The Purple Curfew Goes Into Effect
This week, the governor announced that the state is issuing a limited Stay at Home order due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in California. The state also strengthened its face covering guidance and issued a travel advisory last week.
The state issued a curfew between the hours of 10PM and 5AM, meaning “non-essential” work and gatherings will not be allowed. The order will take effect at 10PM on Saturday and end at 5AM on December 21st. The curfew effects all counties currently in the “purple”tier of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, the most restrictive tier. Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties are all in the purple tier. State officials said activities during the overnight hours are often non-essential and are more likely to be related to social activities and gatherings, which they said are more likely to lead to reduced inhibition and reduced likelihood of adhering to safety measures. On Monday, 28 counties were moved to the purple tier, so 94% of California’s population will be subject to the overnight restrictions.
The Latest COVID-19 Numbers From Santa Cruz County
There have been 3,685 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Santa Cruz County, according to the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency, and 667 are active cases. 27 people have died. 2,991 people have recovered from the disease. A total of 68,564 people have tested negative. 210 have been hospitalized in total. According to a state count, 20 people are currently hospitalized, and six people are in the ICU. Santa Cruz County is in the purple tier of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, meaning many non-essential indoor business operations are closed. Its adjusted case rate is at 11.0, and it needs to be at 7 or below to move up. It also has a 3.9% positivity rate, and that needs to be at 8% or below to move up.
Carjacking Suspect Arrested With Drugs in Scotts Valley
Smile! You’re in the Weekly Dump!
Early Wednesday morning, Scotts Valley police got a report of a possible carjacking after they got reports of several attempted burglaries and vehicle thefts in the northern part of the city. They found the vehicle abandoned near the area it was reported stolen, and shortly after locating it, a community member contacted police to tell them about a suspicious person around his vehicle that he left running to warm up. When police arrived, they located the suspicious person, who matched the description of the carjacking suspect. He was later identified as the suspect and arrested. When he was arrested, police said the suspect had more than two pounds of marijuana and 55 grams of meth. When officers looked at surveillance video from homes, they found that the suspect was one of the people involved in the attempted burglaries.
The Gift That Keeps on Giving
This week, an officer with Scotts Valley police made a traffic stop on a vehicle with expired registration as well as a DMV suspension on the license plate. The driver was also on formal probation with search terms. Probation. The gift that keeps on giving! And they always give us the dumbest fucking criminals. The vehicle’s passenger also had an outstanding warrant for her arrest. A search of the vehicle found multitude identification and credit cards belonging to other people. They also found notebooks and ledgers containing lists of financial information, passwords and other identifying information. Inside the trunk, they located equipment for manufacturing fraudulent credit cards. Both driver and passenger were arrested and booked on various charges including possession of stolen property, possession of identifying information of others with intent to defraud.
Santa’s Little Helper
Earlier this week, SVPD responded to the local CVS for a report of a shoplifter. Officers got a description of the suspect and the suspect’s vehicle as well as an itemized list of merchandise stolen. They pretty quickly located a suspect, who admitted to stealing the stuff. The suspect was arrested for shoplifting and over $675 worth of merchandise was returned to CVS.
Fishing Expedition Pays Off
Last Friday night, the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s office put out a BOLO (Be On the Look Out) for a white Ford Expedition that was wanted in connection to a recent armed robbery. SCPD located a vehicle matching the description driving in the city limits and after a high risk stop was executed, deputies from the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s department responded to the scene and arrested the suspect robber.
Felons With Guns on Parole
Last Friday night, SCPD stopped a vehicle near Ocean and Water streets and shortly after arrested a 31 year old male felon on parole with being in possession of a firearm and ammunition, carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle, possession of an unregistered handgun, DUI, and a parole violation.
Drunk Menace in Aptos
This week, CHP Santa Cruz shared a video on social media that a community member shot of a drunk driver rolling through Aptos before literally rolling his car in the street in the middle of the afternoon. I have no idea if the driver was actually arrested (he’s definitely not currently in jail).
He’s been arrested at least 26 times locally. The Santa Cruz Superior Court portal has 53 cases against him since 1996. He is currently out on parole for assault with a deadly weapon and causing great bodily harm. For this incident, where he reportedly hit a bicyclist and damaged many cars across Seacliff and Deer Park, he was released again the next day. He and his vehicle also match the description of a suspect that assaulted a woman in Rio Flats and has been trying to lure women into his car as an Uber driver.
Drunk on Board
Sunday night, SCPD patrol officers stopped a car for driving erratically. The driver, who was drunk, had a firearm visible in the driver’s side door panel. Of course neither the drunk driver or the passenger claimed ownership of the gun. So SCPD arrested both for the concealed and loaded firearm. The driver was also charged with DUI.
