Robert Norse: City Council silencing dissenting voices

NOTE TO READER: Longtime homeless activist, Robert Norse, published the following Op-Ed in the Sunday edition of the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Norse was responding to two recent defeats in court in which his appeal was turned down. In the first case, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, turned down Norse's bid to sue the Mayor and City Council members in Federal court for violating his civil rights when they arrested him for a brief, silent hand gesture for "disrupting a public meeting." Norse was arrested but all charges were dropped. Norse has filed for a re-hearing or an en banc hearing of the 9th Circuit Court. City Attorney John Barisone has claimed that his office has already spent $114,000.00 in legal costs through legal maneuvers to prevent an actual trial being held on the facts. ---- Becky Johnson, editor





Robert Norse: City Council silencing dissenting voices

Posted: 11/22/2009 01:30:26 AM PST



When courts support police misconduct and government repression, what can the public do? Two recent court decisions have brought this issue home to me sharply and personally.

The Sentinel inaccurately covered both cases. In one, I challenged two false arrests by the Santa Cruz City Council, including a brief don't act like Nazis salute shown in detail here.

In the second, a Metro bus station security guard insisted I leave the property because I'd pulled out a tape recorder after he accosted me and refused to identify himself.

Photo: Robert Norse interviews Metro Security Guard, Dan Delgadillo for Free Radio Santa Cruz on Nov 26 2008. Photo by Becky Johnson.

In both cases, courts ruled against me audio here and here ; fast forward to the relevant sections; transcript found here .

I offended politicians and police in both cases, but broke no laws. The Metro case is still being appealed, but poor and homeless people there are still being harassed with no police accountability.


Photo: The same security guard who refused to identify himself the day he had Norse arrested for trespassing at the Metro Transit Center, provided his card and allowed it to be photographed. Photo by Becky Johnson



The City Council has gone so far as to prohibit audience booing but not cheering. How far can our City Council going threatening, expelling, even arresting members of the public when their criticism offends but doesn't actually disrupt? This was the issue in my court case which we are now appealing to a higher panel.


Only one council member even noticed my brief silent political gesture of condemnation. Is it then a real disruption? Or was the arrest an attempt to punish ? Wasn't Councilman Tim Fitzmaurice's insistence on stopping the meeting itself the actual disruption? If I'd held up a sign instead saying don't act like a Nazi, would the Council have been equally justified in throwing me out? This is the issue a jury would have decided. I am still fighting these cases.



PHOTO: Councilmember Tim Fitzmaurice July 26, 2005 Photo by Becky Johnson.

The District Attorney knew a bad case when he saw one. I was arrested, jailed, but never charged. I then sued for false arrest. Two weeks later I and others made the same Nazi salute again, explaining it was neither pro-Nazi nor disruptive but rather an expression of outrage at abusive City Council process. The Council made no arrests.


Nationally, Bush's unlawful enemy combatants are now Obama's underprivileged enemy belligerents They face the same kangaroo military commissions. They are held in the same secret camps after being kidnapped, held without charges, and tortured year after year.


PHOTO: The main sign in front of the Metro Center which Norse was cited for failing to move away from. Photo by Becky Johnson Nov 26 2008.

Locals driven into homelessness by the economy face new Council-concocted anti-homeless laws. Benches are disappearing from Pacific Avenue under pressure from NIMBY groups like the Santa Cruz Neighbors and the Downtown Association. Police ticket poor people for holding up a spare change sign after dark. The city fences off another 25 seating spaces in front of New Leaf Market at the cost of thousands of dollars to stop people from sitting on the edge of the planter. The city attorney justifies a citywide outdoor sleeping ban that makes homeless people criminals. L.A. and San Diego have suspended their sleeping bans.

PHOTO: Warning sign at the Metro Center which is not in front of the large sign in front where Norse was cited for failing to move away from. Photo by Becky Johnson Nov 26 2008

When we bring these matters to the City Council, they devise new ways of silencing the public. They move items six hours ahead to late at night, cram everything onto rushed afternoon sessions, end public comment on individual agenda items unless a council member agrees, circumvent public commissions, and malign members of the public without right of reply. Does this kind of expanded power help or hurt us?


