The Weekly Dump 10.13.17

ICE Warns of Increased raids as a Result of New “Sanctuary State” Law

One day after Governor Brown signed a bill aimed at preventing local police from helping the Trump administration crack down on illegal immigration, ICE is now threatening to raid more neighborhoods and workplaces. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Tom Homan released a statement last week saying the law would “undermine public safety” and force the agency to have more of a presence in places where immigrants live and work.

“ICE will have no choice but to conduct at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and at worksites,” Homan said, “which will inevitably result in additional collateral arrests, instead of focusing on arrests at jails and prisons where transfers are safer for ICE officers and the community.”

More in the Senile.

So basically ICE is saying in no uncertain terms is if you don’t want to help us, things might get sloppy (the collateral damage part) and if things get sloppy, that’s on you because you’re forcing us to be sloppy. The question boils down to is would we as a community rather be politically correct and sloppy, or would we rather be accurate and pander to already at risk community members? All of these “sanctuary” proclamations are just words. They have no teeth or basis of fact in law. The only thing it does is publicly announces a refusal to cooperate (the pandering part) with federal law enforcement, which then points a bullseye on the backs of the vulnerable local Hispanic community.

Murder Trial For Brothers From Aptos Set to Begin

A hearing this week was set to determine whether trial can start on Monday for a pair of Aptos brothers who each face a charge of first-degree murder with gang and weapon enhancements. The two brothers worked with the victim at Santa Cruz Nutritionals on the west side of Santa Cruz. One of the brothers and the victim were also rival gang members. On August 2nd, 2013, one brother drove alone on Mission Street near Bay Street in a silver Chevrolet Impala armed with a pistol, while behind him his brother was driving a friend’s black 2013 Honda Civic. The shooting took place along Mission street near Almar, where the victim crashed his silver Honda Accord into the drive through of the Burger King near Mission and Younglove Avenue after being shot. All defendants remain at Santa Cruz County Jail. I remember well this crazy rolling gun gang battle and shoot out down Mission Street from 4 years ago. I had no idea the suspects hadn’t even gone on trial yet. It’s about time!

Fatality Closes Highway 17 Near Los Gatos

Monday night around 6PM, at least one person was killed in a head-on crash near the Cats Restaurant on Highway 17 near Los Gatos, according to the CHP. It appeared as though a truck heading northbound crossed over into southbound lanes and hit a vehicle head-on, with two other vehicles involved in the crash. The crash closed one northbound lane and all southbound lanes of Highway 17 for hours right in the middle of the evening commute. Witnesses reported seeing the truck crash into a barrier at the Cats just before the turnoff, where it completely flipped over into both southbound lanes and came completely apart. I heard at least one person was ejected from their vehicle in the crash as well. 

Three Car Thieves Busted by Santa Cruz County Sheriff Deputies

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Deputies arrested three car thieves last weekend just hours after the cars were reported stolen. According to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, the first car was stolen from outside a home in Live Oak Sunday night. The owner immediately called 911. Within minutes the car was located on Capitola Road and two suspects were inside. Deputies arrested a Watsonville resident and a male juvenile. Both the man and the juvenile were booked into County Jail and Juvenile Hall for vehicle theft. The second car theft occurred Sunday night while the owner was at work in Gilroy. After the car owner finished work, she noticed her car was missing. A few hours later, a Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Deputy found the car with a male suspect inside. That male suspect was arrested for vehicle theft as well as outstanding warrants for vehicle theft.

Still Waiting for Justice for Maddy Middleton

Last Thursday was a tough day for the family of Madyson ‘Maddy’ Middleton. Instead of celebrating her birthday, her family had to listen to how she was killed and sexually assaulted two years ago. Judge John Salazar will eventually decide whether to try her accused killer, now 17 year old Adrian Gonzalez, as an adult. Middleton would have turned 11 last week. More than two years ago, Middleton’s body was found stuffed in a recycling bin at the Tannery Arts Center in Santa Cruz. In court, prosecutors said Gonzalez should be tried as an adult. At last week’s hearing, a sex offender treatment expert took the stand and said Gonzalez exhibits severe sexual disorders, including paraphilia and deriving pleasure from hurting people and trying to have sex with someone who is unconscious. The calculation and sophistication didn’t stop after the crime, prosecutors said, indicating that Gonzalez knew good behavior in juvenile hall could earn him a lighter sentence. The hearing has been going on longer than expected but prosecutors and defense attorneys said they want to be as thorough as possible before the judge makes his decision.

