Occupy Isla Vista Protester Arrested for Sleeping in Park

Sheriff's Department says the UCSB student was camping illegally, and that it has been clear about the law with protesters

By Lara Cooper, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @laraanncooper | Published on 11.15.2011

The first arrest in the Occupy Isla Vista movement occurred Monday morning when a UCSB student was arrested for sleeping in People’s Park.

UCSB student David Bodek was arrested about 8 a.m. Monday, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Drew Sugars confirmed Tuesday.

“He was camping illegally in the park and refused to not do that,” Sugars said. “Camping overnight is against the law, and we’ve been very clear about that.”

Sugars said officials from the Isla Vista Foot Patrol have had productive conversations with Occupy protesters, and have said that as long as they don’t break the law, they can protest as much as they like.

Bodek received a cite and release for camping in a park, and Sugars said the young man was released within the day.

Bodek did not return calls for comment, but a Facebook update from Occupy Santa Barbara’s page first updated the public about the arrest.

“First (deputies) disturbed his sleep, then handcuffed him, then they put him in a cage — because he was tired,” the post said. “David has been a part of the legal team for Occupy Santa Barbara for over a month and is a hardworking, kindhearted UCSB student, and a good friend.” The post encouraged supporters to call the Sheriff’s Department and complain about the arrest.

Last month, eight Occupy Santa Barbara protesters were arrested the second night of the protest, when Santa Barbara police officers enforced De la Guerra Park’s 10 p.m. closing time.

Across the country, police dismantled the original Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park in New York City early Tuesday morning. The protesters had been in the park for more than eight weeks.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said their presence had begun to affect health and safety of the protesters as well as the public. On Tuesday, a judge upheld a temporary restraining order to keep protesters out of the park.

— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.

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» OldPuebloTransplant on 11.15.11 @ 08:17 PM

Well at least they didn’t tazer him 15 imes.

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» atomicbyrd on 11.15.11 @ 09:53 PM

Um, sleep is only illegal at the park during the night time according to park ordinances. It is legal to sleep there during the day (and morning). Was it the sleeping bag that got him arrested? DECRIMINALIZE BLANKETS.

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» AN50 on 11.16.11 @ 01:14 PM

What is the message this kid is sending? Life is unfair because I didn’t get an equal share for my lackluster contribution, so I’m going to break the law act like a spoiled rotten infant?

The entire message from the OWS movement has been “where’s my cut of the loot?!” Once again, the selfish, greedy pirates, vultures and gamblers of Wall Street get a pass because the only ones protesting them have been equally greedy selfish commies and socialists who feel cheated that they didn’t get enough of someone else’s earned wealth.

If only the left could see how much they are like those they profess to hate. Oh they are different in one respect, the Wall Street fat cats may be greedy selfish wealth transferees, but at least they worked at it, whereas your common lefty commie OWS protester just sits on their proverbial behind demanding government confiscate someone else’s wealth and redistribute it.

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» counterpoint on 11.16.11 @ 06:35 PM

AN50,

Looks like you’ve been watching the whole thing on your favorite Mainstream News channel…most likely Fox.
Why don’t you visit either OccupySB or OccupyIV and talk to the people. For your information, this Student is not asking for anything for himself. I have watched him interact and talk, and laugh with the people around him and he is an intelligent, caring individual. He has a right as an American Citizen to assemble peacefully and present his grievances. It is the 1st Amendment no matter how much you hate to hear of this nonsense.

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» Overtaxed Taxpayer on 11.16.11 @ 10:29 PM

These are the lazy Americans who are affraid of hard work—The new America must lower workers comp rates,Liability rates, commercial auto rates, heath insurance rates, tax rates, Edd rates, and limit lawyers ability to sue-(Tort reform Now) Abolish Welfare food stamps and section 8, its crated a very lazy America, and let Millions of illegals take those American jobs. The new America must cut the number of Government workers from 2 million to 1 million ASAP—too many on the gravy train dole. Pension pay retire at age 50 and 3 months off a year paid for civil servants who make twice as much as the people who pay them YOU!! just rediculous..

Can you say GREECE!!!

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» AN50 on 11.17.11 @ 10:03 AM

Counterpoint, we are guarantied the right to peaceably assemble and redress government our grievances, not camp out in public parks. This kid, nice or not, decided to go beyond that, maybe to make a point, however he now has to pay for violating the law.

No I have not talked to OWS people directly, but I have read their posts, looked at who’s funding the movement and heard the majority of their gripes on many different news outlets. You, like most of the media, seem more interested in how people behave rather than what their message is, so why don’t you enlighten me and you tell me what this kid was trying to say by sleeping in the park?

Further maybe you and I can discuss economics, wealth and politics and make a few discoveries our selves rather than just throw partisan barbs at each other? You can see by my numerous and lengthy posts here that I have no love of the banking industry, in fact I have no love of most of our current economic activity which I see as largely parasitic and wealth consuming rather than productive and wealth generating. Perhaps you can argue the substance of that rather than make some off handed comments about where you think I get my news?

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» counterpoint on 11.18.11 @ 08:34 PM

AN50, my apologies for the barbs :)

It’s easy in Movements such as the Arab Spring uprising to see what the issue is because they are fighting forms of Dictatorship and Tyranny that are quite obvious. Here in America, the slow and methodical whittling away of our rights and wealth is almost imperceptible on a daily basis but it is there. When you look at the years since 9/11 it is obvious.
You are asking the Youth to somehow put a blanket statement on their grievances but there are so many and they are interwoven so it is hard to pinpoint any one problem.

For instance, Corporate Lobbyists, some people say we should blame the Government for listening to Lobbyists while others say we should blame Corporations for sending the Lobbyists to Washington. The finger pointing can go on all day but the problem still remains.

Obama is basically the same as Bush if not worse. I would never imagine myself saying that several years ago. There are a lot of people that are fed up with the current system and they do not have a Voice any longer since it is hard to come up with the Millions of Dollars needed to reach our Politicians.

Pull up any of the mainstream news sites such as CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX…etc and count how many of their front page news storys are actually ‘News’. Not Sports or Reality TV stuff but actual news reporting…You might find 2 or 3 stories and the rest is about Kim Khardashian or Penn State….

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