Psst! Who invited the cops?!

Whether you like it or not, the County Board of Supervisors, in faithful service to their curmudgeon constituency, has invited the cops to your next social gathering.  I first wrote in opposition to the very controversial "Social Host Ordinance" (SHO) in June of 2008.  In spite of the fact that the clear majority of Isla Vistans oppose this ordinance (and maybe that's because it's widely believed that Isla Vista is the only place where the SHO will be enforced with any regularity), it was enacted into law on December 1.  As I stated previously, the police in Isla Vista and elsewhere are not without tools to suppress underage drinking.  They have numerous statutes at their disposal that enable them to detain people that are in public (or in some cases in the public view) and, at the very least, can seize and pour out the drink with impunity.  Most don't stop there, however.  The Isla Vista Foot Patrol issues thousands of tickets per year for minor in possession, open container in public, and related law violations.  Those under 21 are booked into jail for public intoxication at the drop of a hat.  And let's not forget that they were already barging uninvited into apartments and houses in Isla Vista long before the SHO was first proposed.  Accounts of frequent and deliberate Fourth Amendment violations by the Isla Vista Foot Patrol are common.

The truth is cops barge in to private spaces because they can get away with it, with or without a SHO.  Any true accountability for doing so when the sum total of damages are usually hurt feelings and the replacement value of a beer is and was non-existent.  The big difference now is that they will, under color of the SHO, have an easier time holding those accountable who are furnishing alcohol to those under 21 in smaller gatherings.  There was never really any difficulty holding the big party throwers (i.e., hosting 10 or more people) accountable for serving alcohol to minors because the cops could either walk through an open door and/or demand to speak to the host in order to enforce a noise violation and the exception to the warrant requirement would sprout up during that encounter.  Now what they are able to do, under color of the SHO, is to enter any apartment where there is any noise or other evidence noticeable from the outside that suggests there is a "social gathering" going on inside.   That's pretty broad (read "overbroad").  It doesn't have to be a raging party.  Two people sharing one beer is a party.  They could both be 21 or older but the cops are still, under color of the SHO, allowed to barge in to sniff drinks and check ID's and whatever contraband they see in plain view is fair game.  A typical reaction of acceptance of the Government over-reaching might be:  'well, even the cops understand that underage beer consumption and college are synonymous and that they will, therefore, use good judgment on deciding when to enforce this law'.  I'm sure most cops will.  However, what this law does is enable cops with poor judgment to rampantly intrude into peoples' private spaces in ways that will deter even legal conduct.  Giving that much 'unbridled' discretion to a rank and file patrol officer is disfavored by the California Supreme Court and may not otherwise withstand Constitutional scrutiny.  For example, according to the holding of the California Appellate Court in People v. Hua, police officers may not enter a dwelling absent a warrant simply because they believe that a non-jailable criminal offense is taking place inside. 

I hereby invite anyone who has a case involving the enforcement of the SHO to contact me and I will consider handling the matter pro bono.

Be heard, Isla Vistans!

Don't wait until you're in jail to complain about the proposed Social Host Ordinance.

Here's an email in circulation that I will do my part to publicize because I agree with it wholeheartedly:

Help Protect Residents of IV TODAY!

Ask SB County Supervisors to Vote NO on the proposed Social Host Ordinance (i.e. Law)


WHAT: Board of Supervisors Hearing re: proposed Social Host Ordinance
WHEN: Tuesday, April 21, 2009; if you can’t attend, send them an email NOW! (talking points and email addresses below)
WHERE: Board of Supervisors Hearing Room (105 E. Anapamu Street, 4th Floor)
Background:
1. The ordinance is meant to address underage drinking. It would apply county-wide, including in Isla Vista (which already has a similar, but less intrusive, ordinance).
2. Any time at least 5 people are together, and at least 2 are under 21, the gathering can be subject to the ordinance.
3. If a minor at one of these gatherings has alcohol, regardless of whether the host of the event knows or should know the minor has alcohol, the ordinance is violated.
4. When there is a violation, law enforcement can disperse the gathering, and fine anyone who lives at the residence or is responsible for the gathering.
5. Multiple offenders can be held responsible for the cost of law enforcement response, up to $500.
6. A person is a repeat offender, and therefore subject to increased fines, if the ordinance was violated at the same property within 12 months, regardless of whether the violation was from previous tenants or property owners.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1. Call and email your Supervisors

2. Pass this email on to as many residents of Santa Barbara County (which includes IV) as you can

3. Attend the 4/21 Board hearing. Call 568-2240 on or after 4/15 to confirm exact time
Urge the Supervisors to:

Vote No on the Proposed Social Host Ordinance

Talking Points:

· The ordinance is a bad idea because it gives law enforcement too much power to unfairly target students who are behaving in a responsible manner.

· Also, because the ordinance allows for holding hosts responsible for law enforcement response costs, people will be discouraged from contacting law enforcement or paramedics when serious incidents occur at parties or other gatherings where alcohol is present.

· Finally, because the County already has sufficient means to dissuade underage drinking through laws already on the books, the ordinance is unnecessary.

