Alex Darocy Photography

For several hours, community members blocked the intersection of Pacific Avenue and Water Street at the Town Clock in downtown Santa Cruz as part of a series of interrelated Inauguration Day events to protest the presidency of Donald Trump on January 20. Student marchers arrive at the Santa Cruz Town Clock Organized as a general strike, students from multiple Santa Cruz area schools staged walk outs to join the demonstration. Students and faculty members at the University of California Santa Cruz participated in a UC system-wide walkout, marching from campus to the downtown. Additionally, a march was held on Pacific Avenue, and later in the day activists constructed a large wall out of cardboard boxes that blocked Cooper Street. Faculty members march at UC Santa Cruz Santa Cruz Town Clock Sit-in in the intersection of Water and Pacific, in front of the Town Clock ...

A misdemeanor charge against Indybay journalist Alex Darocy was dropped in Santa Cruz Superior Court on October 19. An officer with the California Highway Patrol cited him with the misdemeanor on March 3, 2015 after Darocy photographed the six UCSC students who locked themselves together and blocked Highway 1 in Santa Cruz as part of the “96 Hours of Action” protests against tuition hikes and racist police violence called for by students across the UC system. A previously unpublished photo taken of the six UCSC students blocking Highway 1 on March 3, 2015. Darocy submitted this photo to the court to enter it into evidence in April of 2016. The office of District Attorney Jeff Rosell charged Darocy with violation of Vehicle Code section 2800(a), failing or refusing to comply with a lawful order of a peace officer (a misdemeanor), and violation of Vehicle Code section 21718(a), stopping on a freeway (an infraction). It looked like the case was going to trial. It wasn't un...

On November 12 students at UC Santa Cruz joined students at college campuses across the country for a "Million Student March," a day of local actions organized nationally around three principle demands: tuition-free public college, cancellation of all student debt, and a $15 minimum wage for all campus workers. Million Student March actions were organized at over 100 schools, and the movement has been endorsed by political figures such as Noam Chomsky and Jill Stein, as well as by organizations such as Young Democratic Socialists and the labor union National Nurses United. "The United States is the richest country in the world, yet students have to take on crippling debt in order to get a college education," a national announcement for the Million Student March read. "We need change, and change starts in the streets when the people demand it. With students, college graduates, and workers united we can build a movement capable of winning debt-free college for al...