County Declares "No Float Zone", defies US and CA Constitution!!!

[dannno]

This story is starting to make national headlines.

I cite the first amendment of the US Constitution, and the following article from the CA constitution:


CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 10 WATER
SEC. 4. No individual, partnership, or corporation, claiming or possessing the frontage or tidal lands of a harbor, bay, inlet, estuary, or other navigable water in this State, shall be permitted to exclude the right of way to such water whenever it is required for any public purpose, nor to destroy or obstruct the free navigation of such water; and the Legislature shall enact such laws as will give the most liberal construction to this provision, so that access to the navigable waters of this State shall be always attainable for the
people thereof.


No doubt those of you who don't believe in public property have a good argument for privatizing beaches and waterways.. I'm not QUITE there yet but also not completely against it. It's one of those issues I'm still undecided on.


Poll:

http://www.independent.com/news/2010/apr/07/county-declares-no-float-zone/





http://media.independent.com/img/croppedphotos/2010/04/07/floatopia2009_t479.jpg?6626f76dcd72edc2e28f46812c7 026450162bdb2
Last year's floatopia event drew about 12,000 individuals

County Declares 'No Float Zone'

Authorities to Block Off I.V. Beaches; Supporters Cry Foul
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
By Chris Meagher (Contact)

In an unprecedented move, the Sheriff’s Department will be shutting down county beaches accessible from UCSB and Isla Vista this Saturday in anticipation of an enormous turnout for a beach fiesta commonly known as Floatopia.

While many students and residents have cried foul about the decision, Santa Barbara County officials say the move must be made to protect public safety. After last year’s Floatopia, which drew an estimated 12,000 people to Isla Vista beaches, a mess of garbage and litter was left behind and dozens of emergency room visits were required. Since then, the county has banned alcohol at Isla Vista beaches, unless a special event permit is obtained.

Parks Director Dan Hernandez called the sole application to sponsor the event Saturday “sub-par” and “far and away inadequate.” Among other things needed in a thorough application, Hernandez said, were plans for liability insurance, security coordination, sewage and sanitation and trash removal. Indeed, the applicant, UCSB sophomore Chris Par, took more of an “it’ll all work out” sort of approach, planning for just two port-a-johns to service the estimated thousands of people, anticipating most people could just use the facilities at their homes. He was also counting on everyone picking up after themselves, unlike last year, when the beaches were littered with garbage following the event.

Par—whose Facebook page includes the quote “you can ALWAYS RETAKE the class, but you can NEVER RELIVE the party”—made a loud appearance sprinkled with obscenities in front of the Board of Supervisors Tuesday during public comment, telling the board they can “close the beach, but the people of Isla Vista will party day and night.” He was eventually escorted out of the board room by deputies, but not before telling the board the beach closure was taking away student’s rights.

While his delivery left something to be desired, his point that the rights of Isla Vista’s beach-goers were being trampled on has struck a similar chord in the many who have questioned the legality of blocking access to the beach, which authorities admitted had never been done before. At the very least, it seems, there can be a better resolution. As Clayton Carlson, external vice president for local affairs of UCSB’s Associated Students, put it in a press release Tuesday afternoon, “My office acknowledges that action needed to be taken by the County of Santa Barbara to mitigate the anticipated effects of Floatopia 2010. However, we also realize that a one-time beach closure does not provide a long-term solution to preventing unpermitted events on the beach.”

The decision, however, was not one made lightly, said Lt. Brian Olmstead of the I.V. Foot Patrol. “We are concerned about limiting the beach access,” he said. “But we weighed that with the public safety hazard.”

He’s speaking from experience. Last year’s Floatopia population exploded—up from less than 1,000 each of the previous years to more than 10 times that—thanks to social networking sites like Facebook. But the explosion also led to an increase in hurt heads and sliced feet. There were 33 people taken to the hospital for medical treatment, including two who fell from the bluff and one who suffered a head injury from a thrown bottle. The rest, according to authorities, were treated for alcohol poisoning, heat exposure, and cuts from broken bottles in the sand. There were 78 citations issued and 13 arrests, mostly for throwing bottles from the cliffs.

This time around, extra deputies will patrol the beach areas and Del Playa, while others will sit at beach access entrances with barricades. Should partiers be caught on the beach area—the county’s jurisdiction extends into the water 100 yards from the mean high tide point, according to Olmstead—they could be issued a citation and face arrest if they don’t comply with commands to leave.

