Anarchistcook’s Weblog

Santa Cruz and the theater of hypocrisy, carnage and suffering

The “Buzz Windrip” type characters of Santa Cruz planned to read the 1935 dystopian political novel written by American author Sinclair Lewis. A Good Times cover story promoting Bookshop Santa Cruz’s reading of “It Can’t Happen Here” warned that if we didn’t vote for the political party waging a genocide in Palestine and arming far-right Nazi groups in Ukraine that Trump would come to power. The fascist dictator Buzz Windrip of Lewis’s text.

Before that July 19th The 418 Project event featuring Congressman Jimmy Panetta and Mayor Fred Keeley I visited my friends on the levee handing out some of the last of the announcements for that evenings “It is Already Happening Here” protest. As I walked up to one group perching along the levee I could hear two Santa Cruz Police officers chatting with several tent occupants about providing pizza. Once the officers moved on I asked about this pizza donation. They explained that the police claimed they would give you pizza if you took a drug test. They were not sure if that offer was still good if you tested positive.

Joe Shultz of India Joze met me at the Trader Joe’s parking lot delivering ice tea for the 6:00 pm rally. We set up the table with pastries, sandwiches and cold drinks on the River Street sidewalk. The first of those from the levee joined us for a snack. I saw a few people assembling outside the front door of the theater so not wishing to waste the last of my flyers I ambled down to share them with the people waiting to hear the congressman and mayor. A security guard dashed out of the venue and thrusting two white envelopes at me as he mumbled something about my being banned from the area. I shared that I didn’t care and continued passing out flyers until he summoned one of Santa Cruz’s police officers. To avoid a pre-protest arrest I wandered off to retrieve my bullhorn returning to blast my message to those in my banned area. “It’s already happening. You don’t need to wait for Trump. A genocide sounds like fascism. Arming Nazis in Ukraine sounds like fascism. Sweeping the homeless also sounds like fascism”.

It wasn’t long before a crowd of protesters arrived and I suggested they could move from the sidewalk and take the action directly outside the entrance to the event. Before long several dozen people arched around the people lining up to get in. I gave my bullhorn to one of the Palestinian activists and joined the group holding our “Stop the Sweeps” banner defying the threat of arrest.

Wallace Baine writes in Lookout Santa Cruz “Several dozen protesters, armed with bullhorns, drums and flamethrower passions, ringed the theater, creating a din that the ‘actors’ inside had to nearly shout over. On top of that, a few protesters found their way into the audience and, at least five times, interrupted the play reading with loud denunciations aimed at the panelists.”

After the spoiled political theater ended it was clear from their distressed looking faces that Keeley and Panetta were desperate to flee their free speech circus.

I opened those two envelopes the next morning discovering that The 418 Project executive director Laura Bishop’s letter that I was “persona non grata” adding “person not welcome” until August 1, 2034. You read that right, a decade long ban “at 155 River Street or any event held elsewhere by The 418 Project.” The second letter also banned me from the Galleria Mall for 10 years.

Sinclair Lewis’s novel warned that Buzz Windrip was an enemy of free speech, adding an interesting twist to my pre-ban letters seeking to silence the protest. This is not too much of surprise. The event’s host, Bookshop Santa Cruz commemorated “Banned Books Month” while owner Casey Coonerty-Protti’s husband Michel Protti directed the unit at Meta that silenced medical professionals who were critical of Trump’s COVID policies, posts detailing the arming of far-right Azov Nazis by the Biden administration and the ugly truth of the genocide in Gaza.

Fascism is a family affair for the Coonerty folks. Casey’s brother is former county Supervisor Ryan Coonerty. A 2012 Monterey Herald article titled “‘Predictive policing’ gets capital boost” reports that “Attorney Caleb Baskin and Councilman Ryan Coonerty have taken the experimental ‘predictive policing’ program used by the Santa Cruz Police Department and created software that they hope to sell to law enforcement agencies around the nation. The duo, who founded the co-working business NextSpace, say they’ve raised more than $1 million so far to fund their newest venture.”

The article continues, “The program has gained international media attention — and the attention of law enforcement agencies nationwide, many asking how they can get the program.”

“Based on such requests, Zach Friend helped coordinate a meeting between Mohler and Baskin and Coonerty to discuss the idea of creating a business.”

