Mendocino County Today: Sunday, Nov 8, 2015

• Panthers Win Redwood Bowl
• FB Drone
• Getting Off Pharmaceuticals
• Wobbly Language
• Ukiah Tiny-House Rez
• Caltrans Questioned
• Catch of the Day
• Trimmigrant Tensions
• Mendo Migrants
• Cat Chaser
• LakeCo News
• Wet Poem

WE'RE NUMBER ONE!

by Richard J. Marcus

The Anderson Valley football team relied on a punishing ground game on offense and a lock-down run defense Saturday to win the Redwood Bowl against host Upper Lake 32-18.

The Redwood Bowl features the top two finishers in the NCL III regular season. It was the second consecutive Redwood Bowl won by the Panthers (9-1, 8-1). Anderson Valley and Upper Lake (7-2, 7-2) were co-champs during the regular season. The season is over for both teams as they are not eligible for the NCS since they play eight-man football.

The victory for the Panthers avenges their 34-22 regular season loss at Upper Lake on Oct. 10. "Our defense ate them (Upper Lake) up," Anderson Valley coach Danny Kuny said of the rematch. "We shut their running game down to nothing. They had minus yard running on us."

Anderson Valley quarterback Tony Pardini rushed 11 times for 136 yards and scored twice on the ground. Pardini also threw a 40-yard touchdown to Ernie Perez. Panthers running back Jarrod Johnson carried 11 times for 183 yards and two touchdowns, including a 50-yard jaunt. "Johnson had a real good ballgame," Kuny said. "He ran through them and outran them."

(courtesy, The Press Democrat)

MEMO OF THE WEEK

From the recent meeting of the Fort Bragg City Council's public safety committee:

The Police Department would like to obtain a Drone to assist with patrolling the Coastal Trail and special events in the City. Patrolling the Coastal Trail is not possible in a car. Bicycles will be used to patrol the trail but a Drone would add another way to keep an eye on the activity on the trail without sending out officers, unless it becomes necessary. Citizens have privacy concerns when it comes to Drones. The Department intends on patrolling in wide open areas with the Drone, such as the Coastal Trail and beaches where there is no expectation of privacy. Drones have a limited flight time of about 20-25 minutes and can be difficult to use in very windy situations. They would prove very beneficial in any natural disaster situation such as an earthquake, searching for a missing child or searching for a suspect in incidents such as was the case with Jere Melo or Deputy Delfiorentino. Deitz agreed that a Drone could save lives in certain situations. There would be a limited number of officers who would be trained to be experts in the use of the Drone, although all officers would have a basic knowledge of its capabilities. A FLIR (forward looking infrared device) can be mounted on a Drone to enhance its capabilities. Drones can also be used to view trespass marijuana grows in the woods. Most Drones are equipped with GPS so they can be found if they come down for any reason before being brought back to the station. Ruffing mentioned that some cities are prohibiting recreational and private Drone use because some people find them offensive as they can be noisy and obnoxious. Visitors to the Coastal Trail could be offended if there were numerous personal Drones buzzing around the trail. As far as Law Enforcement use, there are policies that other cities have established that Fort Bragg could use as a template for establishing its own policy. A Drone for Law Enforcement uses is supported by the Committee. The Chief gave a brief update on the purchase of Body Cameras.

* * *

A FORT BRAGG RESIDENT writes to a City councilman about the police chief's desire to buy a drone: "I am shocked that you support the city getting a drone. If you think tourists are the only folks who will find its presence offensive, obnoxious, noisy and intrusive, you are wrong. We came here forty years ago to escape urban life, and many recent arrivals came for the same reason. Drones represent the worst of that. And everyone I know likes some personal privacy at the beaches and headlands, not just tourists, to enjoy nature, meditate, and appreciate the scene without a drone bothering them. Nobody wants to be spied on. Your drone certainly won’t last long, if purchased. And please inform me of the cost of this device."

* * *

FB'S CHIEF has a rather unsavory background as a spy himself during his days with the LAPD, and as recounted here:

A Timeline of LAPD Spying and Surveillance

July 1923 - LAPD Officer William "Red" Hynes infiltrates the International Workers of the World (IWW) union. Hynes, a young LAPD officer, is assigned to infiltrate the IWW and the Communist Party. He becomes editor of the IWW's journal and secretary of the strike committee during a 1923 strike at the Port of Los Angeles.1

July 1927 - William “Red” Hynes named head of LAPD's "Red Squad." Hynes worked closely with business owners and the Merchants and Manufacturers Association to identify and remove those perceived as radicals. He made money on the side as a private investigator, and sold information from police files to businesses.2

August 5, 1927 – LAPD officers, working in conjunction with mob boss Alfred Marco, pay the sister-in-law of an LAPD detective $2500 to seduce married City Council member Carl Jacobson in an effort to discredit him. Jacobson had been critical of the close connection between LAPD and criminals running gambling rings in the city. Police officers arrest Jacobson just before he and the woman get into bed, but during the trial it became apparent that Jacobson was entrapped and the charges are dropped.3

January 14, 1938 - LAPD officers plant a bomb in the car of Harry Raymond, who is investigating police ties with organized crime. Prior to the bombing, LAPD's intelligence Squad, led by Earl Kynette, had surveilled Raymond for several months as he performed investigations of the LAPD for a citizens group (CIVIC) that was pushing for reform of the department. The squad had spied over 50 other people, including the district attorney and all five county supervisors, in the course of their investigation of Raymond and CIVIC. Kynette was convicted for his role in the bombing, and the Intelligence Division was disbanded.4

Late 1969 - James Jarrett, an undercover LAPD officer with the Criminal Conspiracy Section (CSS), begins working with a group of activists called The Friends of the Black Panthers. When two members, Donald Freed and Shirley Sutherland, ask for assistance in purchasing pepper spray for self-defense, Jarrett instead brings them explosives stolen from a Navy arsenal. Minutes after Jarrett leaves the explosives with Freed at his home, FBI, LAPD and Treasury Department agents raid the home and arrested Freed and Sutherland. The LAPD then used a man named Sam Bluth to spy on the defense by working as an investigator for the defense attorney. The case against the Freed and Sutherland is dismissed when a U.S. Attorney working on the case finds the police notes indicating that the defense had been infiltrated