Third District Supervisor Doreen Farr—at one point called a dictator by Par on Facebook—said that ever since the event popped up on Facebook, the county tried to find someone to make it a sponsored event, but everyone backed away from the idea. “It became clear no one was coming forward,” she said, and the county decided to take the steps it has taken. “We want people to have a good time, but we want people to be safe.” Par submitted his application on March 29, not enough time, and with insufficient planning to pull the event off. “Even though well-meaning, he just doesn’t have the resources to do it,” Farr said.

In response to the decision, students have suggested everything from planning a beach party every weekend until officials relent, to moving the event up the beach, to moving the party up or back a day. But as it stands now, it appears that organizers are now plotting and planning to turn the streets of Isla Vista—rather than the beach—into party central. Whatever happens, Olmstead said his department is ready.

[dannno]

bump

[dannno]

bump

[heavenlyboy34]

This story is starting to make national headlines.

I cite the first amendment of the US Constitution, and the following article from the CA constitution:




No doubt those of you who don't believe in public property have a good argument for privatizing beaches and waterways.. I'm not QUITE there yet but also not completely against it. It's one of those issues I'm still undecided on.
/ (http://www.independent.com/news/2010/apr/07/county-declares-no-float-zone/)


Keep an open mind, keep learning, and I suspect you'll come around. :cool: Thnx for the article, btw.

[dannno]

Keep an open mind, keep learning, and I suspect you'll come around. :cool: Thnx for the article, btw.

Well this issue certainly outlines a good reason for private property ownership of the coast.. How is the state supposed to protect public lands without stomping on the rights of the very people who own that land collectively?


Random thoughts

On the other hand, I surf. I have surfed the vast, vast majority of surf breaks from Pt. Conception to the Mexican border. My biggest enemies are private property owners who try to keep everybody off of their beach, even though LEGALLY it IS NOT THEIR BEACH, and I support public access to coastlines for logistical reasons. If my car breaks down on a private road I already have permission to be on their property. If my boat breaks down on the ocean, or I'm surfing and get caught in an incredibly strong current, I may inevitably aggress against the private property rights of others as winds and tides push me in directions beyond my control. The fluidity of the ocean is one of the reasons I don't believe in ownership of segments of the ocean, although sea stedding permanent structures that don't affect the property rights of others seem OK.

I wouldn't mind "owning" a section of coastline and "protecting" it, but I don't feel it is within my right to tell people who walk in their surfboards, surf a few waves and leave without a trace that they can't do that, and I don't feel it is within others rights to tell me that either.

I also feel that destroying or manipulating the coastline is an aggression on the property rights of others down the coast because changing one section of coastline affects others.. surfers do not aggress in this way. however the state is probably the biggest aggressor in this instance as they build more sea walls, groins, etc.. Yet I understand the importance of ports and such in commerce.

Where there is sand, there is tide, which means where there is sand land is unusable without alteration, which again aggresses against the property rights of others. I can keep you off my farm because the land is usable, but water moves, tides change, it is difficult to use the coastline for anything really. You can build structures out on the ocean that don't affect the surrounding ocean, I am for sea-stedding, but coast stedding doesn't make much sense due to the nature of coastlines.

It's all very confusing, the whole issue of manipulating the coastline, but I still cannot fathom somebody trying to keep peaceful individuals from paddling out and catching a few waves.

I guess part of the issue is that if you own the coastline, you can't alter it, so what purpose does owning it serve other than to preserve it?

[speciallyblend]

ok time for this on thread:)

YouTube - (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBShN8qT4lk)

[dannno]

Lol :D

[mczerone]

On the other hand, I surf. I have surfed the vast, vast majority of surf breaks from Pt. Conception to the Mexican border. My biggest enemies are private property owners who try to keep everybody off of their beach, even though LEGALLY it IS NOT THEIR BEACH, and I support public access to coastlines for logistical reasons. If my car breaks down on a private road I already have permission to be on their property. If my boat breaks down on the ocean, or I'm surfing and get caught in an incredibly strong current, I may inevitably aggress against the private property rights of others as winds and tides push me in directions beyond my control. The fluidity of the ocean is one of the reasons I don't believe in ownership of segments of the ocean, although sea stedding permanent structures that don't affect the property rights of others seem OK.

I wouldn't mind "owning" a section of coastline and "protecting" it, but I don't feel it is within my right to tell people who walk in their surfboards, surf a few waves and leave without a trace that they can't do that, and I don't feel it is within others rights to tell me that either.

I also feel that destroying or manipulating the coastline is an aggression on the property rights of others down the coast because changing one section of coastline affects others.. surfers do not aggress in this way. however the state is probably the biggest aggressor in this instance as they build more sea walls, groins, etc.. Yet I understand the importance of ports and such in commerce.

