street spirit	July 1999
Homeless Activist Faces Years in Prison for Coming to Defense of Mother and Child in Anti-War Protest

"He had the woman's hand twisted so badly her fingers were touching her forearm and her hand was completely purple. She was crying out in pain as her child kept screaming, 'Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!'"
— Steve Argue, homeless activist
by Becky Johnson
O
n June 14, scores of community activists gave impassioned testimony to the Citizens' Police Review Board in Santa Cruz, denouncing what they called excessive and brutal police force used against participants in an anti-war demonstration on May 22.
At that protest, homeless activist Steven Argue forcibly intervened and tried to prevent Santa Cruz Police Officer David LaFaver from assaulting a young mother with a small child. According to Argue, Officer LaFaver used a violent painhold on the young woman as she held her crying five-year-old child.
"He had the woman's hand twisted so badly her fingers were touching her forearm and her hand was completely purple," said Argue. "She was crying out in pain as her child kept screaming, 'Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!' I and other protesters repeatedly told LaFaver to stop, which he refused to do. I acted as any person with any sense of dignity and humanity would to stop this torture and terror being carried

out by Officer LaFaver."	peaceful demonstration, and decried the	to Stop the Bombing in Yugoslavia had
At the Citizen's Police Review Board	use of pepper spray, which was sprayed	staged a demonstration outside the
hearing, many speakers demanded an	by police directly into Argue's face.	McPherson Center. Inside, a Democratic
investigation of excessive police force at a	On May 22, the Santa Cruz Coalition	~      See Homeless Activist Defends page 13