Doing Their Part

SANTA CRUZ -- The drum circle that convenes downtown Wednesday afternoons has encountered a steady beat of complaints since the farmers market expansion three weeks ago pushed the circle out of an adjacent parking lot and into a bit of hot water.

The longtime group has yet to find a new place to gather since the April 21 expansion, and complaints from merchants and others continued Wednesday as police advised drummers who had settled at two nearby parking lots on Cedar Street that their new spots were problematic.

Frustrated drummers said they don't know where else to go downtown and have the right to play music in public.

Homeless activist Robert Norse on Wednesday called for a "Drum Circle Defense" event, with the aim of strategizing what to do if "police attempt to shut down the circle." Police, however, did not try to quash the circle. Instead, officers issued more warnings after drummers began pounding away at a new spot near a parking lot at Cedar and Lincoln streets and later at one behind The Spokesman Bicycles, on Cedar and Elm streets.

The most discord Wednesday came when a drum circle participant, Patrick Lancelin, took offense when Norse taped a conversation Lancelin was having about drumming and his civil rights with Sgt. Michael Harms. Lancelin began shouting at Norse to get out of the area and not to put him on his "stupid radio show."

The two scuffled, grabbing one another and fighting over the tape recorder. They fell near a medium-size black and white dog named Barack Obama, which bit Lancelin, causing a deep and bloody puncture wound on his forearm. There were no arrests.

I know...this kinda shit happens in your town all the time, right?