December 9, 1969 – The headquarters of the Black Panthers is raided and several members are arrested. At the trial of those arrested, Melvin “Cotton” Smith, the third ranking member of the group, and Louis Tackwood, are revealed to be informant for the LAPD Criminal Conspiracy Section (CCS) who had been sent to infiltrate the Black Panther Party in Los Angeles. Smith, who testified for the prosecution, claimed that he did so to avoid prosecution, but Tackwood testified that Smith was his contact in the organization when he first infiltrated the group. Tackwood was also used by the LAPD to funnel money to Ron Karenga’s US organization in another attempt to remove support from the Black Panthers.6

1970 - The Public Disorders Investigation Division (PDID) is established. Chief Ed Davis establishes the PDID as a separate division from the Intelligence Division, of which it had previously been a part. The PDID will be responsible for most of the surveillance abuses of the 1970’s.7

January 1970 - Sgt. Robert G. Thoms, an LAPD community relations officer, charged in a hearing at the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee that 94 individuals were part of an interlocking leadership organization at the head of 47 groups that were “subversive” or “tools of subversion.” These charges and the release of material from intelligence dossiers on these groups, all of which were social agencies and nonprofit groups, were really just part of an attempt to undermine various social agencies and nonprofit groups, two of which, the Congress of Mexican Unity and the Black Congress, were denied funding or lost outside monetary support.8

February 20, 1970 - Two Public Disorders Investigation Division (PDID) members, Harry Ted Kozak and Steven MacMurray, posed as student members of “radical groups” (including SDS) at UCLA, in order to get information on campus student movements. Kozak was briefly arrested for “playing provocative roles in [a] demonstration” before revealing his true identity and role. A third man, identified as only Stephen Smith, was also an undercover agent. Because the undercover agents had posed as students, the UCLA Faculty Senate brought a lawsuit against LAPD and won its case in California Supreme Court, which declared undercover police in classrooms to be an assault on academic freedom.9

April 1970 – The LA Times reports on Seymour Meyerson, an activist against police abuses, who was subject to five years of surveillance and harassment by the LAPD. Among other actions, one of those spying on him, Det. Clifford Ruff, anonymously called in a report to police that Meyerson was waving a gun in his house while children were nearby. Police brought Meyerson out of his home at gunpoint, but found no gun. Meyerson successfully sued the LAPD for $27,000, but Ruff did not suffer any consequences.

May 1970 – LA City Council members John S. Gibson, Jr. and Arthur Snyder compile a dossier from various LAPD ‘red files’ as support for their contention that some federally- funded anti-poverty programs were “aiding and abetting militant groups.” They provide dossier as briefing material to members of the LA Chamber of Commerce who were lobbying federal legislators to deny funding to these organizations.11

March 10, 1971 – The LAPD admits that in 1969 it allowed writer from Look Magazine to look at supposedly secret files from its intelligence division in 1969 for article on San Francisco mayor Samuel Alioto. It is unclear why the LAPD had files on the San Francisco mayor.12

1972 – A lawsuit reveals that LA Trade Tech College administration had spied on campus activists and groups with wiretaps and assembled dossiers on them, which they then passed on to Public Disorders Investigation Division (PDID). Groups on whom surveillance was carried out included women’s liberation groups and SCLC.13

1974-75 LAPD officer Edward Camarillo, who infiltrated several activist groups in the Los Angeles area from 1974 to 1978, filed reports with the Public Disorders Investigation Division (PDID) on meetings in 1974 and 1975 between Tom Bradley and the United Farm Workers (UFW) about support for the UFW boycott of Gallo wines. Reasons for spying on the mayor and the union are unclear since the police report itself noted that UFW protesters were non-violent. When report of spying became public in 1981, then- Chief Daryl Gates dismissed it as “inconsequential trivia.”14

1974-1979 – LAPD officer Richard Gibbey infiltrates the anti-nuclear group the Alliance for Survival and the Socialist Worker’s Party. His cover is blown when he shows up in uniform to a burglary investigation at the home of a former head of the Socialist Worker’s Party.15

1975-1979 – LAPD officer Frank Montelongo infiltrated various Native American Activist groups, including the American Indian Movement, Los Angeles. He loses his cover when members of some of the groups he had infiltrated saw him in uniform. In the four years that he was spying, he found no evidence of illegal activities.16

April 1975 – Los Angeles Police Commission announces that it will destroy Public Disorders Intelligence Division files, which covered 55,000 people. Files were not really destroyed, just hidden (see entry for September 1983 below), and 2,500 were left active.

The removal of files took away the opportunity of surveillance subjects to check on why police were observing them.17

September 1976 – LAPD officer infiltrates Chicano activist group the Brown Berets. Lieutenant Fernando Sumaya infiltrates the Brown Berets, a Chicano activist organization. Brown Berets charge that Sumaya was an agent provocateur and responsible for setting fires around downtown LA when Governor Reagan was giving a speech, and had planned to detonate explosives in the area. Brown Beret members charged with crimes related to the fires are acquitted because of Sumaya's role in inciting violence.18

June 17, 1977 - Public Disorders Intelligence Division officer Connie Milazzo, who had infiltrated the left-wing Progressive Labor Party (PLP), was arrested at a PLP protest that turned into a brawl. Two months later her identity was revealed and charges against her were dropped, while eight others in the group were sent to trial. The PLP defendants were acquitted because Milazzo was present at meetings between the defendants and their attorneys, and because the police did not want to reveal more of Milazzo’s clandestine activities. Shortly thereafter (August 13, 1977), she married Jon Dial, a long-time activist in many movements, who had disappeared in early 1977. It is suspected that Dial was also a spy.19

1978 – The Citizens’ Commission on Police Repression (CCPR) releases a leaked memo from LAPD that lists political and social groups ranked according to their supposed propensity for violence. Included on list along with groups like the Ku Klux Klan are the Southern Christian Leadership Council, United Farm Workers and National Organization for Women.20

