Downtown New Year’s Eve Party is Pretty Uneventful
At least when it came to crime this year! According to SCPD reports, they made a few of the usual drunk in public and probation/bond violation arrests but there were no major incidents. They estimated the crowd downtown at the clock tower to be about 1,500 and said officers responded to 83 calls for service. Thank you Santa Cruz for being mostly well behaved downtown this year! And even the illegal fireworks weren’t that bad!
Homeless Man Dies on Sidewalk Next to Downtown Post Office
Last Friday, a homeless man died along the sidewalk next to the Post Office in downtown Santa Cruz. Is anyone actually surprised by this news? This is what happens when our willfully ignorant police chief refuses to enforce the law. He allows people to just set up tents in the middle of the sidewalk, where they can go to shoot up or die. How is this compassionate? Andy Mills puts the ASS in compassionate. He’s got no sack. He’s a puppet and a political pawn to the city manager and the city council. And he obviously doesn’t understand the ENFORCEMENT part of Law ENFORCEMENT. Despite what you might hear from grifters and liars looking to capitalize on and manipulate the poor man’s death, he did not freeze to death. He was a well known (to authorities anyways) alcoholic who refused to stay at local shelters because they wouldn’t let him drink there. How many of our local homeless are like him? How many choose the bottle (or the needle) over shelter and treatment? We’ll never know as long as we refuse to address the obvious. As long as the county chooses the jail and the street as the preferred options over actually investing county money in drug and mental health treatment programs, guys like this will continue to die on our sidewalks downtown. We coddle people to death in Santa Cruz. We don’t give people what they need. We give them what they want.
Assault With a Nine Iron
Monday around noon, Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the area near Soquel Drive and Soquel Avenue after getting reports a man assaulted someone with a golf club. When they arrived on scene, they found a victim with visible injuries and arrested a 49 year old male transient for assault with a deadly weapon. Last check he was still sitting in county jail with bail set at $25K. He’s been arrested 8 times locally since 2014. We keep swinging and whiffing with this guy. Maybe someone at the county can explain why to the latest victim.
Shiv the Guy a Break Already!
Last Friday morning around 10AM, deputies at the Santa Cruz County jail found some kind of manufactured weapon in the possession of a 45 year old male inmate. He’s been arrested 24 times locally since 2015. More new charges were added to his already impressive and extensive rap sheet. But at least he’s still in jail. For now!
CHP Shuts Down Street Racers on Highway 1 near Aptos
On Saturday, about 20 cars attempted to race each other along Highway 1 in Aptos. Passengers in the cars racing were seen hanging out car windows recording each other. CHP officers shut it down and issued numerous citations.
Just Mething Around on the West Side
Monday around noon, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office Narcotic Enforcement Team (NET) arrested a 57 year old transient male in his car near Shaffer Road and Delaware Avenue. The man was on searchable probation and appeared to be hiding something under his seat so deputies searched the car and found more than two ounces of methamphetamine and about 10 grams of heroin. Investigators later conducted a search of a storage unit the suspect uses and found nearly eleven POUNDS of methamphetamine, scales, packaging and cash. He was booked on additional charges for possession of controlled substances for sales. Arrested 7 times locally since 2014. This is what county probation delivers to us weekly! At least this time he’s still sitting in county jail with bail set at $100K.
Saint Joe Isn’t Impressed
Monday morning around 12:30AM, SCPD responded to the Shrine of St. Joseph church on the 400 block of West Cliff Drive for a report of vandalism to the church property. They arrested a 42 year old male and charged him with vandalism. And you know what else they charged him with? Do I need to even say it? A probation violation! You don’t say! He’s been arrested 12 times local since 2014. County probation. Making the Baby Jesus cry. The gift that keeps on giving!
Better Call Wendy!
It’s the boy who refused to grow up! Where’s Tinker Bell? Did she get busted too?
Killing Her Softly With Our Song and Dance
Monday morning around 10AM, SCPD responded to the area near Shaffer Road and the railroad tracks where they arrested a 31 year old transient woman for resisting arrest and assault on a peace officer. Santa Cruz has been slowly killing this poor woman for the past 9 years through coddling and idiot compassion. Euthanasia. It’s one way of dealing with the local junkie problem. Keep feeding them more junk.
