pointless cop behavior

Have you seen the real estate prices in Santa Cruz lately? It is those million dollar homeowners who are paying his salary, not the voting college student who lives in a dorm. Did you ever think that the taxpayers actually don't mind him pissing you off? After all, you frantically got out your cellphone camera, or whatever, just in time to photo him without the status of the traffic signal. I think his point was made. He waved, smiled and you got bent out of shape, ranted online and posted some useless photos. I think his point was well-taken, don't you? Don't get so excited in the future over the little things, you'll live longer and possibly become a more focused activist. Again, great job!

Thank god we live in a democracy where the rich(who pay more taxes) don't have more of a political voice than the poor!

The real issue is how the pigs harass and enforce, not the activist. Don't let them shift the focus.

To be more honest, you don’t have a right to post a flyer on public property, and if it was on private property, you would have to get their consent. So no, no law was broken by him taking the sign down. Better luck next time.

and the pigs will lose

they feel threatened. GROW UP police. you are becoming your own worst enemy.

Do they teach the namecalling (pigs, nazi, troll) in the activist school handbook? Does it go something like this? Rule 9 : resort to namecalling whenever you don't have a legitimate rebuttal. Try no namecalling and keep it a clean debate and you might earn some credibilty. Playground childish namecallers get none on this website. I suugest you keep reading and pay attention this time. You might gain something and become a smarter activist if anything.

Thanks to Big Momma for the testimony that an on-duty officer (and a particularly nasty one in my experience) is tearing down political flyers. That's not part of his job. He's using his position to forward his (right-wing) political bias.

Brandt, who used to delight in walking the German shepard police dog along Pacific Ave. and insisting people refer to the dog as an "officer", is particularly abusive in tone when he deals with activists, delighting in scornful condescension.

Keep those reports coming. What about the false arrest of the Critical Mass activist who defended one of the bikers while the assailant was reportedly ignored by the police? Any updates?

I am an activist and while I think that reporting on legitimate instances of police abuse is fine, this inflammatory kind of posting is unhelpful and borders on hatemongering.

Bigmomma, when you stereotype groups of people by labeling them as a type of unclean animal, how is that helping to bring about peace and justice in the world? If you walk around insulting other people, is it surprising that your negativity is returned back to you? Just because you've been wronged by one person who is a member of a group of people, does that make it right for you to stereotype all the members of that group? Isn't that like racial or gender-based stereotypes?

I just want to mention that you can choose your job and how you handel yourself in that job. The ammount of melanin or the X-Y make up in your genetic's is not a choice. This cop had to go out of his way to be a dick. Police have a duty to society, trying to instigate activists into fights or geting arrested is not part of what they are supposed to be doing. In my MANY expeirences with police I have found them to be most interested in protecting the rich. A perfect example was the LA/Rodney King Riots I lived through. The cops surrounded Beverly Hills and let the rest of the city go to hell. I do not know if you were at this protest but this cop was (and is) a real ass hole. I guess thats how I got such a perfect picture. I also want to say that I know there are "good" cops out there but a good cop is like a good soldier, rare and far between and they can spoil quikly. Oh and I didn't mean to insult any real pigs.
I don't believe I am a hatemonger, I had to share my perception and the pictures because they make me laugh and they are my reality. I do hope people will beware encountering this fellow in their fights for peace and justice.

Rarely do well behaved women make history. And back at to the So. Centeral Farm.... Who were the cops protecting in LA? Horowitz or the farmers? Money or people? Thanks to momma for the pictures!! Abuse is abuse regardless of its severity. Nip it in the bud. Everone should carry cameras for protection and information gathering.

If you really think this was some form of totalitarian action that suppresses your freedom, you really are unhinged. Please, for the love, come back to reality.

I have already stated that I think it is important that people report and act on instances of police abuses. Do not mistate my position.

However, the way this article is written and the picture that was chosen do not necessarily support the author's claim of being a victim of police abuse. The author comes off as petty by making several personal attacks and overgeneralizing all law enforcement.

This officer should be criticized if he was acting in a harrassing manner, not because he looks like the photoshopped picture of "batboy." I've seen many police officers act like "pigs", yet I've also seen or heard of them tracking rapists, child molesters and risking their lives by pulling unconscious people from burning vans.

I think its great that you are reporting on stories you see around you, big momma, and I hope my comments are helpful to you when you write another story.

Well behaved women rarely make history ~ Illogical people rarely make meaningful change

Your whole coverage of this is pointless. People being shot all over town, people set on fire, people being stabbed. Where the hell is your activism now? Why aren't you and your buddies down in the flats preaching peace and love to the gangs shooting each other? Maybe because it's more fun to rag on the cops and take your little pictures and thump your chest about how wronged you and your friends have been, rather than getting off your butts and actually doing something to help the entire community instead of your self serving and self centered petty little rants. " I don't care that my fellow citizens are being shot and stabbed and robbed, I'm too damned busy taking pictures of the big bad cop who took down a flyer. I'm having more fun calling the cops nazis and pigs ( by the way, it is 2006, not 1966, move on) than doing anything truely meaningful for this community. After all, I know my first ammendment rights and I'm going to use them for really important things like chastizing the police" I also guess by your posting that it's totally okay to take pictures of the police but then you'll scream and yell about security cameras in public places to help prevent *gasp* crimes! Go back to LA, shove your little camera in a cops face there and then tell us all what happens to you after that.