“Baskin, 36, and Coonerty, 38, say investors who’ve helped fund their venture include Plantronics CEO Ken Kannappan, former eBay executive Rob Chesnut and Coonerty’s brother-in-law Michel Protti, a vice president at Yahoo.”

PredPol is based on an analytics model developed by a group of researchers, including mathematician George Mohler of Santa Clara University and Jeff Brantingham at UCLA’s Department of Anthropology.

In 2018 theverge.com posted, “Jeff Brantingham is as close as it gets to putting a face on the controversial practice of ‘predictive policing.’ Over the past decade, the University of California-Los Angeles anthropology professor adapted his Pentagon-funded research in forecasting battlefield casualties in Iraq to predicting crime for American police departments, patenting his research and founding a for-profit company named PredPol, LLC.”

A June 2021 article “Stop LAPD Spying Sues LAPD to Uncover Communications with UCLA Professor Who Founded PredPol “ reports on opposition to this dystopian racist police state software started by Ryan Coonerty.

In 2019, a group of 68 UCLA professors and graduate students sent a letter to LAPD condemning Professor Brantingham’s work on “predictive” policing technologies. And in June 2020, over 1,400 academic mathematicians joined a public letter condemning mathematical research that contributes to racist policing. The letter singled out Professor Brantingham’s work with LAPD and named PredPol’s “racist consequences.”

Posted on datasmart.hks.harvard.edu in 2013, “Dr. George Mohler could not have foreseen the deluge that descended upon him at Santa Clara University, shortly after local police adopted his groundbreaking algorithm in July 2011 and media reported that his new software program was taking criminals off the streets.”

“It may seem a stretch, but the model of post-earthquake temblors is very similar to that of criminal activity,” Dr. Mohler says. “Criminals want to replicate their successes, they go back to similar locations, they repeat their crimes — it’s almost identical to how aftershocks roll out after earthquakes, following predictable fault lines and timetables.”

“In 2010, Dr. Mohler took his seismology theory north to Santa Clara University, where he joined as assistant professor of mathematics and computer science, married and started a family. Then serendipity struck — he met Zach Friend, a public information officer and crime analyst with the Santa Clara police. Friend was intrigued by the potential of predictive analytics; soon he and Dr. Mohler were brainstorming how the latter’s algorithm to track earthquake aftershocks could be adapted for police work.”

“We met several times and decided to try for deployment with the Santa Cruz police,” Dr. Mohler says. “I wrote the prototype software and gave it to the police in July 2011. It turns out Zach was a media mastermind — he’d worked in the press office of the 2008 Obama campaign. Once PopSci and The New York Times picked up the story, it was off to the races.”

It was fitting that someone supporting the genocide in Gaza and the arming of Azov far-right military units in Ukraine would be reading a play warning of fascism. His April 20, 2024 post on his blog announced his support for more war as he writes, “The package would deliver critical support for Ukraine in its efforts to push back against Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression, safeguard Taiwan from an advancing China, and ensure the security of the nation of Israel in a volatile Middle East.”

“The $95 billion national security package includes; $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, $8 billion to bolster defense capabilities in the Indo-Pacific, and $9 billion for global humanitarian assistance.” Meanwhile the City of Santa Cruz is getting $4 million to clear the homeless from outside the homeless shelter.

Bookshop Santa Cruz is not shy about hosting war criminals. They invited a former CIA Director to speak on the need to expand the war on terrorism on September 10, 2018 at Peace United Church. Several of us who protest Panetta’s call for more war were banned from Bookshop Santa Cruz for life but Casey changed her mind realizing I was helping organize an event with Chris Hedges and she had already ordered copies of his books.

Panetta has been a solider advancing the agenda of the Empire for decades. When Panetta was Clinton’s chief of staff the administration’s sanctions and no-fly zone killed more than 560,000 children according to a study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

A December 12, 2011, Voice of America report noted “U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is on a surprise visit to Afghanistan, where he says 2011 will mark a turning point in the 10-year-old war.” Panetta would denounce Biden’s hasty evacuation 10 years later after tens of thousands of Afghans had been killed.