February 25, 1978 – A three man taping crew from LAPD records a city council meeting at which protesters are speaking against a proposed nuclear power plant. LAPD at first claimed that filming was for “training purposes,” then claimed, without evidence, that they were expecting violent protesters at the meeting and wanted to get record of violent actions. Although the city council president claimed that the taping was allowable, others on the council were extremely upset at the apparent attempt to quash free and open speech.21

May 1, 1980 – Fabian Lizarraga, an undercover agent with the LAPD who has infiltrated the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), helps to instigate a riot at a rally the RCP holds in MacArthur Park. While undercover, Lizarraga slept with an RCP member as a way to get more information from her. He was also present when an RCP member was murdered at Aliso Village housing project by gang members. Attorneys for RCP claimed that LAPD intentionally stayed away from the area while the RCP was there because they suspected that the group members would be attacked.22

1982 – Documents released because of lawsuits against LAPD reveal that Chief Gates, who had earlier claimed that the LAPD had no interest in the CCPR, was frequently briefed on the group’s activities and members. The spying occurred despite internal police rules against conducting surveillance on peaceful groups.23

June 1982 – LAPD is sued for spying on students at Cal State LA. Documents also show that police had infiltrated student groups at Cal State Northridge.24

October 11, 1982 – Documents are released showing that the LAPD spied on a police watchdog group, Coalition Against Police Abuse (CAPA) from 1976-1980, a period after the department had agreed not to spy on groups engaging in constitutionally protected activities. Despite claims that they were only looking for potential terrorist activity, reports sent to the chief of police by the four undercover officers who infiltrated the group focused on internal politics of the group, meeting with public officials and other protected activities.25

1983 - After numerous scandals and lawsuits stemming from the division's illegal surveillance activities, the LAPD disbands the Public Disorders Investigation Division (PDID) and assigns surveillance functions to the Anti-Terrorism division. The change is intended to end unauthorized surveillance of peaceful individuals and groups.26

September 1983 – LAPD detective Jay Paul is revealed to have kept 180 boxes of surveillance files in a mobile home, and to have leaked some to right wing group. An independent attorney hired to look into spying charges concerning Public Disorders Investigation Division (PDID) finds that Paul, with the approval and assistance of supervisors and fellow officers, hid surveillance files that were meant to be destroyed. Among the files in the hidden boxes were reports on members of the Police Commission and a judge, Jerry Pacht. Paul is also found to have been supplying LAPD surveillance information to the right-wing group Western Goals. Paul entered information on a computer system at his wife’s law office provided by Western Goals. Paul’s wife was paid by the organization, although Paul himself was not. The computerized files were available to be accessed by police departments whose internal rules prevented them from collecting and maintaining files on peaceful groups. Paul and other LAPD officers in the PDID had also been using Western Goal’s periodical Information Digest to obtain information on perceived “communistic” threats.

March 26, 1984 - At a hearing concerning Jay Paul’s misconduct, PDID officer Perry Hutchison reveals, that he had passed information on to Exxon, and also traded surveillance information with Security National Bank, by whom he was paid as a consultant.28

February 1989 – LAPD Assistant Chief Paul Vernon asks the Anti-Terrorist Division to print out files on police watchdog Michael Zinzun, a former member of Citizens Committee Against Police Repression (CCPR) and Coalition Against Police Abuse (CAPA), in order to discredit him as a candidate for Pasadena city council. Vernon distributed the information three days before the election, noting that it came from the Anti-Terrorist Division. Zinzun, successfully sues the city for defamation in 1994. Zinzun had previously been a member of the 1982 ACLU suit against the city and LAPD that led to numerous revelations of police misconduct and the eventual dismantling of the Public Disorders Intelligence Division (PDID).29

January 1992 – Because LAPD is unwilling to reveal the involvement of the Anti-Terrorist Division in their arrests, Los Angeles prosecutors drop charges against members of the Revolutionary Communist Party who had participated in protests against the police.30

July 29, 1993 - Investigation announced into the possibility that LAPD passed information on Arab groups to Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The computer of Roy Bullock, an investigator for the ADL, contained information that could only have come from police. People protesting at the ADL's offices accuse the LAPD of sending a plainclothes officer to photograph them.31

April 1995 – The Los Angeles Police Commission approves a relaxation of the surveillance rules put in place after revelations of Public Disorders Investigation Division (PDID) misconduct in the early 1980’s. The move allows the department more freedom to use electronic surveillance devices in the early stages of investigations and lowers the standard for opening an investigation from “probable cause” to “reasonable suspicion.” Plainclothes surveillance of suspects is now automatically approved, and undercover spying is allowed with the consent of the chief.32

August 17, 2000 – Numerous undercover LAPD officers infiltrate protests at the Democratic convention held in Los Angeles. Their orders are not only to look out for weapons, vandalism and other illegal activities and objects, but to keep superiors informed of protesters plans and movements.33

January 2004 – LAPD installs surveillance cameras in MacArthur Park.34

October 2004 – LAPD begins installation of cameras in Hollywood. Eventually 64 cameras are placed along Hollywood, Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards and Western Avenue. Some of the cameras are paid for by the Hollywood Entertainment District Business Improvement District.35

May 2005 – LAPD announces plan to install cameras in the Fashion District of Downtown Los Angeles. The cameras are paid for by the Motion Picture Association of America because of the area’s reputation as a site where bootlegged movies are sold on the street.36

September 2005 – LAPD begins installing more than a dozen cameras in the Jordan Downs housing project.37

September 2006 – LAPD installs 10 cameras in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles. The Central City East Business Improvement District pays for the purchase and installation of the cameras.38 February 2009 – LAPD installs five surveillance cameras, paid for by a local Business Improvement District, in Sherman Oaks. Cameras are located at Calhoun and Ventura Blvd; Cedros and Ventura Blvd (2); Van Nuys Blvd and Ventura Blvd; and Milbank and Van Nuys Blvd.