(1) The over-diligence in protecting "their beach" from trespassers may be a direct result of the State mandated "open border" policy. In a system of truly privately owned beaches, it might quickly be proven to the owners that open-access to sandy/tidal areas may be the best option.

(2) The common law recognizes the emergency privilege of needing to utilize private docks or beaches, with the licensee being responsible for damages they may cause while using the property in a necessary situation.

[dannno]

(1) The over-diligence in protecting "their beach" from trespassers may be a direct result of the State mandated "open border" policy. In a system of truly privately owned beaches, it might quickly be proven to the owners that open-access to sandy/tidal areas may be the best option.

Because that will drive up the tourism business and put more money into the local economy I assume?




(2) The common law recognizes the emergency privilege of needing to utilize private docks or beaches, with the licensee being responsible for damages they may cause while using the property in a necessary situation.

Aight I'll keep that in mind.

[Anti Federalist]

Parks Director Dan Hernandez called the sole application to sponsor the event Saturday “sub-par” and “far and away inadequate.”

What happens when a right becomes a privilege.

[RCA]

ok time for this on thread:)

YouTube - (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBShN8qT4lk)

Added. :D

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=205664

[RideTheDirt]

a girl I know told me about this last night. Her words " the law says you can't drink on the beach, but it doesn't say anything about in the ocean on a floatie"

I lol'd

[dannno]

a girl I know told me about this last night. Her words " the law says you can't drink on the beach, but it doesn't say anything about in the ocean on a floatie"

I lol'd

Well they actually made the law that you can't drink on the beach because of floatopia last year.. personally I think drinking on the beach is safer, because I don't think it is legal to drink out on the floatie, I dunno.. i guess it should be, it's not like you have a motor on those things and could hurt people..

[Anti Federalist]

Well they actually made the law that you can't drink on the beach because of floatopia last year.. personally I think drinking on the beach is safer, because I don't think it is legal to drink out on the floatie, I dunno.. i guess it should be, it's not like you have a motor on those things and could hurt people..

That which is not required is prohibited.

[Carson]

Right before finishing high school I hitchhiked up the coast from San Diego heading for San Francisco with a friend in the early seventies.

Isla Vista was the friendliest and most interesting stop on the way. They had some sort of welcoming center with couches and we met someone that let us use their shower.

We met a lot of people there. I talked to the bookstore owner that had recently had his business set on fire. Some thought it was the students. I wasn't so sure and I told him so. If I remember right the fire did set off a crackdown on the civil unrest of the times. I also met someone in a park there watching the re-construction of the bank that burned at the same time. It was later blown up.

Everyone used to hang out an talk on the little main street. A waiter from a restaurant across the street from where were standing came running across with a bunch of spaghetti and gave it to us. He said he thought we looked hungry.

Before we left my friend had just heard how the Indians in California never wore many, if any, cloths, I think. When we left I told him I thought it was going to get cold. He insisted on heading out without a coat and shoes. I told him he wasn't going to be wearing my coat if it got cold. It did extra cold on one night and I did break down and we shared my coat a little. Before we got home someone had given him a pair shoes. He later described them as the best pair shoes he ever had.

We were young and my Mom said it couldn't be done and I couldn't go. We didn't quite make it all the way to San Francisco but we did have a great trip. Moms always seem to be saying things can't be done. I didn't have a father at the time to side with me that some of them can.


We always wanted to go back there.

P.S. They had the friendliest police of any town we passed through. Someone said they were the towns police and they had some sort of citizens panel that wanted them to not spend all their time harassing people. They were always near by driving around the little town in a square on the four main streets in the middle of town. It seemed pretty safe for us. In fact it seemed like the farther we traveled north the nicer the police were. I'm living in the San Francisco bay area now. I finally made it to Haight-Ashbury but it was gone by the time I did. In fact it was actually gone by the time we left in the seventies, but the dream lived on.
http://photos.imageevent.com/stokeybob/thebegining/15hippy1.jpg

[Carson]

YouTube - ISLA VISTA 1.1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylun5ZNSskc&feature=player_embedded)

YouTube - the burning of the isla vista bank america (1970) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRICFUJlH-U&feature=related)

Some of the old history.

http://www.legendarysurfers.com/sr/labels/Isla%20Vista.html

[Carson]

YouTube - Isla Vista (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJnNsZnMDtc&feature=related)

[Carson]

Here is a link to an Isla Vista walking tour that is pretty good for some of us reminiscing.

