The monkeys know all.
Wednesday afternoon was the third week of the Police Department’s campaign to stand watch over what some say has become a public nuisance. Officers and city leaders say they regularly receive complaints of people in that parking lot next to the farmers market buying and selling drugs, getting drunk in public, urinating on the asphalt and playing drums with little skill, among other issues.
Fear and Loathing at DNC is full of interesting photos, and I recommend it as a photoblog, but I was struck by the photo of the march plan, complete with where “arrestables” were supposed to be.
Nothing is more convincing than attending a Rage Against the Machine concert and then going out with a plan to get arrested as part of a march. That always works. “Wow. I thought these people were annoying, but now that a see Zack de la Rocha look-a-like sitting in the middle of the street getting arrested, I’ve become convinced and want to subscribe to their newsletter.”
These are the cliched tactics of the 60s. They don’t work. “Raising consciousness” is worthless. Achieving change is the only thing that matters, and these guys are more about attending a social gathering.
Early this morning, two UC Santa Cruz faculty members and their families were targeted in what appear to be criminal acts of anti-science violence. A message was issued by Chancellor Blumenthal (copied below) explaining what happened.
It is important that we increase our awareness of the surroundings and to immediately report any suspicious activities. Call 911 or UCSC police at 831-459-2231.
My email earlier this week ask everyone to review our standard security practices and to apply them. Again we ask everyone to review these practices and follow them.
–Standard BSOE Security Measures —
a. Do not open doors, especially exterior doors, for persons unknown to you.
b. Do not prop open any interior or exterior doors.
c. Report any suspicious activity to police, phone 911 if emergency, 831-459-2231 if non-emergency.Should you have any doors that have security problems, please report them to BSOE facilities via email: facilities-request
August 2, 2008
To: UCSC Community
Fr: Chancellor Blumenthal
Re: Attacks on faculty residencesEarly this morning, two UC Santa Cruz faculty members and their families were targeted in what appear to be criminal acts of anti-science violence.
In one case, a fire was started in a vehicle parked in a faculty member’s driveway. In the other, a fire was started on the porch of a faculty member’s home. Injuries were sustained as the faculty member and his wife and children escaped the residence. UCSC and Santa Cruz police and fire personnel responded and quickly extinguished the fires.
The incidents are being investigated by the FBI; federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); Santa Cruz Police; UCSC Police; and the state Fire Marshal’s office.
These unconscionable acts put the researchers, their families — including their children — and their neighbors in grave danger. They follow earlier aggressive acts of intimidation, trespassing, vandalism, and a physical attack last spring and the discovery of leaflets this past week threatening UCSC research scientists.
These are odious assaults on individuals and on the principles of free inquiry by which we live.
The campus is taking this extremely seriously and is working closely with law enforcement agencies and our own campus resources to identify and apprehend the perpetrators as well as taking major proactive steps to support researchers in the face of violence and intimidation. The personal safety and security of all our students, faculty, and staff is our highest priority.
I am asking everyone in the campus community to be especially vigilant in the face of these criminal acts. We all must heighten our awareness. Please be aware of your surroundings on campus and in your neighborhoods and report any suspicious activities immediately. Call 911 or UCSC police at 831-459-2231.
This is the second time this has happened this year. Last time was back in February, and involved men in masks breaking into a home and terrorizing the researcher’s wife and kids. This time, they tried to burn down the house.
I suspect that the “downtown coffee shop” mentioned in the article is Pergolessi. I can’t imagine these hooligans hanging out at Lulu’s, Santa Cruz Roasting, or hell, Starbuck’s.
The “weapons inspections” (i.e. losers wandering into open labs and causing problems) were bad enough, but as far as I know didn’t go anywhere beyond causing Wentai Liu’s lab to don “Do Not Enter” signs. The tree-sit (patterned after the “successful” tree-sit in Berkeley), was annoying because the gypsy camp underneath it was so goddamn unfocused. “UC SANTA CRUZ NOT UC SILICON VALLEY“, “Ethnic Studies Department NOW!!!!”, “End the War in Iraq!”, “Go Vegan NOW!!!”, “BIKE POWER NOW!!!!”, “End Animal Testing NOW!!!”, “GIVE ME MY PONY NOW!!!!”, “EVERYONE LIVE EXACTLY LIKE ME NOW!!!!!!”, and whatnot. (Sadly, only the last two are an exaggeration.) I’m sympathetic to the opposition to the LRDP, because I like the trees north of E2. They’re cool, and it’s great to walk around back there while waiting for tests to complete. I’m also a fraid that the introduction of what esentially is an engineering quad instead of just plopping buildings in the middle of the forest will destroy the charm of the University of Endor. I’d like alternatives to the LRDP to discussed, but the antiLRDP folks don’t really want compromise, they just oppose it to oppose it.
Fuck them.
U.S. Major Gen. Antonio Taguba (Ret.):
There is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes. The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held to account.
Sorry Tony. There’s no question of that either. They won’t be.
What should happen is that the International Criminal Court should issue an arrest warrant, and then the principles: George W, Cheney, Rummy, John Yoo, Scooter Libby, and the whole lot, should be arrested as soon as they step off the plane in a foreign country. Hell, Interpol should take a page out of their playbook and perform an “extraordinary rendition” and arrest them here.
Hell! Why the hell isn’t the Berkley city council ordering the Berkeley PD to arrest John Yoo at his office at 890 Simon Hall? I’ll tell you why. Because unlike the fucking Berkeley Nuclear Free Zone, this would actually achieve something, and hippies aren’t about achieving real change. They’re all about “sending messages” and forming drum circles and raging against the war machine and what not. Just not achieving real change.
April 24, 2008
To: Members of the UCSC Community
Fr: Ginny Steel, University Librarian
Re: Grateful Dead Archives Given to UCSCIt is a thrill to write to tell you that the surviving members of the iconic rock ‘n’ roll band, the Grateful Dead, have selected the UCSC Library as the permanent home for their substantial archive of materials documenting the band’s history. The collection will be the largest donation ever made to the library’s Special Collections Department, and it includes more than 2,000 square feet of memorabilia, artifacts, and other documents. This incomparable archive will undoubtedly become a major resource for research related to the Grateful Dead, the phenomenon of the Deadheads, American music, and popular culture during the last three decades of the 20th century.