June 2010 – Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announces a plan to have a total of 125 cameras installed at LA housing projects, including Nickerson Gardens, Imperial Courts, Jordan Downs and Ramona Gardens. Cameras are paid for with federal stimulus funds. Ten of the cameras have license plate recognition technology.

May 2011 – LAPD installs surveillance cameras in area of North Hills bounded by Nordhoff, Roscoe, the 405 Freeway and Van Nuys Boulevard. The cameras are powerful enough to be able to zoom in on a license plate two blocks away.41

May 2011 – LAPD begins using cameras in its helicopter fleet that are powerful enough to recognize an object in a person’s hand from thousands of feet in the air.

(Courtesy, www.stoplapdspying.org)

GETTING OFF THE PHARMACEUTICALS

by Keith Bramstedt

(Author’s Note: This is a follow up article to the one I wrote for the AVA several weeks ago about my experience as a mental health client.)

In the last 20 years there has been a proliferation of psychiatric drugs prescribed in the United States, not only by psychiatrists but by general practitioners. Anti-depressants, specifically SSRI's (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) like Prozac have become commonplace, and anti-anxiety medications are also popular. Not to be excluded are anti-psychotics used mostly for psychosis and schizophrenia.

I had been a consumer of psychiatric drugs for the last 21 years until earlier this year, and my views toward taking them have changed quite drastically in the last year and a half. With a diagnosis of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, over the last 21 years I took anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs, anti-psychotics, as well as sleeping medications.

I was definitely never one who expected a "miracle" from psych meds, as I had taken them for a few years in my early twenties and never saw them as anything other than a possible boost to my mood along with doing psychotherapy. But last year I began to question whether they were really doing any good and if in fact they were doing harm to me based on my being exposed to the work of a psychiatrist and author named Peter Breggin who is critical of conventional psychiatry and the proliferation of psychiatric medication.

What had not changed in my 21 years on psych meds was my social isolation and low functionality as far as participating in society whether through employment, school, volunteer work, etc. I have done psychotherapy for well over half of those 21 years, but it seemed pretty clear that psych meds were not providing much benefit to me while definitely financially benefitting my psychiatrist (charging a discounted rate of $250/hour) and the pharmaceutical companies. Resentment motivated me to attempt weaning off psych meds with my doctor's assistance.

In August 2014 I started tapering off the anti-psychotic I was taking, and by January I was off it. In April I went off my anti-depressant in only three weeks with no palpable withdrawal. Around the holidays last year while tapering off the anti-psychotic I noticed being more in touch with my emotions as I was able to cry on several occasions. I started writing again, keeping a journal, and listening to music, whereas for months I had spent a lot of time watching TV which was merely a numbing behavior. These expressive/creative habits and hobbies continue today as I have not only kept a journal but written an article for the AVA as well as letters to editors and a submission to a literary magazine. I listen to music every day and almost never watch more than two hours of TV a day.

A major concern I had after reading Dr. Peter Breggin's book was his assertion that psych meds merely blunt emotions much like alcohol and narcotics. This was kind of a blow to my ego as I had had a little bit of smugness around the belief that psych meds were "medicine" and I was not resorting to "getting wasted" on alcohol or illegal drugs. Years ago after noticing that I never cried on Prozac after being able to cry while off meds I wondered aloud to my psychiatrist if Prozac was nothing more than a "sophisticated anesthetic." He tried to assert that it wasn't but I don't remember his argument being convincing.

The therapist who referred me to my psychiatrist in 1994 asserted that psych meds would aid in therapy by getting me in touch with my emotions, but my experience hasn't shown that not to be the case. Peter Breggin argues that psych drugs "suppress feelings and estrange people from themselves. This makes it more difficult to explore, identify, and channel emotions."

Dr. Peter Breggin, 79, of Ithaca, New York has been a psychiatrist in private practice since 1968 and is a reformer in the mental health field who is opposed to the escalating overuse of psychiatric medications, the oppressive diagnosing and drugging of children, electroshock, lobotomy, and involuntary treatment. He acts as a medical expert in criminal, malpractice and product liability suits, often involving adverse drug effects such as suicide, violence, brain injury, death, and tardive dyskinesia. Dr. Breggin's book that I read is "Your Drug May Be Your Problem — How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications" (1999, revised 2007), co-authored with David Cohen, PhD.

Dr. Breggin argues that the concept of biochemical imbalances in depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses is highly speculative and suspect, and that there is no way to measure it. I would point out that whereas legitimate physical diseases like diabetes, HIV, high cholesterol, prostate cancer, etc. have blood tests to detect them, depression has no such tangible physical test to prove serotonin deficiency. Instead a doctor's biased judgment is relied on. Over the last year I have encountered the opinions of quite a few psychiatrists and other mental health professionals on the Internet who question or discount the notion that depression is caused by serotonin deficiency.

Depression has been turned into a medical issue in this culture when I think that ultimately it is not. In my case depression is emotional, related to trauma and the legacy of child abuse. Peter Breggin states that "when emotional discomfort or suffering is defined as a 'disorder' it creates business for doctors and drug companies."

The appeal of a medical diagnosis of depression for sufferers is that it can lift the conventional stigma of depression being a "moral failure" or "character issue" and instead be seen as a chemical issue that's not the individual's fault. I personally didn't feel that way. I took it personally that my brain chemistry was considered "defective."

Depression as a medical issue also distracts from difficult and painful issues for both the individual sufferer and society at large, issues like trauma, child abuse, and social and economic injustice. In my experience, depression is a complex matter and merely reducing it to a medical diagnosis is unintelligent, unenlightened, and dangerous.

Getting back to my psych med experience, it started off innocently enough with a depression/OCD diagnosis and a low dose of Prozac, but gradually the doses were raised higher and higher until reaching the highest recommended daily dose due to it either not being effective or the body needing higher doses for it to be effective. In the first five years with my psychiatrist we also tried several anti-anxiety drugs. Benzodiazepines, being addictive, never appealed to me and I never stayed on them long, but a non-addictive anti-anxiety drug called Buspar was also ineffective.