The locally owned Bookshop Santa Cruz is not the innocent free speech defender of democracy as it likes to project. Like others in Santa Cruz who seek to project a “do no harm” image many are direct participants in the creation of a frightening dystopian digital panopticon complete with robotic warfare.

An officer of the anti-homeless hate group Take Back Santa Cruz is the husband of Google’s general counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado. We received a snap shot of Manuel’s emails between himself, City Manager Martin Bernal, Mayor Donna Meyers and Republican City Councilperson Renee Golder coordinating efforts to rid Santa Cruz of the homeless.

In a December 18, 2020, email Manuel thanks Martin for the week before’s zoom meeting writing about striping Delaware where many living in vehicles sleep, stepping up enforcement of all parking rule “(not just 72-hour limit)” and this “- Update on why some folks such as Keith McHenry (parked on McPherson) and Alicia Kuhl (parked on Delaware) have not been towed despite receiving so many tickets.” It is a relief to learn that their intelligence on my parking locations and ticket reality is so inept.

Google is one of many companies advancing slaughter in Gaza with their product Project Nimbus. This $1.2 billion joint contract between Google and Amazon signed in 2021 provides cloud computing infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology services to the Israeli government and its military.

A staff person who attended the 2 by 2 meetings between city and county officials shared the Halimah DeLaine Prado exchange with County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty and Mayor Donna  Meyers.  Meyers and Coonerty talked about busing the homeless to Camp Roberts California National Guard Base in Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties.

Facebook is another local CIA linked member of the national security state. Investigative journalist Whitney Webb’s April 12, 2021 article “The Military Origins of Facebook” writes”Facebook’s growing role in the ever-expanding surveillance and ‘pre-crime’ apparatus of the national security state demands new scrutiny of the company’s origins and its products as they relate to a former, controversial DARPA-run surveillance program that was essentially analogous to what is currently the world’s largest social network.” According to Meta’s website Ryan Coonerty’s brother-in-law Michel Protti is the head of privacy at Facebook.

Webb writes “In mid-February, Daniel Baker, a US veteran described by the media as ‘anti-Trump, anti-government, anti-white supremacist, and anti-police,’ was charged by a Florida grand jury with two counts of ‘transmitting a communication in interstate commerce containing a threat to kidnap or injure.’”

“The communication in question had been posted by Baker on Facebook, where he had created an event page to organize an armed counter-rally to one planned by Donald Trump supporters at the Florida capital of Tallahassee on January 6. ‘If you are afraid to die fighting the enemy, then stay in bed and live. Call all of your friends and Rise Up!,’ Baker had written on his Facebook event page.”

“Baker’s case is notable as it is one of the first ‘precrime’ arrests based entirely on social media posts—the logical conclusion of the Trump administration’s, and now Biden administration’s, push to normalize arresting individuals for online posts to prevent violent acts before they can happen. From the increasing sophistication of US intelligence/military contractor Palantir’s predictive policing programs to the formal announcement of the Justice Department’s Disruption and Early Engagement Program in 2019 to Biden’s first budget, which contains $111 million for pursuing and managing ‘increasing domestic terrorism caseloads,’ the steady advance toward a precrime-centered ‘war on domestic terror’ has been notable under every post-9/11 presidential administration.’”

Palantir was in the news the night Congressman Panetta and Mayor Keeley read “It Can’t Happen Here”. Palantir’s co-founders Joe Lonsdale and Peter Thiel announced that they would be supporting Donald Trump and JD Vance. Peter Thiel is the puppet master behind JD Vance’s career from setting him up in his Mithril Capital hedge fund, his book and movie deals, the US Senate to his rise as Trump’s Vice Presidential running mate. The “Swamp” is already in Trump’s tent. Another Thiel associate, the military contractor Elon Musk also pledged support for the Trump ticket assuring the wars will continue no matter who is elected.

While Palantir is donating millions to Trump’s campaign they are also bragging in their ads that their AI software was used by the FBI to nab nearly 1,000 January 6th Trump supporters.

Palantir serves as a contractor to all 17 of the U.S. intelligence agencies, as well as many other U.S. federal agencies including the Pentagon. It was largely funded into existence by the CIA’s In-Q-Tel and the CIA was Palantir’s only client from 2005 until 2008, during which time the CIA was a key part of directing Palantir’s product development.