Market Manager Punched in the Face

Saturday night around 9:30PM, a report came in that a man was punched in the face at a local market on the corner of Ocean and Barson. The victim was a manager or staff person at the Ocean Market and Deli. SCPD showed up and arrested a man for battery.

Scotts Valley Police Bust Florida Stoner

On Saturday a driver was pulled over by Scotts Valley Officers because he was spotted driving while smoking marijuana. When officers searched the car, they found over 14 pounds of processed marijuana, illegal prescription medications and about $2,000 in cash. Officers said the driver was from Florida. He was booked into county jail.

False Alarm Shuts Down East Santa Cruz Neighborhood

Saturday night around 8:30PM, reports came in about a man brandishing a gun in the area near 14th and Merrill. A witness reported seeing a man walking down the street with a gun and other witnesses reported hearing shots fired. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office and SCPD both responded to the area. A reverse 911 call was apparently sent out to neighbors to shelter in place. The SCPD K9 apparently had to be called in because the county is too cheap to have a K9 program for the SCCSO. Turns out it was all a false alarm apparently. The “shots” heard were apparently fireworks from a nearby party, and the witness turned out to be not credible.

Punches Tossed at the Civic

Saturday night around 10PM, I heard a report of 2 men fighting on the steps of the downtown Civic Auditorium. It sounded like at least one man wanted to press charges against the the other if the other could be found. No word if either or both were named Eric.

Disturbance at McDonalds on Ocean

Thursday around 12:30PM, reports came in about a bum disturbance at the McDonalds on Ocean street. Apparently, he was terrorizing staff and customers. Described as a homeless man with long hair and a long beard, he was last seen leaving on a bike headed towards the Grog Shop with a samurai sword attached to it. Maybe he was a pirate?

Someone Tell Jeff to STFU

Saturday night around 10:30PM, someone called in a noise complaint about a man playing guitar and singing too loud on Pacific Avenue downtown. The person making the complaint referred to the noisy busker as “Jeff” and said SCPD was familiar with him. One of the downtown beat officers said he knew “Jeff” and would find him and tell him to knock it off. I wonder why everyone downtown knows “Jeff”? I’m always the last to know.

Westside Hit and Run

Wednesday night around 8PM, I heard a report of a vehicular hit and run near Grandview and Western drive. The car that fled the scene reportedly had the victim’s bumper attached and was dragging it. The victim followed the suspect until SCPD caught up to the suspect, a female in her thirties from Oregon.

Too Much Magic Bus

Sunday night around 5:30PM, i Heard a report of a fight between a neighbor and someone trying to park an RV on their street along the 100 block of Pacheco. Apparently the neighbor came out and confronted the RV camper and it turned into an argument where they had to be separated. SCPD sent a couple units to keep the peace. The RV was registered to an address in Prunedale.

Injured Transient Man Found on Cedar Street

Saturday morning around 9:45AM, reports came in about an injured transient man down on the 700 block of Cedar street suffering from a head wound. He was described as conscious and breathing when SCPD requested that Fire and AMR be dispatched. The man turned out to be “local” (given he’s been arrested 4 times previously) but still had no known local address.He was also wanted for an outstanding warrant for failure to appear.

Hugh’s News!

City Council  Meeting: October 10th, 2017

Chambers were packed for a few items in the afternoon session. Short term rentals, surf schools and mountain biking!  Lots of passionate sharing from the podium. Krohn still seems to not be able to wrap his head around proper decorum. He asked AGAIN for someone out of the audience to speak after public comments were over. Mom, I mean Mayor, told him no, then we would have to let everyone speak. He also asked if they could take a bathroom break. Mom, I mean Mayor, said no, then we would be taking breaks all the time. We just get up and go when we need to. There were a number of motions and items passed on the agenda with votes of 5 to 2. Krohn and his puppet Brown had a rough night. Krohn also nominated two people for Planning Commission but didn’t vote for either one of them. WTF? There was this really bitter woman that was nominated but didn’t win. I have seen her share at the podium numerous times and she always has that “smelling shit” face. Happy to report that a young man that ran for council last year was appointed to the planning commission. I have high hopes for him.  

