John on November 19, 2011 at 9:55 pm
The city of Santa Cruz put together a list of 93 complaints about behavior at Occupy Santa Cruz. This was just one of them:
At least one incident on the county list wasn’t noted by the Sheriff’s Office: the discovery of an estimated 200 pounds of human feces near the county Veterans Memorial Building, just across theWater Streetbridge from the camp.
The county called in a hazardous materials team to clean up the mess, and installed a security fence around the building, which is closed for renovations. There is no evidence that linked the excrement to the camp.
Who would dump feces on a Veterans building? It didn’t make sense to me. But the story isn’t that specific. It says “near” the building. Guess what happens to be near the Veterans building:
Is this proof that the Occupiers dumped 200lbs of poop near some banks? Definitely not. It’s not proof.
Did I mention that the camp has a history of sanitation complaints from the city?
So, just speculating here, who would have 200lbs of human feces on hand to dump anywhere? Maybe somebody camping with inadequate bathroom facilities. But that’s a lot of poop so it would have to be pretty close. Let’s say within 1/4 mile.
Hmmm…could be anybody I guess.
Update 11/21: Members of Occupy Santa Cruz are arguing that a) they didn’t do this b) poop is pretty normal in downtownSanta Cruz and c) the cleanup never happened. So take your pick I guess. I’m not inclined to believe them but I’m noting the denial out of fairness. I contacted the reporters on the original story and will post any response I get.
Update 11/21 5:45PM: I received a reply from one of the reporters on the original story. He has seen an invoice and photos of the clean up. The spill and the cleanup did happen.