I spent most of the last 15 years on anti-psychotics, not for psychosis (my doctor never believed I was psychotic) but to "augment" the effect of the anti-depressants. On anti-psychotics my weight shot up to 240 pounds (I'm 6 foot 2 inches), a weight I had never gotten close to before. Peter Breggin asserts that anti-psychotics are especially harmful and goes so far as to say that they are "chemical lobotomy" agents.

My doctor's approach over the years seemed to be to bombard my brain and body with the highest dose of anti-depressants while adding either anti-anxiety or anti-psychotic drugs. Like I mentioned earlier, this approach didn't significantly affect my established social isolation and disengagement from structured activity (I was also doing therapy so I wasn't solely relying on psych drugs). Of course, the more drugs I took and specifically the higher amount of pills I took, the more money the drug companies made off me, not to mention the drug insurance companies.

Peter Breggin in the above mentioned book goes into detail about the possible adverse effects of long term use of psych meds. The list is long and daunting. I haven't noticed much withdrawal symptoms since going off psych meds. On the plus side I'm more in touch with my creative side, but I don't feel much different emotionally since discontinuing the drugs. The fact that I don't feel worse tells me the drugs were not helpful or necessary.

In the last several months I've tried to move away from the stigmatized label of "depression" and focus on the emotions I feel behind it, primarily grief/sadness and anger. Adult Children of Alcoholics literature states that grief in ACA's is often misdiagnosed as depression. Grief is about loss, and my particular losses go back to childhood and have continued on into an adulthood where I've mostly been in hiding. I think Americans are averse to grief, America being a culture biased toward positivity (whether genuine or artificial) and ascensionism and being perpetually UP, thus the stigma against depression.

Writing this article and the previous one for the AVA about my experience as a mental health client have helped get me in touch with anger at what I see as the injustice of my being pathologized on a cultural level essentially for being wounded emotionally by my upbringing. I think the appropriate question for current or former psychiatric patients is not "What's wrong with me?" but "What happened to me?"

One major problem I see in the treatment of depression by both therapists and psychiatrists in this culture is focusing on internal causes for one's depression: one's behavior, chemistry, habits of thought. Depression is often a response to external trouble such as conflicts, abuse, injustice, illness, loss, and upheaval. I'm sure many depression sufferers who initially seek treatment and then stop do so because of this bias toward seeing their problems as internally based. For many this approach would merely encourage the continued habit of turning anger inward, which of course is one definition of depression.

Lastly, one very important thing to mention that is stressed by Peter Breggin is that when someone is trying to withdraw from psychiatric drugs, it is critical for that individual to work with a psychiatrist in going about that process. Psych meds are much easier to start than to stop, and many psych drug users experience serious withdrawal symptoms and need to be monitored by a doctor. If you have a doctor who won't support your desire to stop psych meds then find one who will.

Keith Bramstedt, age 50

San Anselmo

SUPERVISOR HAMBURG explains his vote to allow Dollar General to install a chain store in Redwood Valley, as provided by Mike A'dair, ace reporter for the Willits Weekly: “One of the speakers talked about government being ‘of, by and for the people,’ and it’s pretty clear, if you look at where the people are, the people are overwhelmingly opposed to this. At least the people who are in favor if it haven’t been showing up in any great numbers. The phrase ‘of, by and for the people,’ that comes from Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address. A hundred years before that, another American revolutionary, John Adams, talked about a government of laws, and not men. And if you look at that theory, and you hold to that theory, Dollar General — as distasteful as they are to me, and as much as my heart is totally with the people in this room. I want to keep Dollar General out of Redwood Valley. I still can’t get my head around the idea they followed the laws. We don’t like the law. The law is imperfect. The General Plan written in 2009 was imperfect. There’s a lot of really ‘wobbly’ language in there, including the language about smart growth and aesthetics. As you own counsel said, it’s very vague. But still, in Mendocino County law, the granting of a building permit in a commercial zone is not a discretionary act. It is a ministerial act. And unfortunately form, hating everything about Dollar General and the type of business they represent doesn’t change the fact that it is a ministerial act under the law. And I get back to that question, are we a government of men, and women, or are we a government of law? Here’s the other thing. This thing has really been bothering me. If we go down this path, if we approve this appeal and withdraw Dollar General’s use permit, we are committing ourselves to a court fight in the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on a case our own attorney tells us has a 5% or less chance of winning. That’s a tough one. That’s a tough one for me.”

WHAT’S THE PRECEDENT HERE? Hamburg, himself a long time marijuana scofflaw, seems to have a newfound respect for the law. His reference to the General Plan being “vague” is interesting. A former co-worker of mine used to say, “Rules are only rules until they’re questioned, then they’re guidelines.” Especially when the challenger has a team of lawyers to pounce on the vagueness. (Almost anything official Mendo puts on paper is going to be vague by virtue of its origin.) So here we have a large corporation threatening to sue the County. (No one knows if they’d really sue just for the privilege of opening a small chain store in Redwood Valley.) But just the threat of an allegedly expensive lawsuit is enough to get Hamburg to pre-emptively cave, as always slathering his sell-out in pious rhetoric.

“HELP ON THE WAY FOR HOMELESS IN UKIAH,” the headline over a story in the UDJ announcing a plan to build tiny houses for big drunks. Not to be unkind about it, but at some point there's got to be a serious distinction made between people who are homeless because of sudden misfortune and want to get back indoors, and people whose addictions and bad behavior have combined to put them beyond tolerance. The multiple substance abusers often prefer to live outside because, like truant children in big bodies, they can do whatever they want.

UKIAH'S TENTATIVE PLANS to establish a kind of reservation for the homeless under the well-paid supervision of the usual cash and carry warm wonderfuls, won't work, because the drop-fall drunks and hard drug users, leavened with a small group of the untreated mentally ill reinforced by old fashioned bums, will not abide by the rules of the Little House rez and will stay outside.