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:q_Fjw8l41-kJ:www.recreation.ucsb.edu/walk/pdf/walkucsb.pdf+isla+vista+walking+tour&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgEBT1VgsPeSsOC1ue4tLT3EYlaRw62X7KoBp-bLqAsiIfMcoh6EycW5MoqVLNcH2JFL82qfFfBZTVQ7muRXhFum _w43I8H08qOaRZv4ee8THfV_0JugaEksSWitPqCUZM_n26m&sig=AHIEtbSfbeLnXVf-eeEcBsboqWapFn5Gpg

[Carson]

In my earlier post I said, " Some thought it was the students."

Pretty much everyone thought it was the students. I suppose I was the only one leery about the actual person that set it on fire. The whole thing seemed to convenient and triggered a response that seemed just to set up.

There was a lot of unrest around the country and in California. As soon as the bank burned the governor, Ronald Reagan, unleashed the dogs with bees in their mouths. All the mostly peaceful civil unrest seemed pretty much squashed after that. Kent State was soon to follow.

It seemed like a total set up to me.

Maybe I invented the the idea of, "conspiracy theory" back then. ?

Anyway many of the students were sure they did it and proud they did it.


Maybe they did. Check out this story. (Link to source with picture goodness.)

http://oletoday.com/wordpress/2010/02/isla-vista-a-history/



The Isla Vista Riots

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the famous Isla Vista riots.

IV Riot I

The year was 1969 and the Vietnam War was not going well for the United States. Lyndon B. Johnson had expanded the war efforts a few years earlier, but in 1968 American forces were caught off guard by the infamous Tet offensive. This was a turning point in the war – both for our forces overseas and support back at home. As liberal student communities began to speak out in protest against the continued war effort, police and national guardsmen did everything in their power to quell the dissenters. What they did not realize was that these were not small, isolated groups speaking out in anarchy, but an entire generation of Americans who believed strongly against what their government was doing.

In early February, a UCSB anthropology professor named Bill Allen, was denied tenure and subsequently fired because of his anti-war ideals. Over fourteen thousand students demonstrated on campus on his behalf, and 19 of those students were arrested. And so it began. The next day, a Black Student Union leader was arrested in Isla Vista for protesting, which moved mass demonstrations to the streets. Resentment grew as the police resorted to violence to quell demonstrators. We complain about the IV Foot Patrol now, but 40 years ago, the police brutality was actual brutality; the worst part was, there was nothing the students could really do but protest. After all, the police were enforcing a government-backed viewpoint.


Students protesting on campus.
On Wednesday, February 25th, the collective tension finally snapped as over a thousand students took to the streets and gained control over the 3-block “downtown” of Isla Vista. For over seven hours the students held the street. They smashed windows, threw rocks, and did everything in their power to keep the police at bay. It was, for all intents and purposes, the epitome of the very escalation of war that the students had been protesting against in the first place. At about 9 pm, students began throwing rocks at the sheriff’s car, and an hour later they captured it and set it on fire.



The two deputies fled as the flames reached up to thirty feet in height. The Bank of America building’s windows were smashed, and demonstrators poured into the bank. An observer reported that the demonstrators “hurled chairs into windows, overturned desks, created snowfalls of envelopes from an upstairs office and tore up anything they could reach.” Trashcans were set on fire and thrown into the building. Then the demonstration turned from a political stand to a single-minded display of the shrewdness of mob mentality. Seventy sheriff’s deputies barged into the bank in full riot gear after being told there was a manager trapped in the burning building, only to find themselves lured into a clever trap set by hundreds of students who had surrounded them and were now throwing rocks and assaulting the officers.


The Bank of America Building burning through the night.
Over 300 police were driven out of Isla Vista by the students, creating a general feeling of triumph among the student community, one of whom commented that “While the students held the shopping center, there wasn’t an atmosphere of ‘wild in the streets.’ The group was calm and highly political –explicitly anti-capitalist. Targets of window breaking were chosen carefully: the Bank, the real restate offices which gouge students on rents, and the gas stations whose companies pollute Santa Barbara Bay with oil seepages. Small businesses were not touched.”

On the morning of Thursday, February 26th, the Governor of California Ronald Reagan flew out to Santa Barbara. As I mentioned before, the students were forced to violent demonstrations because the government backed the police fully. This was about to be demonstrated by Reagan’s harsh speech, directed at Isla Vistans. During his visit, Reagan called the student demonstrators “cowardly little bums” and declared an “extreme state of emergency” in Isla Vista. Furthermore, he placed National Guard units on alert and threatened that he would declare martial law if necessary. Police were instructed to scatter groups of three or more and prohibit people from loitering on the streets. Furthermore, a 6 am to 6 pm curfew was put in place. However, that did little to stop the students, who seemed more than hell-bent on making their point. Students and police fought for over five hours that evening, ending with the police withdrawing late into the night.