Turnstilers of the Week
Early Thursday morning, Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of numerous cars being broken into near the area of Valley Drive and Plateau Drive in Felton. While investigating, deputies saw an occupied car possibly matching the description of the suspect’s car and when they attempted to stop it, the driver refused to initially pull over, resulting in a low speed pursuit. The driver and a passenger were eventually arrested on Gail Drive in Felton on drug charges, warrants, probation violations and evading law enforcement.
He’s Counting the Days
Last Friday night around 6PM, SCPD responded to the 100 block of Walnut Avenue where they eventually arrested a 32 year old male for being drunk in public, trespassing, and resisting arrest. He listed his occupation as “accountant”. Not the guy I want doing my taxes. Last check he was surprisingly still in county jail.
Running in the Wrong Direction
Watsonville Police arrested a man on New Year’s Day who tried to evade them and was caught and arrested by another officer across the street from the police station. The 32 year old male, who was a known gang member, was a passenger in the back seat of a car that was pulled over by officers on Elm Street. As soon as the car stopped, the suspect got out of the vehicle and ran off. He was arrested on several charges, including being a felon in possession of a firearm and resisting arrest. A loaded gun that the suspect tossed while running from officers was recovered and booked into evidence. The driver of the vehicle was also arrested.
Capitola Wharf Closed Indefinitely Due to Storm Damage
The city of Capitola has closed their municipal wharf indefinitely after extensive damage was discovered to the pilings that support the wharf. Heavy waves and surf damaged and broke a couple of pilings which support a large crane that is used to lower and lift boats out of the water. The 160 year old pier will remain closed indefinitely until the emergency work can be completed to repair the damaged pilings.
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Ya well I’ve always said Santa Cruz is the perfect place to go and throw yourself away-as the “hippie turned hard drug culture “ would say there are only harming themselves. But once you’ve decided to throw your life away anything and everyone you come into contact with suffers, especially the family and friends ect ect of these “people “. I had one guy tell me that hating a drug addict is the same as hating someone with a terminal illness THE RAW STUPIDITY NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE ME! Tell someone with a terminal illness that. Ya to many “ help the homeless “ organizations in this town brain wash these addicts { like they need more crap entering there mangled minds} into thinking there the victims and the rest of society needs to just let them be-Horse manure!! To the MAX!!
I’ve told many of these street people that there playing a dangerous game being on the streets but towns/places run the way SC is run makes it beyond easy to just be on the streets and not have a real life. I wonder if all these “ help the homeless organizations “ had to 100% fund themselves out of pocket and get no recognition and no outside help with money and have to use there own homes/property, just how many there would be.
I’ve been Guarding here in downtown SC bout 6 months now and I have seen improvement but just in the places I Gaurd because I take my job seriously and I call PD when I have to cause It’s all just a big game really. Especially when you realize just how many street people are out here 24/7 hours on drugs up to no good and knowing they really don’t get into trouble doing what they want when they want. And a Ben has been keepn us informed to the best of his abilities and wow he does a super awesome job! Oh. One of D&A’s comedy house ticket windows was broken out about a week ago and the lil parking area between the galleria and the 3 story parking garage is still on track with a broken vehicle window about every 3 days to three in one night- same person/people is my guess. Back to my foot patrol
Happy New Year !!
Thank you, for another wonderful year of Mierda !
I think every street racer needs to have their car impounded. Ticketing won’t work. It’s a joke.
Thank you for the updates! Am enjoying your use of puns!
At least the sideshowers, donuts doers/rubber drag burners over on the West Side Delaware do it in the early am, a considerate bunch they are (haha). I had the occasion to visit Renee Golder for city council FB site and I saw a “ask Renee a question” box so I did. Lo and behold she was on-line and answered questions! Although her page and web site are pretty generic (“make the city better”) she is for (or against) a lot of things I am also, so I am warming up to the idea there is more than hope I didn’t waste 4 months on the recall. I suspect we didn’t get more candidates because there are those who are waiting until Nov to get a full term and didn’t want to risk the effort if the recall failed, but maybe it is better this way. Like in retailing, too many choices and no body buys anything or anything. The most informed electorate in history will have a pretty clear choice this time, and I hope it carries into Nov which will matter perhaps even more.