/Robert Norse is a longtime opponent of the Santa Cruz city sleeping ban and an activist for homeless rights/

Robert Norse can be contacted at: Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom
309 Cedar St. PMB 14B --- Santa Cruz, Ca. 95060 Phone: (831) 423-HUFF
www.huffsantacruz.org

Donna Deiss police brutality criminal trial abruptly ends

June 6, 2008 Sgt. LeMoss on duty in Santa Cruz photo by Bradley



by Becky Johnson
May 18, 2009

Santa Cruz, Ca. -- When Donna Deiss went to put sugar in her cup of coffee the last thing she thought was that she would be assaulted by a police officer, but that is what occurred. SCPD Lt. Christian LeMoss grabbed Donna from behind as she stepped into her RV, grabbed her arm, hurled her backwards and into a parked car, and then dropped her onto the ground hard enough to break her arm. She was initially charged with assault and battery on a police officer, and resisting arrest. Then a charge of drug paraphernalia was added three days later. Then that was dropped. By June 28th, the assault and battery on a police officer charge had also been dropped. Today, in a plea bargain, she plead no lo contendere to an infraction littering charge and the resisting arrest charge was dropped. She has been ordered to perform community service at a non-profit organization.

"I'm so relieved," Donna stated outside the courtroom as she met with her two attorneys, Ben Rice,Greg Coben and another supporter. "This whole case has been a nightmare." Rice defended Donna in her criminal trial. Coben is her attorney for her civil suit against the City.

LeMoss remains on duty.

A full panel of potential jurors waited in the trailer while Santa Cruz City Attorney, Delgadillo pitched the charge reduction. This could easily have been done at Friday's hearing on May 15th, but in a practice that has now become quite familiar, in cases where the City is likely to lose, they wait until the last possible minute to either drop charges or, as in this case, cut a deal.

"Ben spent all weekend preparing for trial," said one woman supporter. No doubt, most of those jurors would have preferred to go to their jobs, schools, or be at home with their families.

So what did Sgt. Christian LeMoss do at the Three Trees parking lot on W. Cliff Dr. last May?

Shortly after the incident,Zach Friend, the Santa Cruz Police Department spokesperson told reporters that “Deiss was with a group using drugs,” “Sergeant LeMoss asked her to stop moving, he identified himself as a police officer several times, and when he grabbed her arm to detain her she threw hot coffee into his face.”

The Santa Cruz Police Department press release, issued three days after the incident claimed "When the officer attempted to detain Ms. Deiss she threw a cup of hot liquid onto his face. Despite being burned, the officer was able to control and eventually take Ms. Deiss into custody ."

Deiss claims the officer never properly detained her, was not in uniform, did not identify himself as a police officer, and was driving an unmarked car. He had no reason to detain her, much less violently spin her onto a parked car, cuff her, then throw her on the ground so hard that he broke her arm. The cup of coffee she had been holding in her left hand spilled everywhere including on Ms. Deiss.

"It was lukewarm," she told HUFF. "I was not burned. I am surprised that the officer claims he was burned." Donna's shirt was stained with the spilled coffee.

No marijuana was found on Ms. Deiss at the time of her arrest. Another woman, known as White Dove was also arrested. She didn't have any marijuana either but two empty pipes were found in a garbage can near her.

The SCPD repeatedly identifies the lot by its street address. This raises the question of whether they even had jurisdiction to patrol that particular parking lot since it belongs to the State. A nearby City parking lot is repeatedly mentioned leading to some confusion as to where the incident occurred. The parking lot, locally known as "Three Trees" has been a gathering place for homeless and poor people, and at least one drum circle.

Today, one year and nine days after Deiss was brutally assaulted, injured, charged, and threatened, she has been convicted of littering. The evidence? A defense exhibit photo showing the coffee cup on the sidewalk where it lay after Sgt. LeMoss had broken Donna's arm and arrested her.

Attorneys continue to prepare for Donna's federal lawsuit against the City of Santa Cruz.