Santa Cruz County Gets $10M Grant to Help the Homeless
Santa Cruz County is slated to receive nearly $10M as part of an emergency solutions grant to help the local homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic. County officials said just over 4 million dollars of the funding will be spent on getting people in rapid housing, rental assistance with wraparound services, case management, housing problem solving, family reunification, incentives and other projects. In other words, most likely they’ll blow it on administrative costs and vanity projects (the “other” projects part). I don’t trust the county to spend this money right. We’ve had 30 plus years to solve it and it gets worse every year. About $5 million will go towards continuing operations of COVID-19 sheltering response systems until June 2021 or as long as funds last beyond that. About $350,000 will go towards street outreach to bring services to unsheltered residents in encampments or other non-shelter situations. The county hopes to reduce homelessness by 30% over the next three years and reduce the number of people without shelter by 50% in that time. Please. give me a break here. The county, as well as the laundry list of redundant non-profits locally, are more interested in servicing the homeless than they are in making them less homeless. Homeless services is a cottage industry in this town. Eliminating homelessness would eliminate lots of redundant social service workers too. And that would rock the progressive boat. Imagine that! Imagine not needing a “homeless services center” instead of needing to expand it into a campus.
Get Your Swagger On!
I have swag! I’m working with Spreadshirt and have my own shop. I just put some basic products up to start with for now with the new logo. You can also click “Customize” and “Products” and pick from other products not currently available in my store. Contact me with any questions or issues. Nothing would make me happier than to see people out and about with my swag. I want photos! I’ve never asked for money, and I still plan to continue to do the Weekly Dump each week and make it available for free, without any paywall or ads or spam (or salary). Think of this as a way of donating to the effort and getting something back for your donation (I only make a few bucks on each item sold). I’d love to do more with Santa Mierda if I had the means to do so. This will help provide the means to do so. And it helps get the word out. The hell with the coronavirus, let’s make this viral. Being stuck inside is the perfect time for online shopping! I’ll love you long time if you buy my swag.
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25 Responses
“Santa Cruz County is slated to receive nearly $10M as part of an emergency solutions grant to help the local homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic.” I can hear that toilet flushing now
I’m sure you’ll see the usual progressive non-profit executive directors lining up at a future BoS meeting letting them know how “essential” they are and how much they need that money.
If nothing else, the health agencies have become much better at explaining the COVID restrictions, in a way that sounds sensible.
Love to know whether the spike is related to post-election progressive parties.
The spike is related to Halloween and the masses assembled along Pacific Ave; Newel has said as much. The city should have had the balls to barricade that street for the night. Would people still have gathered? Sure. But not as many and not packed together.
I don’t think it’s any one particular thing or event. I personally think it’s mostly people dropping their guards (and their masks) and most of the increased transmission (and reported cases) are coming from personal contact in social settings. Not huge events, but parties and social gatherings in the 5-20 person range. I’ve seen numerous house parties, mostly young people with no masks or social distancing, just saying fuck it. I think the curfew is probably more to discourage people from traveling on Thanksgiving. And the later timing is a way to placate everyone by not forcing a “hard” curfew nobody could or would enforce anyways.
Ben, what you wrote makes sense. Even during the era of beach closures (months ago), I noticed cars with several young adults on the west side, evidently looking for a place on the beach. So, they arrived in a closed container, after being in it for an hour or so. The closed container was the problem, not the open beach. I have noticed other groups traveling together. Presumably it is the same indoors. But my above comment was related, in that I expect the political celebrants had their own indoor get-togethers, quite apart from the outdoor gatherings.
Thanks to whoever just ordered a shirt from the shop! Much appreciated! Send me a pic!
Since when did the governor have the authority to prevent adult citizens from traveling during certain hours? I don’t recall ever voting for that, do you? Either martial law is declared or it isn’t. Free citizens are not bound by unconstitutional decrees which carry no force of law.
Let’s hear it for the Homeless Industrial Complex!
Recent studies have proven that masks don’t protect the wearer, and 90% of asymptomatic positive “cases” are not infectious because only remnants of virus remain (for months). That’s not to say washing hands, social distance (and 6′ is quite arbitrary), and avoiding large close crowds especially indoors isn’t sound advice. However, the negative effects of lockdowns are not worth it. Revolt. These clowns are scamming you.
See the bait and switch? We “locked down” in March and April to “flatten the curve” of infection to spare overwhelming medical facilities. Now, we are suddenly locking down to prevent infection. Two separate ideas. No one before has ever claimed that the function of government is to prevent a viral infection or shown that it actually can do that. In fact, it is unnatural as it postpones herd immunity, the natural solution to every pandemic that ever occurred. That is the scam and stupid people fall for it as your governor enjoys expensive dinners out with his favorite lobbyists while violating his own rules.
@Doonman- You really think herd immunity through contracting the virus is the right way to go? In the last 7 days alone about 10,000 people have died.