1st District: Salud CarbajalPhone: (805) 568-2186E-mail: SupervisorCarbajal@sbcbos1.org
2nd District: Janet Wolf, Vice Chair Phone: (805) 568-2191E-mail: jwolf@sbcbos2.org
3rd District: Doreen FarrPhone: (805) 568-2192 E-mail: dfarr@countyofsb.org
4th District: Joni Gray Lompoc: (805) 737-7700E-mail: jgray@co.santa-barbara.ca.us
5th District: Joseph Centeno, Chair Santa Maria: (805) 346-8400 E-mail: jcenteno@co.santa-barbara.ca.us

D.A. Gets Tough on Drunkenness

The Santa Barbara News Press just picked up the story. The District Attorney's Office has toughened its stand against those under 21 who are arrested for public intoxication by alcohol. For many years the Office offered these same individuals (upon a first offense) the option of taking an alcohol awareness class in order to avoid the criminal conviction and the year-long license suspension. This jibed just fine with state policy given the fact that the state calls for municipalities to install a sobering center whereby such individuals can escape criminal prosecution. See Penal Code section 647(g). Since Isla Vista, the number one most popular spot to get drunk in the County (if not the state), doesn't have a sobering center, the District Attorney's treatment of these cases, non-criminally, seemed an intelligent way to stem the otherwise huge numbers of criminal convictions that would necessarily flow out of Isla Vista. Nevertheless, the District Attorney's Office has chosen to throw out this solution in favor of "getting tough"; hoping to bring about a change in behavior among the larger student population.

Even if the D.A.'s Office is correct that toughening their stand is going to reduce the numbers of minors getting drunk in Isla Vista, I strongly disagree that this is good policy. One reason is that it creates a very troubling contrast of outcomes depending on what substance a minor decides to experiment with. If we consider that there is a one free bite at the apple in terms of use and possession of hard drugs, (such as methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, etc.), as afforded by Penal Code section 1000, then how is that a single instance use of alcohol should produce a criminal conviction? The unfortunate message to the Isla Vista population, therein, is that you are better off experimenting with hard drugs than alcohol. For alcohol intoxication you will suffer a criminal conviction, for intoxication by anything else, you won't. We can, of course, debate whether alcohol is any better than the other drugs. However, what can't be debated is that, within a few years, the individual will be able to legally drink alcohol; and not so with the hard drugs. So, how can the government logically take the position that alcohol is worse than hard drugs when alcohol is legal for those 21 and over, and hard drugs are not? Also, I would strongly disagree that alcohol, in general, is anywhere near as damaging to the human body and brain as methamphetamine, nor is it anywhere near as addictive as heroin. It strikes me that the District Attorney's Office did not think this through.

The over-arching truth is that most people in this not-so-dry county are not really excited about sitting in judgment of a college-aged kid who got caught drinking. Consequently, even a few "dead-to-rights" guilty minors are going to get acquitted of the offenses at jury trial; not to mention the closer cases. So, more of these cases are being, and will be, tried as the result. This is and will continue to tie up days upon days of court time. And to what productive end?

Fall in Isla Vista - Arrest Season

Yes, it's that time of year again: Isla Vista Arrest Season. While the rest of the Northern Hemisphere may look forward to cooler temperatures, shorter afternoons, football games, and raking leaves, Isla Vista can expect an increase in arrests as the Foot Patrol is now out in force issuing citations for MIP, Drunk In Public, Open Containers, Furnishing Alcohol to Minors, and myriad other disorderly conduct law violations; and the UCSB students haven't even returned from Summer Vacation yet. Responsive to the up-tick in arrests, I am introducing a new website http://www.ivlawyer.com/ This site, although new and still developing, is intended to provide answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ's) by those arrested and cited for the above law violations, and to provide an easy means to contact me (24/7) concerning such problems. It might even prevent an arrest or two by passing on some insights on arrest avoidance; although with the numbers of police now patrolling I.V. with newly printed citebooks, and an ever-present mandate by the local community and the University to "get tough" on rowdy behavior in I.V., don't count on it.

The Art of Penalizing Isla Vista Parties

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors are, at the moment, being urged to expand an existing Santa Barbara County Code ordinance which already makes most any party in Isla Vista a public nuisance. You can view the proposed changes at: http://bos-agenda.sbcgov.net/attachments/8489.pdf The expansions are being pushed through quickly - and quietly - and just in time for this year's Halloween festivities. According to the existing public nuisance ordinance, any collection of three or more of some 20 state and local law violations in any one gathering constitutes a public nuisance misdemeanor. Being added to that list are the offenses of public nudity, unlawful fires, urinating in public, and furnishing alcohol to a minor. Under this proposal, a single act of furnishing alcohol to a minor at a gathering renders the gathering a public nuisance. Under existing law, "rough body contact", "slamming" and launching one's self from a stage are single acts which give a police officr a basis to declare a gathering a public nuisance and thereby subject anyone lingering around after the order of disbursement to a citation and a fine; if not more severe penalties should their conduct rise to what the police would consider resisting, obstructing, or delaying a police officer in the discharge of his duties. All of the changes will be considered, and most likely made law in their entirety just in time for Halloween; 30 days forward from the date of enactment. While the proposed amendments have been, reportedly, vetted through a working group that consists of affected County Departments (District Attorney, Sheriff’s Department, Public Works, Counsel, County Executive Office and Third District), other agencies (City of Goleta, Santa Barbara City College) and representatives from the University of California Santa Barbara, it is noteworthy that neither Isla Vista residents, nor the affected student populations have been asked to join the discussion. Arguably, First Amendment rights to peaceable assembly, free speech, freedom are being further eroded by these proposed changes. Are the Isla Vista Foot Patrol really in need of more potent tools to bust up and criminalize the party-goers? Each year they arrest roughly 1,000 people over the Halloween period. The only good news for party-goers and throwers is that Isla Vista "outdoor festivals" (largely affecting outdoor bands) are to be de-criminalized under this proposal, but are still going to be subject to civil assessments (fines). Tuesday, August 28, 2007, is your opportunity to let the Board know how you feel about this new raft of laws affecting your freedom...but you'll have to drive to Santa Maria to be heard. See the Board's 8/28/2007 Meeting Agenda for further information.