James Bamford writes in the April 2024 issue of the Nation, “ Earlier this month saw a continuation of that effort, with the targeting of three well-marked and fully approved aid vehicles belonging to World Central Kitchen, killing their seven occupants and ensuring that the food would never reach those dying of starvation. The targeting was precise—placing missiles dead center in the aid agency’s rooftop logos. Israel, however, said it was simply a mistake, similar to the ‘mistaken’ killing of nearly 200 other aid workers in just a matter of months—more than all the aid workers killed in all the wars in the rest of the world over the last 30 years combined, according to the Aid Worker Security Database.”

“Such horrendous ‘mistakes’ are hard to understand, considering the enormous amount of advanced targeting AI hardware and software provided to the Israeli military and spy agencies—some of it by one American company in particular: Palantir Technologies. “We stand with Israel,” the Denver-based company said in posts on X and LinkedIn. “The board of directors of Palantir will be gathering in Tel Aviv next week for its first meeting of the new year. Our work in the region has never been more vital. And it will continue.” As one of the world’s most advanced data-mining companies, with ties to the CIA, Palantir’s ‘work’ was supplying Israel’s military and intelligence agencies with advanced and powerful targeting capabilities—the precise capabilities that allowed Israel to place three drone-fired missiles into three clearly marked aid vehicles.”

Cicero Institute’s Joe Lonsdale

Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale’s corporate profile says he is a technology entrepreneur and investor. He is the managing partner at 8VC, a US-based venture capital firm that manages several billion dollars in committed capital. He was an early institutional investor in several technology startups including the Santa Cruz military contractor Joby Aviation. Ryan Coonerty’s investor Ken Kannappan sold his Plantronics building to Joby Aviation in November 2022. The Joby Aviation website noted in April 2022 that the U.S. Air Force’s Agility Prime program would net more than $45 million for the Santa Cruz company. 

“Building on more than five years of engagement with defense agencies, the expanded contract leverages Joby’s years of research and technology development and will include new testing to evaluate Joby’s advanced technologies. It brings the potential value of the total contract to more than $75 million.”

Joe Lonsdale also started the Cicero Institute, a policy group that delivers “entrepreneurial solutions to public problems.” The Cicero Institute campaigns for laws that allow private competition in government areas such as health care, housing, and education.

The Cicero Institute provides legislative templates to states and cities.

His website on homelessness starts, “States should ban unauthorized street camping.”

“Street camps are dangerous to the public and the vulnerable homeless alike. They are often hotbeds of violence, especially against women and children— especially those who are homeless themselves.”

“The public widely supports enforcing ordinances against dangerous street camps and moving individuals into emergency shelters.”

He goes on to write, “States should amend civil commitment laws to make it easier to help those who cannot help themselves — and keep them out of prison” adding, “Many street homeless suffer from chronic and untreated mental illness. For those that are a public nuisance or a danger to themselves or others, there must be a third option besides prison and abandonment.”

So far the Cicero Institute, has placed ten bills in at least eight states including Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, Florida and Wisconsin. Texas became the first state to pass such a law in 2021, and Tennessee and Missouri followed in 2022.

Cynthia Griffith wrote about Wisconsin’s Assembly Bill 689 and Senate Bill 669 on the Invisible People website, “Concentration camps and secret committees, out-of-state lobbyists, and flat-out lies — as unbelievable and terrifying as it sounds, this is a glimpse into what’s happening behind closed doors in 2024 Wisconsin.”

And it gets even worse. “Kentucky GOP’s New Bill Decriminalizes Use of Deadly Force Against the Unhoused” writes Zane McNeill for the January 17, 2024 edition of Truthout.

“Republican lawmakers in Kentucky introduced a bill last Tuesday that would criminalize homeless encampments and expand the state’s Stand Your Ground law to allow property owners to confront unhoused people with a gun. The bill, dubbed the “Safer Kentucky Act,” already has received more than 45 Republican co-sponsors and the Kentucky State Fraternal Order of Police has committed to testify in support of the legislation when it has a committee hearing.”

The Cicero Institute website notes, “On March 20, 2024, Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 1365 / SB 1530, which will make Florida a leading state in the fight against the failed homelessness policies that have wreaked havoc on so many American cities.”

