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Peace Camp demonstration enters third week on courthouse steps as county officials weigh their options
By Jennifer Squires
07/21/2010
SANTA CRUZ -- Four people sit together playing bongos and a tambourine while a puppy lounges nearby.
A man wearing a bolo hat rollerblades in tight circles as tie-dyed fabric hanging from a tree flutters in the breeze.
Several people tucked into sleeping bags snooze, but the man who hung his hammock from the handrail has taken off.
No, it's not a summer music festival. This was the scene in front of the Santa Cruz County Superior Courthouse just before noon Tuesday, where demonstrators have been sleeping nightly since the Fourth of July to protest the city's camping ordinance in what they call Peace Camp 2010.
"This is a humanitarian issue," said Christopher Doyon, a 45-year-old homeless man who has been participating in the protest for about two weeks. "Folks have a right to sleep."
Demonstrators are protesting the city's camping law, which prohibits sleeping outside between 11 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. But the protest is squarely on county property and county code does not list the courthouse property among locations designated as no-camping zones like Paradise Park and Carbonera Creek.
Although the city's "sleeping ban," as opponents have dubbed it, has been a point of contention for years, frustrations hit a high mark earlier this summer when police said a man set fire to the city attorney's office because of the law. The city also is pursuing a permanent injunction against a homeless couple repeatedly ticketed for camping downtown.
A measure recently approved by the City Council allows the city attorney to increase ignored municipal code citations to misdemeanors.
But more than two weeks into the demonstration, city police have taken no action and don't intend to, unless the protest moves off county property, Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Rick Martinez said.
So the so-called Peace Camp, which includes 30-50 campers a night, presents a conundrum for city and county officials.
Some would like to see demonstrators move on. For example, court spokesman Tim Newman said the protest hasn't caused problems for the county court branch, but he was concerned campers may have impeded people's ability to access the local justice system.
However, in the 17 days since the protest began, the campers haven't caused significant problems. Trash cans fill up faster and sometimes the aroma of marijuana floats through the air, but the camp has its own portable toilet to mitigate issues with human waste, officials said.
"It looks like a slumber party," said county spokeswoman Dinah Phillips, who can see the protest from the window of her office in the county building... [In Full]
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