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_deathsinlast7days
But not in Sweden, which is not experiencing a huge surge in second wave daily deaths. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/sweden/
But never fear. All pandemics end eventually because of herd immunity. Remember, vaccination of the public causes herd immunity too.
Governments have helped to prevent many viral outbreaks throughout history, think of TB, polio, smallpox, ebola… using the same quarantine and vaccination procedures they are trying to use now. The difference is that people used to listen to experts and scientists, now they just listen to con-men and fake presidents. The outbreak is so bad here because of (A:) our failure of our president and his administration of incompetent swamp creatures and (B:) because people like you believe the BS spewed from Humpty Dumpty and gang and go out and spread this virus. Did you notice that Sweden gave up on their “herd immunity” strategy? We could have had this virus taken care of and have almost zero cases like Australia and Taiwan right now. Life is almost back to normal and the economy is not as impacted in countries that took this seriously and had governments that responded quickly and effectively.
How about you post the link for those “recent studies”? Curious to read it for myself.
Calm down, Garrett and Doonman and TB.
Back in April 2020, when COVID-19 was relatively new, reputable medical reviews were inconsistent as to the benefits of wearing masks in public. Here is a good article:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7162638/
More recently, artifcles on reputable medical sites (such as nih.gov) recommend masks, and imply that more recent research supports their usage. But I also note that the writers tend to invoke words such as “solidarity,” and that creates the impression that they are trying to justify a policy, rather than be scientifically objective. In other words, it is not what they say, it is how they say it.
There is also a problem with the term “in public.” Breing on a bus, in a bar, or in other closed surroundings with strangers is definitely “in public” in this context. But what about being alone on the beach, 100ft away from anyone else? That is “in public” from the perspective of (say) alcohol or sex, but is it “in public” in the context of wearing a mask? I would say no. The term is not properly defined in context. It is not he case that masks are always risk-free.
The bulk of current evidence suggests that masks are beneficial, to a greater or loesser extent.
So 10mill to help the LOCAL HOMELESS DEAL WITH COVID wtF! Ya big joe is right “FLUSH!” I guess when it comes time for SC to get large sums of money they have to figure out how to pocket it OH OH I mean distribute it. Cause SC has been getting money for ever and damned if I’ve ever seen it actually being put to any real use we can see And It seems to always go to “help the addicts and criminals” aka the homeless be more comfortable here freeloading and harassing working people/students and the poor Tourists who find themselves here being stalked and harassed by all the addicts and criminals. I just had to intervene today when a typical SC scum bag addict guy was harassing a lady he claimed was his wife she said she knew him 4weeks I had to call the cops cause the lady was screaming in the middle of the street for him to leave her alone. She didn’t stick around for police and when she started walking towards the police department this scum ran right after her. He later came back 4 times to kick the doors to our building he kept going through the breeze way that leads to the art historic museum and a few restaurants the “octagon” is one of them. Pd spends maybe 10 min looking for this guy. I use a scanner and so should all who really want to know what’s going on minute by minute. That is when the scanner app is working SCPD channel isn’t always available. I find that odd. Oh and I guess Santa Cruz mugshots is no longer updating. We coddle criminals here so much we there arrests out of public eye.
Dave! Are you back?
Can’t hide from the man himself. Never left ? maybe commented a handful of times under aliases. Gotta have fun somehow these days.
Ha! I was just getting ready to ask that same question!
Hi Ben,
I just got my swag shirt. It’s wonderful. Soft.
Just an fyi: It shrinks in the wash. That’s why I ordered a medium. People might want to order a size up.
Also, sorry, it would be nice if it said Santa Mierda.com. I bought it to support you, but I can’t wear it because I would feel guilty around families. It it’s a .com people can check it out on their own. And I don’t have to walk around with a shirt that says Holy Shit! with no explanation.
I love your news. Was this constructive criticism? I hope so.
Be well.
Ya as far as I’m concerned the weekly dump should be weekly REQUIRED,Mandatory reading for every single person from L.A to Canada and from the beaches all the way east 🙂 no town,city or states Citizens should have to put up with all this crap we have to put up with here. Would it help IDK I have a disease called Optimism it’s a thin bubble that’s easy to pop when it comes to anything SC. If SC does finally becomes a decent place like SV or Aptos or any place Not like SC at its present state…. i would lay on the sidewalk at noon in swim trunks in front of street light records cover myself in relish and mustard and yell out I’m a hot dog with no bun please I need a bun. Just to relive a An all to common scene here in sc but it would be an addict making a scene in broad day light or night cause of whatever reasons that have at that particular moment. I8HSC ?
I agree that people should be aware of the homeless issue CA is experiencing and S.C. is apart of the problem. However, to think our problem is unique and/or special compared to other towns in CA seems narrow minded. LA’s homeless population is just about 66,000, basically the same amount of City of SC population!
Our problem is not unique that’s was my point. Maybe read my comment more then once.
My bad, I kinda see now. Your posts can be hard to read with the rambling at times.