THE PLAIN FACT is that almost all of the "homeless" are the kind of hopelessly screwed-up people who used to be confined to the state hospital system before Reagan destroyed that system. These "homeless" have to be compelled into treatment, and compulsion means, if we're serious about doing something about the "homeless," an expansion of the County Jail where help for the "homeless" can be delivered to them. Any kind of voluntary program won't work unless, of course, unlimited amounts of drink and drug are part of the program, and somehow I can't imagine the First Five brigades administering that kind of program.

THE PEOPLE who ought to get priority help in this county and this country are the people who try, the people barely making their rent, the people who go a little hungry every month. You can find these people at your local food bank, and you can find some of them hidden away living in their vehicles. Many of them are single women raising children by themselves. How about some help for them?

AS FOR THE THANATOIDS, any possible useful program for them has to begin with handcuffs, ice cold turkeys, and locked gates.

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP QUESTIONS CALTRANS’ COMMITMENT TO SAFETY

by Ryan Burns

A McKinleyville-based environmental group comprised of longtime foes of the Richardson Grove Improvement Project is accusing the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) of pushing questionable highway expansion projects at the expense of more worthy public safety projects.

The Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities (CRTP) issued its own report today, saying that it analyzed data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatal Accident Reporting System and concluded that the state agency is ignoring the most dangerous stretches of road in the local district, choosing instead to finance road-widening projects to accommodate “more big, dangerous trucks.”

In response, Caltrans insisted that safety is always the agency’s No. 1 priority, and it questioned the methodology of the group’s study. The improvement projects in question, the agency said, are designed not just to improve safety but also to accommodate industry-standard trucks, and given the nature of funding sources, comparing safety to logistics is a “very simple matter of comparing apples to oranges.”

In a phone conversation this afternoon, CRTP spokesperson Barbara Kennedy said her group is an outgrowth, of sorts, of people in Humboldt and Del Norte counties who have long been opposed to both the Richardson Grove project and a similar widening project on State Route 199 through the Smith River canyon.

She added that the group is operating under the umbrella of the nonprofit Trees Foundation, based in Garberville.

“We’re looking at some of the rationales Caltrans uses for their projects,” Kennedy said. The agency frequently touts safety as a rationale for projects, she added, “but when you actually look at where and what they do, they don’t always meet that rationale.”

Below you’ll find the press release from CRTP as well as a response from Caltrans.

From the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities:

New Report Finds Dangerous Spots On Local Highways

Group Challenges Caltrans to Tackle “Real Safety Projects”

Local Caltrans officials have failed to prioritize projects that would improve safety on local highways, according to a new report by the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities (CRTP). Instead, the group says Caltrans has promoted highway expansion projects designed for other purposes and falsely claimed that they will increase safety.

To come to their conclusions, the group analyzed data from the Fatal Accident Reporting System maintained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They looked at fatal accidents which occurred between 2010 and 2013 on state highways in Humboldt, Del Norte, Trinity, Mendocino and Lake Counties—the area Caltrans calls District 1. They found that on average, every five-mile stretch of highway experienced one fatal accident over the four years. But 14 stretches of road saw 4 or more fatal accidents over the same time period. These were called out as the most hazardous spots in District 1’s network. Those spots were all on Routes 101, 20, and 29, with the exception of one on Route 199.

“The highest number of fatal accidents on any stretch of highway was on the 101 going through the town of Weott, where I happen to live,” said Barbara Kennedy, a CRTP spokesperson. “But there were also very high rates on 101 in Arcata and Fortuna, on Routes 20 and 29 in Lake County, and in a number of other places.”

“What’s really an outrage is that for years Caltrans has been pushing these oversized truck access projects in Richardson Grove and on Highways 197 and 199 and calling them safety projects,” Kennedy continued. “It turns out these projects are not actually targeting the dangerous parts of our highways. Anyway, Caltrans has given themselves exemptions from their own safety design standards to build these projects which will bring in more big, dangerous trucks. How can you call that safety? We challenge Caltrans to cancel Richardson Grove, cancel 199, and put the money toward real safety projects.”

The group did find that one of the spots targeted by the Highway 197/199 project fell in a dangerous stretch of road, but the actual boundaries for the construction did not include the locations of any of the fatal accidents. “Maybe the most striking thing we found is that there have been very few safety projects designed or constructed by Caltrans on the most hazardous road segments in District 1,” said Colin Fiske, CRTP’s campaign coordinator. “Caltrans recently updated its mission statement, and ‘safe’ is now the very first word used to describe the kind of transportation system they say they want to provide. But with only a few exceptions, mostly in Arcata, Caltrans apparently isn’t doing anything to try to make these dangerous areas in District 1 any safer. We hope that changes in the near future.”

For more information about CRTP and to read a copy of the report, visit www.transportationpriorities.org.

And here’s the response from Caltrans:

Caltrans’ number one priority when delivering a project, implementing roadway improvements, or maintaining the state highway system is the safety of the public.

Whenever there’s a collision on a state highway, a collision report is completed by the California Highway Patrol and logged in their Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS). Caltrans analyzes this information and uses it to determine areas where safety improvements may be needed. When looking at collision statistics, it’s important to take into account the cause of these collisions. Was the victim speeding? Were they under influence of drugs? Were they under the influence of alcohol? Were they disobeying any traffic laws? While the raw number of fatal collisions may sound high in a given area, there are often other factors in a collision; driver behavior plays a major part in not becoming a statistic.

When we notice a concentration of collisions in an area, these are all things we look at to determine if a safety project can be implemented. Safety projects use different sources of state funding that do not follow the typical funding cycles and are implemented completely separately from our major construction projects. For example, if drivers have been losing traction on a curve during rainy conditions, we look at adding a high-friction surface treatment to the pavement that improves traction. If there’s a significant number of speed-related collisions that involve vehicles leaving the roadway at a curve, we put in radar feedback signs (the ones that tell you how fast you’re traveling) or put in an advisory sign telling drivers to slow down for the curve ahead.

