AN ALERT FROM STOP SMART METERS! PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

PG&E has threatened to widely and quickly install 'smart' meters in Santa Cruz County starting TOMORROW (Monday) morning, in violation of local laws, and a consensus amongst all 5 elected local governments that the wireless "smart" meter mesh network is not safe, violates your privacy, threatens your health and is not welcome in our community.  Santa Cruz County is one of the few remaining locations in the state without widespread 'smart' meter deployments and thus- one of the only places left for electrically injured people to go.   

Carpools are being organized from elsewhere in the state to come to Santa Cruz and help support a blockade of the illegal Wellington Energy/ PG&E yard in Pleasure Point, close to the beautiful Monterey Bay.  if you need a ride, or can offer one, or if you can offer a place to stay in the County,  please contact us at info@stopsmartmeters.org 

It's possible that demonstrations will be continuing all week.  If you can join these or support them in any way, you'd be welcome.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Come to 38th Ave. and Portola near 41st Ave. in Capitola.  TOMORROW morning at 7am, ready to demand that PG&E and their contractors respect local laws.  Bring signs, noisemakers, etc.

2. If you can't come, CALL others who may live closer to show up.

3. Facebook, tweet, e-mail your friends, neighbors--knock on doors-  you can link to our site or send them the attached flyer

4. Support the efforts of Stop Smart Meters! with whatever you can afford- our legal, copying, printing and outreach budget is getting stretched these days!! Hundreds of small donations are what keep us going! See:  http://stopsmartmeters.org/donate/ 

5. Send a letter to your local media, and let them know what's going on. Ask why World Health Organization cancer warnings aren't halting the 'smart' meter program.

Full details and photos of trucks ready to deploy tomorrow morning: http://stopsmartmeters.org/2011/06/25/emergency-mass-protest-called-for-monday-morning-in-santa-cruz/

PRESS RELEASE:

BREAKING NEWS SATURDAY MORNING JUNE 25TH:

Capitola- Despite virtual unanimity amongst all local governments in Santa Cruz County, ordinances in Capitola, Watsonville and the unincorporated parts of the County, a groundswell of popular opposition, a growing commitment to civil disobedience to stop the rollout of “smart” meters, and a threat from the County Counsel that the Sheriff is poised to enforce the law, PG&E and their contractors Wellington Energy have moved back into Santa Cruz, readying dozens of trucks to roll out first thing Monday morning, bringing to a head months of debate and a growing alarm about the number of reports of health problems following installations elsewhere.

According  to sources inside PG&E, the company has “shock and awe” plans to deploy  in Santa Cruz in “blitzkrieg” style, forcing hundreds of installation trucks throughout the community to complete installation within weeks.

Activists in Santa Cruz have called for an emergency community protest and blockade Monday morning June 27th 7am at the corner of 38th Ave and Portola in Capitola. They are encouraging people to spread the word widely, to bring signs, leaflets, noisemakers, and your anger at PG&E for forcing a dangerous device onto people and wildlife of California.  Smart meters emit radiation that has been linked by the World Health Organization to cancer.  They allow unprecedented privacy violations within the home.  They have also been linked with a number of fires and explosions.  And that’s just the beginning….

Stop Smart Meters! made the following statement this morning:

“Communities as a whole- not just individuals- have the right to decide for themselves whether to take the risk of accepting 22,000 radiation spikes per day from every meter in our neighborhoods- radiation that is far stronger that common household devices like cell phones according to independent experts.   We don’t recognize the authority of PG&E and the CPUC to force ‘smart’ meters (what even the World Health Organization has now accepted as a cancer risk) on the community against our will, and against the will of our elected officials.  If PG&E is unwilling to accept the will of the community, then the community will give them a fight if that’s what they want.  The people will do what it takes to keep ‘smart’ meters out of the County. “

Thanks and See you in Pleasure Point tomorrow bright and early

Josh

(Iif you do not wish to receive these occasional alerts, please reply with "unsubscribe please" -- if you know others who would want to receive these notifications, have them e-mailinfo@stopsmartmeters.org.  thank you)

-- 
Joshua Hart
Director, Stop Smart Meters!
http://stopsmartmeters.org

Stop Smart Meters! Director Arrested in Capitola Today

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PG&E Threatens Installation in Santa Cruz County, as Showdown with Local Governments Looms

Capitola, CA—Joshua Hart, Director of Stop Smart Meters! was arrested this afternoon after blocking the entrance to the Capitola PG&E payment center in protest of PG&E’s illegal “smart” meter installations in the County.  The County of Santa Cruz, as well as the Cities of Capitola, and Watsonville have adopted urgency ordinances prohibiting the installation of wireless “smart” meters within their jurisdictions.  Forty-three local governments throughout the state have formally demanded a halt to the program because of concerns about health, privacy, accuracy, and fire safety.   Contrary to what PG&E and the CA Public Utilities Commission claim, local governments have broad rights granted to them under the California Constitution- including banning installation of wireless “smart” meters, deemed by many experts to be a serious health threat.  A showdown is looming between PG&E- who says they plan to disregard local government laws and force smart meters onto people’s homes, and local elected officials who are intent upon upholding the law and protecting the public.

Hart’s arrest follows another arrest on Saturday of San Francisco resident Amy O’Hair for blocking Wellington Energy installation trucks in her Glen Park neighborhood. The controversy over the “smart” meter program has heated up since May 31^st, when the World Health Organization identified non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation (from “smart” meters, cell phones, and wifi networks) as being “possibly carcinogenic”- in the same category as DDT, leaded gasoline, and chloroform.

“Communities have a right to reject a technology that even the WHO has identified as possibly being linked to cancer- we have a right to be safe in our homes and in our communities.  If we have to risk arrest to protect that inalienable right, then that’s a sad comment on the state of our democracy,” said Joshua Hart as he was being led away in handcuffs earlier today.

There have now been more than a half dozen arrests of “smart” meter protesters in California over the past year, numerous acts of civil disobedience, and more than 2000 written complaints of health damage from the wireless meter program. Yet the CPUC and PG&E continue to force the meters down the throats of the public.

Hart was charged with disrupting a business and then released, with a promise to appear in court on July 28^th.  Members of Stop Smart Meters! a grassroots activist group deeply opposed to the “smart” meter program, have vowed to use civil disobedience to halt any further installations in Santa Cruz County.  This may not be necessary however, as a recent letter from Dana McRae the Santa Cruz County Counsel to Wellington Energy, the company contracted by PG&E to install “smart” meters, states:

“…the installation of SmartMeters in unincorporated areas of Santa Cruz County will be in violation of the County’s ordinance, and any person found violating the ordinance will be subject to citation by law enforcement personnel.”

PG&E has been under fire in recent days for threatening customers in Oakland with disconnection unless they allow the dangerous meters on their homes.  “Though the company claims that the threats are isolated to a few renegade employees, there is growing evidence that this is part of a corporate strategy to isolate and intimidate people into accepting the increasingly unpopular DumbMeters.” says Joshua Hart, Director of Stop Smart Meters! “PG&E seems to be claiming that they are more of an expert than the World Health Organization when it comes to deciding what is and what isn’t harmful to human health.  Thousands of people have reported serious health damage in California alone.  Enough is enough.”

From - StopSmartMeters.Org 

Arrest of San Francisco Activist Protesting the Installation of Smart Meters

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