti was found on the office door of the Women’s Center stating “Beware! You Should Be Scared!”

March 2, 12:41 p.m. — Graffiti was found at the Music Center with the words “Diego Lynch” written inside the image of a noose.

Illustration by Kenny Srivijittakar.

Four men were wounded and two were arrested in the aftermath of a fight involving eight to 10 subjects. The fight, which broke out on Feb. 17 at 1:38 a.m., happened near the intersection of Cedar and Locust streets outside the Red Restaurant and Bar.

David Lee Johnson, 24, of Watsonville, and Jose Ponce-Gonzalez, 25, a Santa Cruz County resident, were arrested for fighting and public intoxication. The injuries of the four victims were non-life threatening.

“Investigators believe the altercation was gang-motivated,” Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) spokesperson Zach Friend said in an e-mail to City on a Hill Press. “Based on witness statements, our agency believes the fight stemmed from a verbal altercation within the bar and then escalated into the multiple stabbings outside.”

The recent stabbings bring light to a growing problem that the city has begun to face in recent years: the prevalence of gang activity and alcohol-related crimes.

At least one nearby business owner has noticed the difference.

“There have been a number of instances in the past, though seemingly more in the last couple of years,” said David Watson, owner of the Literary Guillotine bookstore, which neighbors the Red.

Recognizing this, the Santa Cruz City Council passed a new alcohol ordinance earlier this month to address the growing risks caused by alcohol use downtown. The new ordinance amends an older version and now requires several businesses, previously identified as low-risk alcohol outlets, to classify themselves as high-risk and pay higher fees for alcohol permits. The Red Restaurant and Bar is among the businesses that will now have to pay higher fees.

“The ordinance that we passed will help raise some more funds for police to respond to these problems and set up more training programs,” Mayor Mike Rotkin said.

Friend said that there is a larger issue beyond the rise of gang and alcohol-related crimes. Many of these crimes are being committed by people from other parts of the county.

“Of the homicides last year, only one victim or suspect was a Santa Cruz city resident,” Friend said. “The rest were from other locations in the county.”

In the altercation last week, at least three of the subjects involved were not local residents.

Rotkin attributes the ever-growing presence of out-of-city criminals to the “pub crawl” atmosphere that makes up the downtown scene.

“Part of the problem here is that Santa Cruz is one of the last areas left [in the county] that has that bar scene, where you can walk from bar to bar,” Rotkin said. “We end up with lots of people — not just gangs, but lots of people — just coming here as a place to hang out.”

Bargoer Jon Hlebica, a UCSC third-year, does not feel deterred after last week’s stabbings.

“It will not stop me from going to the Red, ever,” he said. “I’m not freaked out, I’m not spooked, and I don’t think anybody else should be.”

The original alcohol ordinance was passed in the late 1990s. It has since been amended to raise the fees that alcohol outlets must pay to stay in operation.

Rotkin says the ordinance will continue to evolve.

“Maybe the fee needs to be dramatically more,” Rotkin said. “And I’m prepared to go there. If it turns out this doesn’t begin to give us enough resources to get on top of this problem, we may end up having a higher fee.”

Rotkin emphasizes that this issue is high on the city’s priority list and is not something that City Council will take lightly.

“At some point, if it doesn’t get solved by these lesser attempts, you go more Draconian,” he said. “You start shutting people down.”

{City}

UCSC student arrested in stolen bike sting

Feb. 11, 1 p.m. — SCPD was contacted by a man from San Luis Obispo who said he had found his Specialized brand mountain bike, worth $4,000 and recently stolen, for sale on Craigslist in Santa Cruz. An undercover officer posed as a buyer and arranged to buy the bike at the 200 block of Cardiff Place, near the base of campus. When the UCSC student selling the stolen bike arrived, officers waiting nearby moved in and took him into custody. The suspect was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail for possession of stolen property.

Three teenage boys caught after fleeing commercial break-in

Feb. 11, 10:48 p.m. — Officers responding to a break-in at a business on the 300 block of Coral Street found three teenage boys fleeing on foot. Officers were able to detain and arrest the three, who were found with two laptop computers that were taken from the business. One of the suspects had been cut by broken glass. Wolfgang Hankel, 19, of Capitola, and Erin Courtney, 18, of Soquel, were booked into Santa Cruz County Jail on commercial burglary and possession of stolen property. Charges are pending for the third alleged burglar, a 16-year-old boy.