The projects at Richardson Grove and on Routes 197 and 199 are not safety projects in-and-of-themselves; those projects propose to realign the roadway to accommodate industry-standard commercial vehicles (defined in the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982) and to improve the safety of the roadway for all users. Presently, if two standard commercial trucks were to ignore the California legal truck length restriction in place at Richardson Grove, they would not be able to safely pass each other in the Grove. The geometry of the roadway simply does not allow the trucks to travel the roadway in that location without crossing into oncoming traffic or colliding with each other. This puts other motorists in harm’s way, and could cause a multi-hour closure of the North Coast’s vital lifeline to the Bay Area and the rest of California.

We’d like to encourage the public to check out some of the project information up on our website. In addition to the projects cited by CRTP, we have many other current or proposed improvements within our district that prioritize safety first in the most sustainable, integrated and efficient way. It’s also important to note that different types of improvement projects we take on are connected to different funding sources, so canceling one project to focus on another — when they each have different purposes — is [a] very simple matter of comparing apples to oranges.

CATCH OF THE DAY

STERLING BLAND, Vallejo/Ukiah. Sale of meth.

DARRELL CREAMER, Fort Bragg. Under influence, probation revocation. (Frequent Flyer)

ELIZABETH DOCKINS, Ukiah. Suspended license, failure to appear.

DOUGLAS JOHNSON, Santa Monica/Ukiah. Drunk in public.

JEROME MCMURPHY, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, parole violation.

VINCENT NEWELL, Ukiah. Dirk-dagger.

MAKAR RAI, Ukiah. Domestic battery, resisting.

BENJAMIN SEDENO, Ukiah. Detained on an unspecified misdemeanor. (Photo not available)

ROBERT TRUJILLO, Willits. Domestic battery.

HIGH TIMES TALKS ABOUT THE TENSION WITH TRIMMIGRANTS IN HUMBOLDT

by Kym Kemp

The recent tensions between locals and trimmigrants/homeless captured the attention of High Times Magazine. An article just published today on their blog interviewed both a founder of the Take Back Our Town group (TBOT) and a homeless advocate.

Sandwiched in between an article entitled Five Best Videos to Watch When Baked and another on the failure of Ohio’s recent legalization efforts, this piece on the annual influx of trimmigrants to Humboldt County offers a surprisingly nuanced view of the situation (and we’re not just saying this because one of our recent articles sparked their interest in the subject.)

Homeless advocate Debra Carey is quoted as saying, ““The whole county is known for growing marijuana and we have a whole industry here. People come to work in Humboldt County and are met with a really tough situation. There’s no place to legally sleep… food is scarce, and we’ve lost common ground, so people are camping on private property or they are downtown and that creates a problem for the community every year.”

While Tara Sutherland from TBOT points out, ” “We know we can’t clean up the streets and make everyone leave, we don’t want everyone to leave…we want everyone to be happy together, but it’s not going to work unless everyone actually works together and respects our town.”

Read High Times story here.

MIGRANTS TO MENDOCINO COUNTY

Dear Editor;

That is an interesting proposal you have made about Mendocino County accepting 1,000 migrants and placing them in communities around the county. I am sure the bigots would crawl from under their rocks and denounce the proposal. I assume you are making particular reference to Syrian migrants who are family groups. Your readers should know Syria has a very complex religious and ethic population. There are Alawites (shia), Ismailis (shia), Sunni, Christians, Turkmen, Druze, and Kurdish as well other smaller groups. Several languages are spoken but Arabic is understood by most groups. In particular, the younger migrants probably speak English. As for terrorists there would be none. ISIS are single men who buy sex slaves in the slave market. My understanding of your proposal is you want family groups.

In Germany the migrants are given a 110-page book about everything they should know and are given intense training in learning the German language and about 6 months devoted to learning new job skills. The English and skill training could be done on a much lower scale. It is the type of training that could be developed and supervised by the local churches. Also use a network of sponsoring families.

It is doable but would take a dedicated group of local people to get the ball rolling. And most importantly the Obama administration agreeing to take in a decent number of migrants.

In peace and love,

Jim Updegraff

Sacramento

THE NEWS OUTTA LAKE COUNTY

New KPFZ Programs - Beginning November 8, 2015

Dear Friends, Beginning tomorrow at 2 pm, KPFZ (88.1 FM) will be providing a weekly program series in two parts: The first hour will cover progress for “long-term recovery” from the catastrophic fires of 2015 — especially but not exclusively the “Valley Fire.”

FEMA sent us a “Voluntary Agency Liaison” (VAL), John Chavez, who has been supporting the organizations who have formed “Team Lake County” (TLC) — including establishment of its board of directors, action/task committees, and program development services.

The first meeting of the Team Lake County members was held on October 30, 2015, at the Twin Pines Casino (event center), which is the site of future meetings of TLC’s partner organization, Lake County Recovery Task Force. The combined organizations held a public meeting at the event center on November 3 (6 p.m.), and will hold their next public meeting on November 10 (same time, same place). Press releases announcing these meetings are being issued by the Lake County Public Information Office (Jill Ruzicka). The most current announcement (for next Tuesday’s meeting) is attached.

Team Lake County’s board of directors member Erroll Marchais will co-host tomorrow’s first program to share with listeners what the new organization is working on.

The second hour of this new program series will “discover" Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response Planning. We will be working with local organizations, like Lake County Amateur Radio (LCAR) members, Spring Valley’s CERT volunteers, and Community-Based Systems of Care (CBSC) service providers (like Senior Support Services - Upper Lake, and The Essential Public Information Center).

All of KPFZ's program engineers are invited to sit in on future programs (contact Andy Weiss to schedule); next week’s program will be helmed by Nils Palsson — tomorrow we will inaugurate the series with Andy Weiss on the board!

We want to include everyone who wants to join in on the continuation of outreach and education for our listeners and future listeners in Lake County and beyond.

(Web Streamed from www.kpfz.org live studio call-in phone number: 707-263-3435) — See you on the radio!

