March 26, 2003
Activists may be cited for sleeping in Plaza By By LEAH ETLING Despite warnings from the Santa Barbara Police Department, a number of antiwar protesters who have been sleeping in De la Guerra Plaza were holding their ground Tuesday afternoon, but said they would leave if ticketed. Police warned the demonstrators, who say they disagree with the war on Iraq, that they are in violation of a city ordinance against sleeping in public, and returned at midday Tuesday to remind them. "Those who lay down on the 101 freeway, that was radical. We really do not need the police coming once every hour to check on us," said Ellie Colbert, a Santa Barbara native who was in the plaza Tuesday afternoon. Lt. Michael Aspland, department spokesman, has said that citations will be issued to anyone found sleeping in the area, but none of the protesters has received one yet. Mayor Marty Blum said she e-mailed the police Monday morning after seeing people asleep in the bushes and trees next to City Hall over the weekend. The department told her the situation would be taken care of, Ms. Blum said. She also disagrees with the war, she said, but that's no excuse for disobeying the no-sleeping ordinance. Ms. Colbert said the group was taking a wait-and-see approach. "As (homeless activist) Protest Bob (Hansen) said, if they come ready to write tickets, we would agree as a group to go somewhere else." |
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