Man has bad trip, found hugging tree

Feb. 15, 10:56 p.m. — Officers responded to a report of a subject hugging a palm tree at Ocean and Broadway streets. Officers found Jeremiah Long, 23, a Santa Cruz transient, acting in an erratic and paranoid manner and complaining that he was seeing strange lights. The suspect was taken to Dominican Hospital to receive medical clearance, then transported to Santa Cruz County Jail on charges of public intoxication.

Four people injured in downtown knife fight

February 17, 1:38 a.m. — Officers responding to the Red Room for a noise compliant saw approximately eight to 10 people fighting in the intersection of Cedar and Locust streets. The subjects ran when officers arrived, but the officers located four people involved in the fight on Church Street, two of them with stab wounds. They were transported to Dominican Hospital and later flown to out-of-county trauma centers.

Officers found knives on both stabbing victims, as well as on another person believed to have been involved in the altercation. Witnesses reported that the suspects and victims were in a verbal argument, and that gang-related phrases were uttered just before they fought. Police believe the fight was gang-related and those involved have not been cooperating with the investigation. Police arrested David Johnson, 23, of Watsonville and Juan Ponce-Gonzalez, 25, a Santa Cruz County resident, on charges of fighting in public and being drunk in public.

{Campus}

Drunk in public arrests

On Feb. 12, 3:05 a.m. and Feb. 15, 4:36 a.m., individual students were arrested for being drunk in public at Stevenson College and Cowell College respectively.

Porter student cited for graffiti

Feb. 15, 2:01 a.m. — A student was found spray-painting graffiti on plywood at the construction site of the Biomedical Sciences Building on Science Hill. The student was cited for vandalism and possession of aerosol paint in public, then released.

Paths leading off the main Pogonip trail have been blocked in an effort to stop drug activity. Photo by Nita-Rose Evans.

Syringes litter the Pogonip Greenbelt, known by locals as “Heroin Hill.” Photo by Nita-Rose Evans.

Santa Cruz tourism has been shooting up — literally. People flock to the city by the sea for its natural beauty, epic surf spots, and as of this past year, cheap black tar heroin.

Last Thursday, three Santa Cruz transients were arrested in the Pogonip Greenbelt in the latest of a string of narcotics-related incidents. One of the men was in possession of 10 grams of heroin — a drug whose prevalence has inspired the local moniker Heroin Hill.

Chief park ranger John Wallace described the location of the hill— a 50-acre stretch of land bound by Highway 9 to the east side of the greenbelt — and the drug activity rangers occasionally witness in this area.

“If you follow the railroad tracks at the end of Vernon Street and head west, there is a hill called Heroin Hill and the drug dealers go up there and sell their black [tar] heroin,” Wallace said. “We don’t really run into that particular type of drug except in that one area.”

Zack Friend, spokesman for the Santa Cruz Police Department, said that within the last year, Heroin Hill has become a regionally known heroin hotspot. Its reputation attracts people from as far as Richmond and Sacramento.

Friend added that regulating the area poses unique challenges to law enforcement.

“Because of its physical location, it is a difficult area for police officers and rangers to patrol,” Friend said. “There are trails that appear to be official walking trails that are actually drug-running trails.”

He explained that police officers and park rangers work closely together to eradicate as much drug activity as possible, keeping in mind that enforcement in one area may only cause traffickers to retreat farther into the forest.

“Success in one area can lead to failure in another,” Friend said. “The more we do in the open area of Pogonip, the more it gets pushed into the forested area of Pogonip up Highway 9.”

A park-goer who has visited Pogonip for 20 years explained that while he never witnessed any drug activity firsthand, certain areas are known for their seediness.

“I’ll come down the railroad tracks on my mountain bike and there is definitely a skeevier sort of energy,” said the cyclist, who asked to remain anonymous. “It’s where desperate people would go to live, or hang out, or freak out.”

Last September, the fire marshal closed Heroin Hill to the public due to potential fire dangers related to drug cooking and consumption.

However, chief ranger Wallace thinks that establishing more community activities in the park is bound to promote a safe environment.

“If you look at all of the drug sites, there aren’t too many people that go into those areas,” Wallace said. “The more we draw the public in, [the more we] actually drive the bad people out.”

There are already several trails near the border of Pogonip, including the U-Con connector and Rincon trails that allow mountain bikers to travel from Henry Cowell State Park to UC Santa Cruz.

