There were 73,669 people who read Noozhawk this past week. What’s my take on your top stories? I’m glad you asked.
1. Santa Barbarans Take to Streets to Protest Grand Jury Decision in Ferguson, Mo., Police Shooting
Hundreds of people joined a peaceful and circuitous march through downtown Santa Barbara the night of Nov. 25 to show their “solidarity with Michael Brown.”
The demonstration had as many as 500 protesters at one point, but authorities prevented the throng from trying to block traffic on Highway 101 or gathering outside Santa Barbara police headquarters.
Brown, as I know you know, was a black teenager who was shot to death Aug. 9 by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., a St. Louis suburb. A grand jury concluded that no charges were merited against the officer, Darren Wilson, who claims he fired in self-defense after Brown attacked him and tried to take his gun.
The incident was widely portrayed as emblematic of America’s worsening race relations, disrespect of minorities, mistrust of police, mistrust of citizens, police brutality, cultural decline and a thousand other injustices. While I seem to be one of the few who will admit that I don’t actually know what happened that day on that street, I do know there are kernels of truth — and, in some cases, whole ears of truth — in several of the complaints.
But I also believe that if you choose to assault a cop … whatever happens next? That’s all on you.
And that — that disrespect of authority, that defiance of authority, that hostility to authority — is a fundamental aspect of the Ferguson incident that has received way too little attention. Here and there.
Earlier this year, there was a Saturday night stabbing in Isla Vista. As Santa Barbara County sheriff’s detectives tried to gather evidence at the scene, a crowd grew. Some guy began jumping on a car and inciting onlookers. Deputies gave chase and arrested the knucklehead, but a near-riot developed as more than 1,000 people encircled the deputies and began chanting and throwing bottles. And remember: The stabbing victim was one of their own!
One month later, of course, came the Deltopia rioting. Six officers were injured by rocks, bricks and bottles thrown by “revelers” — including a UC Santa Barbara police officer who was slammed in the face with a backpack full of booze bottles.
At Halloween, meanwhile, I’m aware that during a sweep of Del Playa Drive parties the night before, one officer was cold-cocked by a young man old enough to know better and another officer had to fight off a punk who leaped at him and tried to grab his gun from its holster. Sound familiar?
Finally, during the Nov. 19 melee at Righetti High School in Orcutt, a school resource deputy was struck by food, containers and bottles thrown by teenagers as he struggled to detain a student during a series of fights on campus.
Yes, no one died here. But these seemingly isolated local examples of anti-social and aberrant behavior, and the Ferguson case, portend a frightening turn and future for our society.
That’s a black-and-white issue, all right. But race has nothing to do with it.
2. Three Hurt in Two Rollover Collisions in Santa Barbara
Two rollover wrecks — within a few minutes of each other — sent three people to the hospital Nov. 23 in Santa Barbara. The crashes occurred between 2:10 and 2:15 a.m. Just sayin’.
In the first wreck, a car apparently ran up on the center median in the 3500 block of State Street near Ontare Road, swerved to the right, struck a light pole and overturned.
Santa Barbara Fire Battalion Chief Lee Waldron said one of the men in the vehicle was taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital with minor injuries. The other two guys were arrested at the scene.
Five minutes later and a couple of miles away, a man and woman also were taken to the hospital with minor injuries after their car overturned on the southbound Mission Street exit ramp from Highway 101.
Further details were not immediately available, but Santa Barbara police and the California Highway Patrol are investigating both cases.
3. Former Laguna Blanca Teacher Gets Jail Time, Probation for Sex with Minor
Joseph Beck, a former part-time drama teacher at Laguna Blanca School, has been sentenced to 180 days in jail after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of sex with a minor.
If that seems like a light sentence — and it sure does to me — he’ll at least be required to register as a sex offender during his subsequent three years of probation, according to prosecutor Hannah Lucy.
Beck, 38, was arrested Jan. 9. He pleaded no contest to three misdemeanor charges: unlawful sex with a minor, oral copulation with a person under 18 and sodomy with a person under 18.
He was sentenced Nov. 20.
Beck left Laguna Blanca in 2012, before the curtain was raised on his activities.
4. BizHawk: The Good Lion Cocktail Bar Opens in Former Marquee on State Street
A new cocktail bar has opened next door to The Granada Theatre in downtown Santa Barbara.
The Good Lion, owned and operated by newlyweds Misty and Brandon Ristaino and named for an Ernest Hemingway short story, has replaced the old Marquee at 1212 State St.
The couple has added lighting, stools and antiques, and is serving a menu heavy on fresh, local and seasonal ingredients.
5. Stabbing in Old Town Goleta Sends Man to Hospital
A Goleta man was stabbed in Old Town the evening of Nov. 21, and Santa Barbara County sheriff’s detectives are investigating it as possibly gang-related. They’re also looking for suspects. Know any?
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelly Hoover said the incident happened shortly after 5:30 p.m. at the corner of Mandarin and Orange avenues. Side note: If the sound of that intersection doesn’t produce a delicious image in your head, you have no soul.
“There was a confrontation between two males in their early 20s,” Hoover told our Tom Bolton. “One of the males stabbed the other and is still outstanding.”
That’s cop talk for r-u-n-n-o-f-t.
The victim was transported to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, and is said to be recovering.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the sheriff’s anonymous tip line at 805.681.4171.
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— Bill Macfadyen is Noozhawk’s founder and publisher. Contact him at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com, follow him on Twitter: @noozhawk, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.