The sharing at Oral Communications consisted of: various uses of hemp and hemp seeds, the dangers of cell towers and an impassioned plea from a gentleman that lives near the Kaiser Arena.  A hard working dad paying incredibly high rent that is greeted daily by prostitutes and johns having sex in his yard, feces and needles on the sidewalk and threats from drug dealers. It looked like chambers were nearly empty when he shared. Divine grace for him because if the chambers had been full, I am certain he would have been hissed at, booed and harassed.  He would have been met with “well where are they supposed to go?”  See, some of the advocates in this town try to shame people so that they will be quiet. They are so self centered that if people point too much to the crimes the transient addicts are committing, it might make them look bad. So they either make excuses for them or they try to shift the blame to you. They start accusing you of not having compassion. So tell me this dipshits. Where is the compassion for the people that have worked full time their entire lives, or have gone to school and are still paying off student loans, trying to raise a family, have a home, buy a car, put food on the table, pay insurance, pay taxes, care for their elderly parents, and pay the increasingly high rent in Santa Cruz? Why when these hard working people get their kids bikes stolen, get their cars broken into, find used needles in their front yard, get their mail stolen, are verbally harassed and threatened and are fed up, why are these people accused of being entitled and lacking compassion? You know who is entitled and lacking compassion?  For starters the assholes that are making the neighborhood unsafe near the Kaiser Arena.

Just Another Story About Our Vibrant Downtown

I saw this story posted and had to share it. – BD

“I just got back from lovely Downtown Santa Cruz. Decided to get a couple slices at Pizza My Heart to take home and settle in with a movie. While I was inside getting my pizza a male person walked up to a woman walking down the sidewalk and started punching her, she punched him back and took off, he swung around and tipped a table over in the outdoor eating area of Pizza My Heart and tipped over their table where three young people were eating knocking over their glasses of beer and food. He had to reach over the seating area fencing to do this. He then walked down the sidewalk and at Kianti’s leaned into their outdoor seating area and grabbed a shaker of cheese took the lid off and when an unsuspecting young woman came down the side walk threw it directly into her face and eyes. He threw the glass container down on the sidewalk and shattered the glass and grabbed a wine bottle off a table and in the next block went over to a park car and with the bottle and smashed in the windshield. At the moment he punched the woman at Pizza My Heart my friend reached for his phone and called 911. At Kianti’s a young man who was eating there called 911. Another young man saw the whole thing and the four of us at a safe distance followed this individual until the police came so we could be witnesses and fill out reports. His path of destruction was from Pizza My Heart all the way to Pipeline. The person who owned the car was a young woman in her 20’s who was visiting Santa Cruz and the new car was a rental. There were children at Pizza My Heart and Kianti’s. I could of left Pizza My heart a second earlier and been the one punched. Welcome to Santa Cruz. Enjoy your slice of Pizza. Support a local business and enjoy eating outside. Be a fucker and punch women, throw things in women’s faces and smash a car window with a bottle and get a meal and a cot for a night and then back out you go.”

No more Ryan Coonerty folks. Stop the madness already. 

Adios Scott Collins

This week, we bid a fond farewell and adieu to Deputy City Manager Scott Collins, who was hired  this week to be the new Morro Bay city manager. Scott’s last day on the job in Santa Cruz will be Nov. 3rd. He’s worked for the city of Santa Cruz for about 6 years. Personally, I’ve been told through the grapevine that Scott reads the Weekly Dump on occasion, and if he’s reading this, I wish you well in your new job. I’m quite jealous actually. It’s one hell of a job in a great place to live. Don’t look back amigo. Never look back. But feel free to keep reading about us here after you leave!

UCSC Crime Reports

I thought this was an interesting report. I know we read a lot about the crime numbers in Santa Cruz, the reports being put out by both the city and the county. But how about the crime numbers from UCSC? More than 1,300 liquor violations. More than 1,200 drug violations reported last year. Another new report shows a 16 percent rise in liquor and drug violations from 2015 to 2016 at the university.

Check Out Our Twitter Feed for More Mierda!

Be sure to check out and follow our Twitter feed for even more mierda! Even though the Dump only comes your way once a week, I try to post breaking news and updates on other days as well. So check us out and follow us on Twitter for even more updates about real time news in Santa Cruz you might not otherwise hear about.

Get The Dump Delivered Each Week!

Don’t forget you can sign up and have the Weekly Dump automatically delivered to your email each week! Just click that little box in the bottom right corner of any page that says “Follow the Weekly Dump!” and sign up! All we need is an email.