Joe Lonsdale writes in his blog, “It has been a momentous few weeks for homeless policy in the United States. As you may know, this has been a keystone policy area for us since founding the Cicero Institute, and we have become the leading organizational voice for reform, as well as a resource for state leaders who want to take bold action. In Florida, we were proud to work with lawmakers on a legislative package that meets the needs of the state and emphasizes the incentives & accountability model that we pioneered at Cicero.”

Joe Lonsdale had another win on April 22, 2024 with the US Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v Johnson letting localities impose criminal penalties for acts like public camping and public sleeping without violating the Eighth Amendment — even if they lack sufficient available shelter space to accommodate their unhoused population.

Democratic mayors and governors pushed to have the meager protections of the Grants Pass case overturned. “Today’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court provides state and local officials the definitive authority to implement and enforce policies to clear unsafe encampments from our streets,” Newsom said in a statement after the ruling, “This decision removes the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials for years and limited their ability to deliver on common-sense measures to protect the safety and well-being of our communities.”

The bipartisan march to criminalize America’s homeless doesn’t need to wait for the election of Trump and Vance. It is happening now in Santa Cruz.

The city of Watsonville began to clear out a homeless encampment along the Pajaro River Levee on Monday July 22, 2024. It’s a process that is expected to last through August 2, 2024. The Santa Cruz Police posted eviction notices on tents throughout the Pogonip telling those who fled the sweeps at Harvey West and Coral Streets they had to remove their belongings by 9:00 am on July 29, 2024.

Jessica York writes in her April 19, 2024 Sentinel article “Santa Cruz receives $4M to address Harvey West, Coral Street homeless encampments”

“In April 2024 the city of Santa Cruz has been awarded a two-year $4 million state homeless encampment resolution grant.”

“During the two-year life of the Encampment Resolution Fund, granted via the state Department of Housing and Community Development, Santa Cruz would be expected to assist 55 people sleeping on the streets.” The city claims there are over 1,000 people living outside in the city and that is based on what seemed an intentionally poorly organize Point in Time Count.

In a June 4, 2024 email, Chief Executive Officer of Housing Matters Phil Kramer thanked Mayor Keeley, City Managers Matt Huffaker, Lisa Murphy, Larry Imwalle and Housing for Health Director Robert Ratner for clearing the area around the homeless shelter of the homeless.

“Hi all- Thanks you for your work to create a more welcoming and safe Coral Street for shelter guests, day services participants, staff and partners. I appreciate what a large undertaking this was and understand there is more infrastructure work (fencing, etc.) coming soon.”

“The sidewalks are stained and reek of urine. Is it possible for City staff to do some sidewalk powerwashing? If you give us authorization we might be able to do some of this cleaning work ourselves, or hire it out. Please let me know.

Thanks again,

Phil”

Deputy City Manager and girlfriend of Police Chief Bernie Escalante responds that afternoon by email.

“Hi Phil,

Thank you for recognizing the incredible undertaking this effort took to accomplish. We had nearly 20 employees out at the location on Monday, and we will continue to have our team in that location. We still have lots of work to do to try to break the cycle of people returning to that space. Our team is scheduled to power wash the sidewalks, and may have already done so by now. It may need multiple washes. I will let you know what the status is of the cleaning.”

“I look forward to working with Housing Matters as a valuable partner to help those individuals in and around Coral Street with our recently awarded Encampment Resolution Grant. This will help keep this location clear.”

The rush to remove the homeless got another boost when California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-1-24 on July 24, 2024, directing state and local officials to start removing homeless encampments stating that the recent Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v Johnson now empowers cities to enforce bans on sleeping outside in public. 

“Today I announced an executive order to move the process forward. We’re done, it’s time to move with urgency at the local level to clean up these sites, to focus on public health and focus on public safety. There are no longer any excuses,” Newsom said. “We now have no excuse with the Supreme Court decision.”

So, yes it is already happening here and is likely to get even more repressive as the noose of biometric IDs and programmable digital currency, an AI driven World War and the internment of homeless Americans is implemented by those very same people who struggled to read, “It Can’t Happen Here” at the Bookshop Santa Cruz event.

Keith McHenry – PO Box 422, Santa Cruz, CA 95061 USA – 575-770-3377