Chalk the Walk

(Not in Santa Cruz!)

by Becky Johnson

10-18-02

Santa Cruz, Ca. -- Tim Rinker and I were convicted on September 27th of using sidewalk chalk on a public sidewalk. Our playful hopscotching was deemed "defacing the sidewalk" according to City Attorney John Barisone and the two of us were fined the maximum of $162 each by Commissioner Irwin Joseph. Among our arguments in our defense, we asserted that while our chalked messages were visible and could conceivably have some nominal cost for removal, our first amendment right to chalk our messages took precedent over the trivial and at times fabricated costs to society to remove erasable chalk.

We argued that if he were to ban our chalked messages on Pacific Ave., then he must not do so based on content, and that every girl scout, third grader, and half the moms in Santa Cruz must also be found guilty of defacing the sidewalk too.

Judge Irwin Joseph agreed. He found us both guilty, charged us the maximum fine, and by his ruling made hopscotch illegal in the entire city of Santa Cruz on all public property including the sidewalks.

Both Tim Rinker and I asked to pay our debt to society for our criminal chalking by performing community service. Commissioner Joseph commanded us to perform 23 hours of labor to pay $162, which is at rate of $7.04/hr. In addition, there is a $35 fee to register for community service, which must be paid in cash or with a money order. While this is the equivalent of minimum wage, our crimes were committed in the City limits of Santa Cruz, which recently passed a living wage ordinance. This ordinance mandates all city workers and all workers for non-profits which receive city funding to pay their workers $11.75 an hour with benefits or $12.75 an hour without.

Tim Rinker, who is firmly opposed to vandalism, is fulfilling his community service by making a public service announcement warning children that hopscotching is now against the law. Rinker returned to court on October 16th to seek a waiver of the $35 registration fee. "When I was sentenced, I wasn't worried because I knew I would qualify for the waiver. When I got to the community service court referral program, I found out that due to budget cuts they no longer offer the waiver for low income people. So I went back to court to get the waiver. The Judge said he could only request I be given additional hours instead of a fee, but did not have the authority to waive it."

So how is a homeless person with no money ever supposed to pay a fine for sleeping, sitting down, or for begging for food after dark? They need to panhandle $35 to pay the fee or wind up in jail for something as trivial as hopscotch.

The City does not deem chalking trivial. Sgt. McPhillips testified that a person chalking blocked customers from going into businesses, which reduced profits, which caused declining city revenue. Redevelopment Agency analyst Julie Hendee equated chalk writing with "graffiti" and claimed that if it were not removed within 48 hours "there would be more of it." "More of what?" asked defense attorney Ed Frey. "More chalking," responded Hendee. Appearing in court to prosecute Tim Rinker and myself were a total of seven city employees, presumably all on the clock, spending as much as $10,000 in city funds to prosecute us.

On August 18th, I was arrested, handcuffed, booked into county jail, thrown in the drunk tank, and had my bail raised from zero to $1000 charged with "misdemeanor vandalism." Charges were later reduced to an infraction "defacing the sidewalk." On October 28th, at 8:30AM I face trial on that and one other chalking crime.

On October 28th, I face two more trials, both for chalking.