The charred remains of the Bank of America Building.
On Friday, February 27th, after two nights of the police getting their guns handed to them by student demonstrators in Isla Vista, five hundred National Guardsmen were called out and another 2,500 were put on alert. However, students were quiet that night. Rain in addition to no overwhelming resentment towards these non-Isla Vistan law enforcement officers was enough to calm the tumultuous firestorm of violent protest that had gripped the student population in the days preceding.

Also see the link above for more on Isla Vista and riots part IV Riot II,IV Riot III and much, much, more.

What the heck do I know.?

[Carson]

Back in the early seventies with the war and things we went off of the gold standard.

http://photos.imageevent.com/stokeybob/followthemoney/2508h-inflationgraph.jpg

I suppose as long as people can create their money by printing it up out of thin air, float on brothers and sisters . Float on.

http://photos.imageevent.com/stokeybob/followthemoney/Supersingle640x537.jpg


What can we do about it?



P.S. The difference now and the difference then with the money was that groups like the students could raise real money to make things the way they want and any opposition had to do the same. Now no matter how much money you can raise to make things the way you want the government can print up whatever it take to get their way...and then send you the bill!

[Carson]

In earlier post I mentioned that I had the feeling that the person that torched the bank may have been involved with the government.

Maybe it just seemed that way because the act seemed to play so much into the hands of the government. The government was sure ready and primed to act.

I suppose we need to keep this sort of thing in mind.

[dannno]

wow thanks for all those posts :)

[nobody's_hero]

Well they actually made the law that you can't drink on the beach because of floatopia last year.. personally I think drinking on the beach is safer, because I don't think it is legal to drink out on the floatie, I dunno.. i guess it should be, it's not like you have a motor on those things and could hurt people..

You could float out to international waters and have a drink. The laws wouldn't apply then.

—Wait, no. That wouldn't be a good idea. :D

[dannno]

A number of factors, such as the draft, the sexual revolution, psychoactives, art, and general overcrowding converged and fueled the students, banding them together in unprecedented number and form. Tension between student protesters and authorities came to a head in 1970, resulting in a series of riots.

On February 24, 1970, several prominent student activists were jailed, and a couple hundred protesters gathered in the streets, setting trash cans on fire and vandalizing several buildings. The next day, William Kunstler gave a rousing speech in Harder Stadium, discussing local and national threats to liberty that the established authority posed. Police arrested another prominent activist on his way out of the stadium, and allegedly began clubbing students at random as they left the grounds and entered Isla Vista. The neighborhood erupted in a full-fledged riot, which was ended when Governor Reagan sent in the National Guard to quell the students.

http://www.independent.com/news/2010/apr/22/remembering-isla-vista-riots/

[Carson]

Good article dannno,

Back then people were voicing their opinions with protest all over the country. A nano second after the bank went up in flames, the National Guard, with bees in their mouths, was unleashed around the whole nation it seemed.


Today, activists are looking for ways to shatter the spell of apathy hanging over the students' heads, searching the past for clues, but recognizing key differences. For instance, in the 60s, there was really just one movement. Now, the different elements have spun off and see themselves as separate.

http://www.independent.com/news/2010/apr/22/remembering-isla-vista-riots/

As for the apathy of the students today I think the decades of fiat money going towards the indoctrination of the youth, into taking it and liking it, has taken its toll. Time will tell if they wise up and realize how it's being given to them raw. Our generation sort of Squeals like a pig natural like.


P.S. Thanks for posting this thread and reminding me of Isla Vista. I hope the float thing goes off okay. It looks like a real party.

[Carson]

New riots in Isla Vista.

Story;

http://www.keyt.com/news/thousands-riot-in-the-streets-of-isla-vista/25345906

Fark comments.

http://www.fark.com/comments/8209586/-20000-kids-began-to-riot-when-Santa-Barbara-police-react-to-annual-Deltopia-party-by-shooting-rubber-bullets-into-crowd-Well-as-you-might-expect-it-pretty-much-went-downhill-from-there

[oyarde]

Not sure I have ever heard of a " no float zone " , how are they enforcing that , gunboats ??

[dannno]

Not sure I have ever heard of a " no float zone " , how are they enforcing that , gunboats ??

There are a few paths to the beaches that get blocked and it is out on a peninsula... I think u can still go surf (near?)there if u come in the back way..