Betsy Cahn

* * *

For Immediate Release

November 6, 2015

For more information contact:

Jill Ruzicka, Lake County Public Information Officer

(818) 395-3050 cell

Jill.Ruzicka@LakeCountyCA.gov

Lake County Valley Fire Long-term Recovery Task Force Updates Next Meeting to be Held on November 10, 2015

LAKE COUNTY, Calif., (November 6, 2015) – The first public Lake County Valley Fire Long-term Recovery Task Force meeting was held on Tuesday, November 3, 2015 at Twin Pine Casino Event Center in Middletown, with over hundred people in attendance.

The Long-term Recovery Task Force has been meeting weekly via conference calls since the beginning of October. It is a partnership of local, state, federal, tribal and volunteer representatives. These agencies are working together to provide comprehensive services to aid in the recovery of Valley Fire survivors and Lake County residents.

In an effort to provide more information to the public and make the recovery process more interactive, Recovery Coordinator Carol Huchingson made the decision to open the meeting to the public. Residents can now hear first-hand about the progress of the Valley Fire long-term recovery and ask questions or provide input into the recovery process.

Minutes of the meeting have been posted on www.LakeCountyRecovers.com and Lake County OES Facebook page and @LakeCountyOES twitter account.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 10, 2015 at 6:00 PM at the Twin Pine Casino Event Center at at 22223 Highway 29 in Middletown, California.

For the latest news and information on the Valley Fire long-term recovery, please visit www.LakeCountyRecovers.com or Lake County OES’s social media sites: Twitter:@LakeCountyOES and Facebook: LakeCountyOES

 

STEPHANIE SALTER

We need, in love, to practice only this: letting each other go. For holding on comes easily; we do not need to learn it.

— Rainer Maria Rilke

* * *

Doubled over from a bullet hole of goodbye, I am repeatedly interrupted in my pain by people with cannonballs shot through them.

Just when I am certain I will die, someone with a wound the size of a melon crawls by.

A nervous breakdown here. A malignant tumor there. A drowned baby. A son on heroin. A job lost. An eye blinded. Alzheimer's. Lupus. Broken vows. Broken hearts.

Hey, everybody. Having a good time? Swell. Now give it up. Let it go. Say goodbye. To your dreams, love, life or all three.

I cover my bullet hole with my hand. I don't get it. Somebody tell me again: What is the point? "Life's a bitch, and then you die"? What is all the pain for?

Though it is dusty and neglected, I go to my soul's toolbox. I always forget what I have in it.

God first has to drill a hole in your heart so he can play his flute there.

This is a slim but sturdy tool, given to me long ago by a Sufi friend. I have used it on myself and others dozens of times.

I know the music of God's flute in my heart. But I can't hear it now. Kabir, the 15th century Indian mystic, heard nothing else:

At last the notes of his flute come in, and I cannot stop from dancing around on the floor.

The telephone rings.

"We've never met," says a man at the other end of the line. "I've been a friend of Don Johnson's for a long time. He's been staying here for about a year - "

I know what is coming.

One of the most light-and-love-filled people I've met, Don Johnson has been HIV-positive for years. The last time I saw him, he looked gorgeous, as usual: blond, blue-eyed, a soft smile. But when we hugged, my heart dropped; his body burned with the heat of the AIDS inside.

Don's friend John Gutierrez meets me at the door of his flat and shakes my hand. The bright November sun shines through the cannonball hole in him. His eyes are luminous pools of tears.

"These are tears of joy," he says, beaming and wiping little streams from his face. "God, there was so much to love about Donnie. I feel so blessed to have known him."

Many people did. An instinctive organizer, creator and motivator, Don Johnson was a special events machine who raised more than $1.5 million for scores of Bay Area charities. They ranged from the Oakes Children's Center to the AIDS Emergency Fund.

On the day we first met, Don and I talked and riffed and philosophized and accidentally came up with one of the most useful tools I ever put in my soul's toolbox:

The mirror thing.

Don and I decided that each of us is a mirror turned out to the world. I must look into your mirror to see my own light, and you must look into mine to see yours. The more polished and fine my mirror, the brighter your reflection. Two fine, polished mirrors reflecting off one another make and attract extraordinary light. Many polished mirrors in an ever-widening circle make for miracles.

I look at Gutierrez's face as I tell him about the mirror thing. I recognize Don's light bouncing off of him. It lands on me, goes back to John, then to me, then . . .

Oh, only for so short a while you have lent us to each other.

— from an Aztec burial prayer.

* * *

A loan. People, plans, life itself. None to keep; all to borrow. Give up. Let go. Say goodbye.

The late afternoon paper sits on my desk. With customary reluctance, I unfold it and steel myself for the most recent roundup of horror and mediocrity.

But, in an AP photo from Rome I recognize the face of Reg Green of Bodega Bay. His 7-year-old son, Nicholas, was killed last October by Calabrian bandits while the Greens were on vacation in Italy. Reg and Maggie Green stunned half the world by donating several of Nicholas' organs to Italian children and adults.

The Greens stunned me. Their generosity and pure love - poured out through howitzer holes of pain - replaced dozens of old tools in my soul's toolbox.

In the photo, Reg Green looks down with quiet joy at 15-year-old Andrea Mongiardo. He holds the boy's face in his hands. Inside Andrea, Nicholas' heart is beating.

Whatever God does, the first outburst is always compassion.

… Where clinging to things ends, is where God begins to be.

— Meister Eckhart, 1260-1329

* * *

My head aches from the paradox. Empty yourself and be filled. Give up and gain. Let go and receive. Say goodbye and stir new life.

I take my hand from my bullet hole. Still there. But I can stand up. I look around. Millions of people with holes blown through them. Little holes. Big holes. Clean ones and ragged. Most of the people are standing. Many walk. An amazing number dance.

This makes no sense. It defies logic. Dancing with pain? I close my soul's toolbox. On the lid are etched the words of Samuel Butler:

To live is like to love - all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.

WET POEMS FOR A DRY PLANET, I

Dry the new wet,

drought the new flood,

desert the new marsh,

sand castles the new wet dreams,

brown the new green,

cactus the new orchids,

dust the new mud,

water the new

not now and

the very next goodbye.

— Jonah Raskin