anarchist group in Saturday violence: Cafe condemns capitalism but denies responsibility
By GENEVIEVE BOOKWALTER and J.M. BROWN
Posted: 05/04/2010 09:20:49 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge
SubRosa Cafe on Lower Pacific Avenue, popular with disenfranchised youth and... (Dan Coyro/Sentinel)

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SANTA CRUZ - The SubRosa Cafe at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Spruce Street looks like a typical college town coffee shop.

Outside tables are full of customers talking and reading. Homeless folks stop for a rest on the quiet patio next to potted flowers and plants. Bicycles lean against an iron fence, and the man behind the inside counter passes time on his Apple laptop. The shop sublets space from The Hub for Sensible Transportation, whose popular Bike Church repair studio and favorite county nonprofit People Power work on either side.

But SubRosa also is a self-proclaimed anarchist organization, run by a collective that includes members known for their confrontations with police. It attracts customers who tie bandanas around their faces to disguise themselves on a weekday afternoon, which in quirky Santa Cruz attracted little attention until Sunday.

Now, both owners and customers find themselves defending SubRosa after Santa Cruz Police on Monday deemed an unnamed anarchist group responsible for Saturday night's window-shattering vandalism and investigated a possible connection with the 2008 firebombings of UC Santa Cruz scientists' homes.

Under the guise of a May Day dance party, vandals on Saturday smashed windows and sprayed graffiti on 18 businesses downtown, including Urban Outfitters, American Apparel and Dell Williams.

A man arrested in connection with Saturday night's event said he learned of it through a flier at
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SubRosa.

"There are accusations that SubRosa organized the May Day event, that the event started at SubRosa and a ton of other things that aren't true," reads a statement on the coffee shop's Web site, which points out that fliers advertising the party were posted at many places around town.

The statement also includes phrases like, "The people who make this town a fantastic place to be are far more important than the walls and windows of businesses that suck our souls away for their profit."

Wes Modes of Felton, who is listed as SubRosa's primary owner on the city's business database, is known for regular confrontations with police, whether it's helping organize a New Year's Eve parade without permits or defying officers' requests to stop trespassing at the downtown Farmers Market drum circle. A UC Santa Cruz systems analyst at McHenry Library, he often advocates for less police presence in Santa Cruz.

Co-owner Jennifer Charles is known for her work as spokeswoman for the group of tree sitters that occupied UCSC redwoods for 13 months, beginning in November 2007.

Both Modes and Charles declined to comment for this story, aside from the SubRosa statement.

Police said Monday they also are investigating whether the anarchist group responsible for Saturday night's vandalism has a connection to the firebombings of UCSC animal researchers' homes in 2008. One target on Saturday was locally owned Caffe Pergolesi, whose owner cooperated with police after the firebombing as they researched fliers left in his coffee shop.

Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Rick Martinez said it's clear that anarchists were not targeting the locally owned cafe because of any corporate or government ties.

"You're not sticking it to the man by hitting Pergolesi," Martinez said.

The owner and staff at Pergolesi declined to comment for this story.

It didn't seem that corporate rebellion was the reason for many of Saturday night's attacks.

While Urban Outfitters, the Gap and Peet's were among chain businesses victimized in the attack, a number of small, locally owned companies such as Dell Williams, Artisans and Velvet Underground were also hit.

Linnea Holgers James, owner of Artisans, a gallery that features work from local artists, left some of the broken ceramic pieces sitting in the display window where glass had been shattered by a huge rock. She joked that it was an artistic response to the vandalism called "Broken Dreams."

James said the recession has made staying in business difficult enough, without having to deal with negative perceptions about safety downtown. Now, she faces a $1,500 bill to fix her window.

Councilman Tony Madrigal, a union representative, said the fact that the event was advertised as a May Day event shouldn't affect the efforts to support workers' rights, which was billed as the reason for the celebration.

"I think all the people in Santa Cruz and all surrounding communities care about comprehensive immigration reform that is fair to America and good for the economy," he said. "People have a right to free speech, but that doesn't give them a right to go around destroying property and inciting fear in the downtown community and tarnishing a message calling for common sense immigration reform."