Jeff Arnett, UCSC writing professor and a Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz member, noted the importance of bringing mountain bikers to more secluded locations in the park.

“[People need to] make sure the mountain bikers are in the loop. They’re your eyes out there,” Arnett said. “The more presence there, the better to avoid drug pushing.”

Arnett — a Pogonip enthusiast for over 20 years — was a primary contributor to the book “The Unnatural History of UC Santa Cruz,” which highlights various man-made landmarks on the UCSC campus. He is discontented with the current situation in the previously peaceful park.

“Pogonip is a fascinating place,” Arnett said. “It’s ironic, because here’s this beautiful park and people are using it for something like this.”

Wallace said some plans that have been proposed include the construction of bike trails, the addition of cattle, and a homeless garden project to encourage community members to visit and help pull the park out of its narcotic-induced slump.

“It is hard to solve a social problem when you are talking about drugs,” Wallace said. “We’ve got to come up with creative ideas that are going to benefit the public and cause the bad element to go away.”

{City}

Women attacked by intoxicated stranger, then rammed with car twice

Feb. 4, 12:36 a.m. — Officers were dispatched to Bay and California Streets on a report of a traffic accident causing injury. The car’s two female occupants reported that they had been in a liquor store when an unfamiliar woman, Nour Daniel, 23, got into a verbal argument with them. The victims then got into their car and drove away to avoid a fight. They were driving down Younglove Avenue when a vehicle containing Daniel and two men, identified as John Dively, 36, and driver Maurico Perez, 27, allegedly rammed their vehicle twice. The second collision at Bay and California disabled the victims’ car. Police say Daniel then got out of the car and began to hit the driver. The suspects then fled, but were apprehended not far from the scene. All three suspects were booked into Santa Cruz County Jail: Daniel on charges of battery and public intoxication, Perez for assault with a deadly weapon and drunk driving, and Divily for public intoxication and a probation violation.

Double murder suspect arrested in Central Valley

Feb. 4, 6:30 p.m. — Santa Cruz police detectives worked in cooperation with several California law enforcement agencies to apprehend a double homicide suspect in the Central Valley town of Mendota. Jaime Galdalmez-Guevara, 18, was arrested in connection with the double homicide of two men in a lower Ocean Street area apartment on Jan. 23. He made his first court appearance Tuesday, when a judge set bail at $1 million. Police say that Guevara has a criminal record that includes gang involvement and heroin sales. He is scheduled to enter a plea on Feb. 24.

UCSC student found dead near railroad tracks on Westside

Feb. 7, 9:08 a.m. — Officers responded to a call reporting that a body had been found on the rail tracks near Almar Avenue. A woman jogging noticed a man laying by the side of the railroad tracks and ran to a nearby fire station for help. When firefighters arrived, they determined that the man, later identified as UCSC fourth-year Benjamin Quaye, 21, had sustained a fatal head injury. According to detectives, Quaye had been drinking the night before at a local Almar Shopping Center pub, but bar staff called police around midnight because he was allegedly causing a disturbance. Quaye left the pub before officers arrived, and while walking alone by the rail line, slipped down the gravel embankment and struck his head. Police consider the death an alcohol-related accident and foul play is not suspected.

{Campus}

Suspected break-in at Porter

Feb. 5, 9:27 p.m. — Students reported seeing a male, 5’8” wearing a beige hoodie, climb through a widow a Porter College B Dorm. Officers responded and made contact with the room’s occupant who reported nothing missing.

