Alex Darocy Photography

To mark the National Day of Protest Against Brutality, community members in Salinas rallied in front of city hall on October 22, where the family members of Jose Velasco, Frank Alvarado, and Angel Ruiz all spoke. Ruiz and Alvarado were among five unarmed Latino men killed in separate incidents in 2014 during encounters with the Salinas Police Department. Velasco was severley beaten by a group of Salinas police officers in 2015. Individuals held signs in front of city hall and joined in several group chants, including energetic repetitions of the phrase "Brown Lives Matter" and choruses of "Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Chief McMillin has got to go!" Calls for the removal of Salinas police chief Kelly McMillin have been consistently expressed at protests against police brutality in Salinas, which have been organized regularly since May of 2014 when a video of the killing of Carlos Mejia by two Salinas police officers went viral. Up to that point Mejia was third person kill...

On September 22 community members protesting the criminalization of homelessness in Santa Cruz returned to city hall for their eleventh sleepout. A sizable group again made it through a night of sleep at city hall, though Santa Cruz police woke everyone up as a group at about 5:30am. Police have conducted regular raids on the sleepouts since they began on July 4, but they employed a new tactic on September 22. They informed individuals that the city needed the area cleared in order to steam clean the sidewalk, and that workers would be arriving within the hour. All of the sleepers complied, and as the protesters were eating breakfast in front of city hall, the sidewalk was eventually steam cleaned. Sleeping next to the flagpole at Santa Cruz city hall Police cite person sleeping next to flagpole during the first raid of the evening Police and security guards during the first raid Protesters line the sidewalk as police conduct the raid The city rents l...