Santa Cruz, Ca. -- One half hour before Santa Cruz Mayor Mike Rotkin speaks on the steps of the Santa Cruz County Courthouse (701 Ocean St.) in honor of "Human Rights Day", HUFF members will announce recent developments in the homeless civil rights struggle locally. Robert Norse of HUFF, recently won a lawsuit for false arrest against the City of Santa Cruz when SCPD Sgt. "Butchie" Baker had him arrested for obstructing a 20 foot sidewalk with a 3 foot wide table.

Norse will also announce new developments in his false arrest at City Council case from March 2002, also by Sgt. Baker. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Friday reversed Federal District Judge Robert Whyte and returned Norse's lawsuit against the City, the City Council, and the SCPD to federal trial court. Norse was arrested and jailed for five hours for refusing to leave City Council chambers on March 13, 2002 after he made a brief silent mock-Nazi salute reacting to the Mayor's premature closure of Public Comment under the Fitzmaurice "decorum" rules.

On Monday, November 29 civil rights attorneys Paul Sanford and Kate Wells filed another civil rights lawsuit. The suit challenges constitutionality of a municipal code under which homeless local John Maurer was twice-cited for "profanity while soliciting" because he had a small sign protesting police harassment as he sat in one of the limited legal locations permitted the poor on Pacific Avenue. The City Attorney and local judiciary refused to render a constitutional judgment in court. Commissioner Irwin Joseph dismissed the case, ignoring Sanford\u2019s pleadings, and left the anti-homeless law active.

HUFF members will also address the recent homeless deaths of Scottie who died of exposure under the Soquel Ave. bridge and Robert Wagner who froze to death on a bench outside of Mayor Rotkin\u2019s council chambers, as well as reports of two new homeless deaths, both near Ocean St. With shelter for only a fraction of the people who are experiencing homelessness, HUFF is preparing a lawsuit unless the council moves to implement Pottinger-style guidelines (acknowledging the right and need of homeless people to engage in life-sustaining behavior like sleeping). Homeless and housed plaintiffs will sue the City of Santa Cruz for arresting people for sleeping or covering up with a blanket at night to keep warm.

Former Mayor Scott Kennedy and Mayor Mike Rotkin have resisted passing a resolution calling for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, although their resolution in 2003 opposing the invasion in the first place received widespread community support. The Arcata City Council passed a strong \u201cU.S. Out of Iraq and Afghanistan\u201d resolution in July 2004. .

Four Santa Cruz County residents have been killed in Iraq in the last year and a half. The $6 billion/month war squanders money desperately needed for the poor, creates more dead and homeless abroad, and leave us with more homeless and impoverished vets in Santa Cruz, missing limbs and in wheelchairs.

Following the HUFF press conference, Mayor Rotkin and others will speak on the courthouse steps at 701 Ocean St. on behalf of Human Rights Day.