SANTA CRUZ, Calif.- Santa Cruz police say an anarchist group is responsible for Saturday's melee during a May Day rally in downtown Santa Cruz. Officers say vandals damaged 18 businesses during the riot.
World Book defines anarchism as a political theory that promotes the abolition of government and in some cases by violence and terror. That theory was definitely displayed last Saturday with the destruction downtown.
"We believe the group that used the May Day event as a cover were black block anarchists, they've been within our community for sometime," said Deputy Chief Rick Martinez.
Like the Sub Rosa Cafe, who has yet to speak on camera but told me today they have no management, no pay scale, and work only as volunteers to keep the place running.
"Anti-government, anti-establishment, create a lot of division within the community," said Martinez.
In fact just Wednesday afternoon police had to break up a fight between a drum circle at the farmer's market and a man who was trying to gather people to resist the police.
Police say the group will recruit a young impressionable crowd for their cause, like students at UCSC where an employee with the IT department is actually a major player in the local anarchist scene.
"On campus itself attacks on Kerr Hall, the treesitters, and we had the animal research bombing a few years ago," said Martinez.
Santa Cruz police say bringing in the FBI to investigate the underground culture is something badly needed after Saturday's attacks, "They've collected a lot of intelligence over the years and a lot of it on members within our community that are involved in this type of activity," said Martinez.
Central Coast News invited the Sub Rosa Cafe and others affiliated with the anarchist movement in Santa Cruz to go on camera to explain what their anarchist movement is about and to talk about the riot but they all declined.