Runaway taken into custody while trying to visit girlfriend

Feb. 6, 11:34 a.m. — A 16-year-old runaway from Washington traveled to the UCSC campus to see his girlfriend. He had fled home and was reported as a runaway juvenile in Washington state, where officers received a tip that he might be headed to UCSC. The young man was found by UCSCPD and taken to a group home until arrangements can be made for his return to Washington.

~~~~~

Woman caught stealing yogurt, sics dog on security guards

Jan. 20, 3:54 p.m. — Security guards at Trader Joe’s caught a 21-year-old Santa Cruz woman, Natalie Gambelin, stealing yogurt and called Santa Cruz Police. Gambelin ran out of the store but was tackled by security. As she was being taken back into the store, she called her dog, who was outside, to attack security. The large dog ran toward the security guards, growling and barking. Security rushed the woman into a side door of the store, unhurt. When officers arrived, Gambelin was arrested for burglary, being under the influence of a controlled substance, a probation violation, and assault with a deadly weapon.

Vandals flood Mission Street office with garden hose

Jan. 21, 8:58 a.m. — Officers responded to Karon Properties on the 1100 block of Mission Street for a report of vandalism. Sometime Thursday night, vandals threw a rock through a window, fed a garden hose through the hole, and turned the water on, flooding the office. The water caused about $2,000 in damage to the office floor. The motive behind the flooding remains unknown.

Woman robbed downtown

Jan. 21, 10:48 a.m. — A 25-year-old woman was robbed at Mission and Laurent streets. She told responding officers that she was attacked by an unknown female suspect, described as a Latina in her late 20s or early 30s, about 5’6” and 160 pounds, wearing all-black clothing. The suspect approached the woman and grabbed her purse. When the victim tried to fight back, she was knocked to the ground and kicked in the cheek. The suspect escaped with the victim’s purse.

Double Homicide in Lower Ocean Neighborhood

Jan. 23, 4:51 a.m. — Officers responded to 145 Canfield St. #6 for a report of shots fired. Officers found two men in the living room of the apartment dead from multiple gunshot wounds. Police identified the men as Alejandro Nava-Gonzalez, 21, and Oscar Ventura, 18, both Mexican immigrants. Police said that about 10 people were in the apartment for a small gathering when the shooting occurred. A judge has issued an arrest warrant but had the arrestee’s name sealed, as police are still seeking information regarding the motive of the killings, including possible gang ties. The double homicide marks the second and third Santa Cruz homicide victims of 2010. There were a total of four homicides in Santa Cruz for 2009. (read more…)

Suspect arrested for sexual battery
Jan. 15, 3:48 a.m. — A subject was arrested in the 100 block of Maple Street for sexual battery. The suspect was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail.

Women finds gun on railroad tracks
Jan. 15, 5:30 p.m. — A 20-year-old Santa Cruz woman walking her dog near Bay and California streets found a loaded .357-caliber revolver on the railroad tracks. The gun had been reported stolen from Manteca, Calif. in 2004. Several shootings in Santa Cruz have occurred with .357-caliber handguns, and police are investigating if the weapon found has any connections to those shootings.

Knife brandishing
Jan. 17, 1:55 a.m. — Officers responded to a call at the intersection of Church and Cedar streets. An unknown suspect, who remains at large, had brandished a knife at a group.

Suspected auto burglar arrested
Jan. 18, 1:37 p.m. — Officers responded to Cedar and Church streets for the report of an auto burglary. A witness reported seeing a man, wearing a nylon stocking over his head, smashing a car window. Officers found a 20-year-old Santa Cruz man fitting the suspect’s description several blocks away from the stolen vehicle. He was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail for auto burglary, probation violations, and gang member enhancement.

Police investigate the scene of a homicide-suicide at a Santa Cruz 7-Eleven store on Jan. 1. The incident was just one example of increased city crime this year. Photo by Jacob Pierce.

On Jan. 1, 2010, the first day of a new year, 24-year-old 7-Eleven salesclerk Nichole Schrock was found dead in the bathroom of her workplace along with her 42-year-old ex-boyfriend Illya Cavlan.

According to police spokesperson Zach Friend, both suffered from an undetermined number of gunshot wounds and their bodies were found around 9:45 a.m., after a customer — who found the store open and unattended — contacted authorities.

“It appears to be a domestic violence case,” Friend said.

A police inspection found that Cavlan shot Schrock in the bathroom and subsequently shot himself. Police found a revolver near Cavlan’s body. Although evidence suggests that the couple was once in a relationship, the motive for the crime has yet to be determined.

An employee from a local business across the street from the 7-Eleven described the aftermath of the situation.

“I thought it was just a robbery at first, with all of the cop cars and the caution tape,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified. “I’ve been living here for 25 years and I have never seen anything like this.”

The representative also described her personal discomfort with the situation.

“I know [Schrock] because I get coffee there all the time in the mornings,” she said. “It’s not a small town anymore and the crime rate is getting up there now.”

The year 2009 proved to be a rocky one for the college beach town as Santa Cruz racked up four homicides, various assaults, and countless auto thefts.

“The years 2005 to 2008 had a marked decline in city crime,” Friend said. “But in 2009 there was an increase in a number of crime categories, including theft, assault and burglary.”