18 Comments

  1. Jerry Brown (what a bigger disappointment he has turned out to be especially in the area of public safety) signed several bills mid week having to do with further “keep the criminals out of jail at all costs” measures for adults and juveniles. Sounds to me like a Salazar ruling will come pretty quickly (and hopefully not in favor of Maddy’s murderer being tried as a juvenile). There was some additional shocking and horrible professional testimony regarding this monstrous creature so I hope I am wrong and that AJ is rightfully charged as an adult. Maybe the judges here in town can listen to public sentiment and not just rubber stamp what will be the cheapest for the state and the most expensive (in all ways) for the public at large.

  2. See if I have this straight- the various city agencies answer to the city manager. The city manager is the only employee of the city council. The mayor leads the council.
    If I have this right- everything is the mayor’s fault. From the rampant crime to the shithole that exists on Front & Water.
    Answer- recall Chase.

    • The city agencies do answer up to the city manager. I wouldn’t say he’s the only employee to the city council but he’s at the top of the food chain. If he keeps them happy, they keep him happy by rubber stamping his evaluations behind closed doors and keeping him happily employed in a well paying job with good benefits. In return, he and his “staff” run interference for the city council. The “mayor” is not much more than a figure head position which pads one’s resume. There are some slight differences in pay, and the main benefit is being able to set the initial consent agenda (and the photo ops of course). If anyone is to blame for the chaos, my order of blame goes 1. Coonerty (he’s in the best position to enforce rules in the city on the county level with county money) 2. Bernal (he’s the one who really runs the city) 3. Bernal’s staff (city council too often just cave to what they recommend) 4. Local judges (too lenient) 5. Jerry Brown (and his friends who voted for AB109 and Props. 47 and 57). Chase might be good at some of the mayor stuff (the photo ops for instance) and but she’s pretty bad at actually getting stuff done. Unless you want to chat about it. She apparently likes to klatch.

  3. “Krohn”, not “Khron”.

  4. Ben Dover, In your opening paragraph, you wrote about ICE and the “vulnerable local Hispanic community” in the context oI ICE rounding up illegal aliens? What are you talking about? I’m thinking we need MORE arrests OF MORE “local illegal criminals, Hispanic or not” – to get them the Hell into fed lockup or outta here and then deported to where they came from. I thought I was sympathetic to your past pro-law enforcement editorials – but maybe I’m missing your true thinking. Regardless of collateral damage to the “law abiding Hispanic community” girlfriends of drug gang illegal aliens – that ICE might arrest” – do you seriously believe these ‘vulnerable” girlfriends don’t know what their gang banger boys are doing? Come on buddy!

    • I’ve never been in favor of just rounding up illegals solely based on immigration status. What I don’t like about “sanctuary” anything is people blowing their horn about it for personal attention or gain (basically pandering) for something that’s just a gesture, one that puts people at real risk. Not all of the “collateral damage” are cholas. Some of it involves grandparents, possible elder abuse, underage kids, possible human trafficking, etc. Some of it really is collateral damage. I’m all for deporting the garbage out of Santa Cruz and out of the country. I support working with ICE for that goal. I’d rather have a mutually beneficial relationship between our local law enforcement and ICE than an angry, defensive, confrontational relationship that lacks trust on both sides. Which is what we have now.

      • I’m sure we could agree that its safer to arrest the gang bangers at jail or court. That way the collateral damage issue is moot. Just like ISIS in Raqua or Mosul, the bad guys try to surround themselves with innocents as camoflage. You should be Mayor Ben. And Hugh City Manager. You guys really know your stuff. Keep it up. Maybe Handy Andy may actually arrest a gang banger by something other than an accidental traffic stop – which SCPD reported yesterday.

  5. Hugh’s comments are so true. Bravo to you both for excellent reporting.

  6. Johnny at the Harbor

    Once again the State of California and Jerry (Moonbean) Brown sits on their own face by declaring California a “Sanctuary State” To all those caught up in the ICE raids you can thank good old Jerry for once again making a stupid decision….BTW, you DACA folks might want to stop waving the Mexican Flag during your protests cuz its really dumb to wave the flag of a country you are afraid of being deported to….Duh!!! Thanks again Ben…you tell it like it is…..

  7. Hasn’t Mayor Chase refused to work with ICE too? Seems doesn’t seem to support Law Enforcement. She voted against Safe Parks, she hasn’t helped with the crime problems in Santa Cruz, just what does she do?

    • Mayor Chase is left of left politically. She wouldn’t discuss this while running for city council, she just sat back and smiled nicely. Is she really interested in public safety? Oh hell no.

    • She likes photo ops and coffee klatchs at the MAH. And she likes to speak in platitudes!

Leave a Reply to Ed O'Neill Cancel

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *