Last night, some 70 members of women’s and neighborhood advocacy groups joined with community leaders and the local police department in a protest march against violence.
Residents of Santa Cruz are increasingly concerned about the growing level of violence in the city. The shooting deaths of Alejandro Nava-Gonzalez, 21, and Oscar Ventura, 18, last week—the second and third homicides of the year—only served to highlight how bad the situation has become. It also mobilized two local groups, Neighbors of Lower Ocean and the Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women, to demand that the city put a stop to the violence.
Last night, some 70 members of the groups joined with community leaders and the local police department in a protest march against violence. “We need to combine personal responsibility with community action,” said City Councilmember Cynthia Mathew at a gathering in the City Hall courtyard before the march began. When the speakers were finished, the crowd marched from Center Street down Pacific Avenue to Laurel Street and back to City Hall.
Ironically, the night before the march, City Hall became the scene of a crime of its own. The SCPD reports that a burglar broke a window and entered the building some time around midnight. What did he take off with? Mayor Mike Rotkin’s laptop. Read more at KSBW and the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