The homicides of 2009 included an Eastside stabbing; the stabbing of Santa Cruz High junior Tyler Tenorio; the murder of L.A. resident Elias Sorokin; and a shooting at the San Lorenzo River levee during Thanksgiving.

Friend pointed out that all of the documented homicides were gang-related, and that some of the other crimes, but not all, were attributed to gangs.

Santa Cruz residents took note of the exponential growth in community violence and its effect on UC Santa Cruz students.

Maren Preston, a second-year art major at UCSC, lives up the street from the 7-Eleven where the crime took place.

“I feel like I’ve seen a lot more cops lately,” Preston said. “And that’s good that they’re trying to get more safety in the community.”

However, the anonymous local employee shaken by Schrock’s death expressed concern that without citizen cooperation, no positive change can be made in terms of improving public safety, even with the help of added security.

“We don’t want to start off the year that way,” the woman said. “People need to get involved and write to their city council if they want to see change.”

Friend commented on the importance of community participation in preventing local violence or crime from spreading.

“There are 94 police officers and about 56,000 people living in Santa Cruz,” Friend said. “When we have our greatest success is when people take an ownership to their neighborhood.”

Preston also pointed out that although residents in the area and throughout the town may feel like the quality of safety has plummeted over the past 12 months, precautions must be taken to help keep the community as peaceful as possible.

“I don’t think you should be afraid to live your life, but you should still be aware of your surroundings,” she said. “I hope that people can look at the tragedies in our community and make more of an effort to be safe.”

Barrios Unidos representatives take part in the first public peace forum at the Louden Nelson Community Center. The event was organized in response to widespread concern over recent acts of violence in Santa Cruz. Photo by Morgan Grana.

Last week inside the Louden Nelson Community Center, concerned citizens gathered for the first of many “Unity in our Community” public peace forums. The Community Center seemed hardly large enough to hold the group of at least 120 people that attended. Prospects for seats looked grim before the welcome ceremony even began.

“The response has been so overwhelming that we might be looking into a larger venue to do at a different date,” said Vivian Levine, an employee at Barrios Unidos, one of the four organizations that helped put together the event.

Local organizations CoAction, Yes! and Youth in Action also helped coordinate the forum. Organizers hoped to foster a community discussion about violence in small groups. The forum also included several presentations by notable speakers from the community, including City Council members Don Lane and Lynn Robinson.

The event was put together in less than two weeks, partly in response to the deadly stabbing of Santa Cruz High School junior, Tyler Tenorio, on Oct. 16 of this year. The forum was also organized in light of the fact that incidents of larceny, homicide and rape have all increased more than 50 percent in the city of Santa Cruz in the past year, according to the Santa Cruz Police Department.

“People want an answer. People want something to be done, and in order to do that we have to come up with a game plan to do it,” Levine said. “In a forum over these events that have happened recently, people come together in fear and anger and want results immediately and it’s not going to happen that way, it has to be a process.”

Levine feels that there is a disparity between generations when it comes to violence awareness, and she hoped this event would help families, adults and youth talk about difficult issues and ultimately curb violent crime in Santa Cruz.

Before the event, Lauren Parker from CoAction also stressed that she expected intergenerational and interracial discourse from the forum.

“We began to organize [the forum] in response to the lack of community dialogue. We all wanted there to be a place where youth could drive the conversation as much as adults,” Parker said.

After everyone settled in chairs, discussions began. The crowd transformed into a number of small circles of people eager to talk. They exchanged personal accounts of their various violent and non-violent pasts and their hopes for the future. Most came to create a safer community, some for their children and still others in order to break down racial and class barriers — a move they felt might help create a path to nonviolence.

“We need to help stop violence and build bridges to a safer community,” one woman said. “Open dialogue with people you love will help it stop.”

An African-American man in one circle talked about racial barriers within the community.

“People automatically judge you because you are Latino, because you are black, because you look ethnic,” the man said. “Barriers need to be broken down.”

Mamel Amijo, who works with the Santa Cruz County Community Coalition to Overcome Racism, was also frustrated with barriers to education and barriers to wealth in Santa Cruz. She suggested that while “there are more people of color in the police force [and] as judges,” many authorities still lack empathy towards those of different classes and backgrounds.

Several people in the discussion called for targeting this systemic problem of societal barriers with increased community economic development. Many participants expressed the belief that a fairer, more equal community would make for a safer, less violent future.

One man pointed to another woman’s children playing on the floor before turning to address his group.

“This is our future. We need to invest the money in our children, and we need unity and intervention. That’s the only way to solve this.”