Your privilege is showing

this is a draft I'll be punching it up over the weekend so check back, if you want to torture yourself you can watch the video here

Just got home from a Santa Rosa city council meeting. I was there because they were considering a $1500 fee for "Free Speech Parades."

Short version of the history: in 1991 the city adopted an ordinance that established 3 (really on 2, one with an optional extension) Free Speech Parade routes, from Santa Rosa Middle School to Courthouse Square, or from Santa Rosa Junior College to Courthouse Square or Julliard Park. These routes were based on the protest patterns of the time (mostly anti-Gulf War 1, and protests against logging in Headwaters. Few of the marches i went to in those days stayed on those routes, but they didn't vary much either. The Earth First!/Headwaters marches usually went to the California Department of Forestry office on Ridgeway, the anti-war marches usually took the mall, the police accountability marches usually blockaded or occupied the lobby of the cop shop. But I was a ruffian, and irresponsible, and liked to drop the f-bomb... all still true, I guess.

Anyhow the old rule was that as long as folks stayed on the sidewalk and and followed the designated city approved route, they could march for free. If they deviated from the approved routes the city could attempt to recover expenses. Get that... this is law so words like "could" have a very specific meaning, basically if they want to; "attempt" means try, meaning that if the group being hit with charges disputes the charge there will be some mediation or adjudication. Doesn't matter since NONE OF THIS HAPPENED EVER. I can think of dozens of marches that left the "free speech" zone and where never charged a dime.

Then in April and May of 2006 there were back to back marches of over 10,000 people one commemorating Cesear Chavez, and the second for immigrant rights. This time not by mostly white college students/punk rockers/hippies/and folks from the peace churches, but by Mexicans, Latino/as and Chicano/as (and yes each of those words means something very different and if you use them interchangeably you're a racist). Anywho the powers that be got scared, tried to negotiate the march into a minimal impact, then levied ridiculous fees, and over the next year used every ham fisted divide and conquer trick in the book... to no avail and in 2007 there were again back to back marches for the same issues with over 10,000 folks attending.

So this year the city manager (who makes over $200,000 per year) an SRPD lieutenant (who makes over $100,000 per year) and the city attorney (another $200,000 per year) decided to reset the rules. The old rules were unenforced, inconsistent and out date. The new rule they proposed was a $1500 flat fee for all "Free Speech Parades" with over 3000 attendees (suddenly cops have incentive to over estimate crowds), the reason for this fee is to recover city expenses associated with law enforcement for the marches (basically 20-30 cops on overtime parked in intersections on the march route "directing traffic", something I did after school in the 4th grade as a volunteer). The actually city expense is estimated to be $10-$15,000, so the city manager said $1500 was a bargain, and since the city didn't exercise it's right to collect the "actual costs" for the past 2 years the new rule should be accepted.

There are obvious problems with the city managers thinking: why pay cops to do something 9 year olds can do for free, isn't police service part of what taxes already pay for, why are people expected to ask for permission to assemble, and the biggie: WHY WASN'T THIS A PROBLEM UNTIL MASSIVE NUMBERS OF BROWN PEOPLE STARTED MOVING?

So this was supposed to be a quickie and I'll cut to the chase so I can get some sleep and come back to this in the AM.

After what Mayor Bob Blanchard said was over 30 public comments (I didn't count) all against ANY fee. There was a go round of the city council explaining their positions and thinking. My summations are anything but unbiased.

Bob Blanchard (mayor): retired law enforcement, unable to think critically about anything a cop says, if a cop says there needs to be 30 cops pulling OT sitting in their cars watching the march go by, then that's what there needs to be... but maybe the city can be big hearted... but 10 cents on the dollar for the safety that cops bring is a lot of bang for the buck... and I got some very nasty e-mails and phone calls that I won't report on the content of other than to say they are in support of even higher fees... playing good cop bad cop by yourself is confusing Voted in support of the fee

John Sawyer (vice-mayor): Non-sequitor "last month we had to cut funding to 30 non-profits by 30% and eliminate it for next year, if we don't recover this $3000, we are taking out of the pockets of pregnant alcoholics"... what? this guy is hopeless, let's get him fired. Voted in support of the fee

Veronica Jacobi (council member): understands that protest is important, encourages folks to recycle and stay on the sidewalk... what? Voted against the fee

Lee Pierce (council member): closest to actually "getting it" on the council, talked about the march on Washington, and asks ironically if there was a fee for that... hell yeah! Voted against the fee

Susan Gorin (council member): wavered quite a bit, is concerned about the budget, realizes the $3K is a drop in the bucket (especially compared to the $60K that goes unrecovered from the Rose Parade and the Downtown Market)... OK, Voted against the fee

Carol Dean (council member): admonished us to act right, and reminded us that we were stealing from pregnant alcoholics... Sure thing weirdo, Voted against the fee

Jane Bender (council member): reminded me of my Grandma, and not in a good way, another admonishment to act responsibly with our new found ability to assemble in public and petition the government for redress of our grievances... OK OK OK, Voted against the fee


so for those keeping score: the two white guys voted for the fee, everyone else voted against it, even if it was for really confused and half-assed reasons in the end