To respond to Jami’s comment above I completely agree with the impound the car idea. In this situation and a lot of similar situations the CHP or responding officers can only ticket for mechanical violations on the cars because they have to witness the more serious acts to charge them more seriously. ✌️
Hey Ben are you still doing podcasts the most recent one I’m able to find is from 7-7-19. I’ve tried other apps but that’s the most resent Pod cast of yours I can find
im so glad the hospitals are reporting the number of meth related deaths. rip to the people dying of that drug. and what else… pounds of meth… how many potential new addicts is that? or assaults? unreal.
the attitude i pick up from people into this drug culture is, “omg ur gonna take the drugs away, what will we do with our days??!!” no joke. heres what you can do. instead of assaulting people, getting people hooked on deadly drugs till they meet an untimely death, trashing the best beach in northern california… INSTEAD of that- you can go get an acoustic guitar for 100 bucks and learn a few chords and lyrics. u can get some art supplies and draw some pictures. make a sand castle. go do some construction gigs on craigslist. do something productive.
i personally dont believe death is the end. i think we come back here. so what are u going to do with forever? forever can be daunting. u might want to learn some creative skills and ways to entertain yourself. isnt that what those elves in lord of the rings say. forever can be a burden.
well maybe instead of making it one long miserable torture chamber u could sing and dance and paint someone a picture. u dont have to be rich to be creative. that hierarchy of needs is b.s. — jazz and rock came out of the most poor and oppressed culture in this country. live it up a little guys step away from the ww2 drugs.
“He was a well known (to authorities anyways) alcoholic who refused to stay at local shelters because they wouldn’t let him drink there. How many of our local homeless are like him? How many choose the bottle (or the needle) over shelter and treatment? We’ll never know as long as we refuse to address the obvious. As long as the county chooses the jail and the street as the preferred options over actually investing county money in drug and mental health treatment programs, guys like this will continue to die on our sidewalks downtown.”
What percentage of super hardcore alcoholics have successfully been treated in rehab, ever? It seems to me the majority (homeless or not) drink themselves to death anyway regardless of options. How much $$ in resources are you willing to spend to keep them alive? Keep in mind that resources are limited, and whatever is spent on this guy won’t be spent on someone more worthy – i.e., someone who wants to live.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.
Apropos your last line….maybe he’d be more inclined to drink if it was vodka.
Standing in the checkout line at the downtown CVS next to Trader Joe’s…two guys, maybe in their late 30’s, each buying a bottle of vodka. As I walk out they’re sitting on the sidewalk drinking, one guy guy says to the other that he’s “homeless by choice.” Right there is one of the biggest problem I have with the homeless issue in this town. Drugged, drinking or not, if they’re homeless by choice it means they don’t want to follow rules, just want to suck up the freebies this town offers while taking advantage of local lax policing. The homeless industry doesn’t want to distinguish between those who genuinely need help, the freeloaders, and the people who are drugged and/or mentally incapacitated. The latter are a danger to themselves and possibly to others, and should be institutionalized. This is beyond a local problem; California (and the whole country) needs to build humane, state of the art, institutions. Our legislators need to craft laws to protect the people within those institutions while protecting society at large from them. I could rail on endlessly about Mills, Bernal, and all the other admin stupidity that happens here, but time and energy is better spent by lobbying our legislators in Sacramento.
Amen.
Ben, tell us how you really feel about Chief Mills.
In a give thanks kind of moment here, I would say it could be worse. The Police chief in Atlanta has now instituted a “zero-chase” policy where officers are not to chase criminals in car pursuits, the rational given is those are too great a threat to police and civilian life considering the courts don’t hold the criminals accountable. No really. Quote the Police chief “I don’t want to see us cost someone their life in pursuit of an auto theft person or a burglar, when the courts aren’t even going to hold them accountable” unquote.