”So with this I am suspending all efforts to do anything with the continued assault on the courthouse, the employees and the general public due to the immunity given to them by your office”

◼ Law enforcement officials frustrated with Occupy signs; difference of opinion creates tension with DA's Office

...Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey said he encountered a situation Wednesday where he told an occupier to take down a sign and they refused, stating they didn't have to.

”I was immediately met with, 'Well, that's not what the DA told us,'” Downey said.

He said he was informed by occupiers that the district attorney had said he wouldn't prosecute people for hanging signs on the fence....

Interim Eureka Police Chief Murl Harpham said his officers have indeed been hands-off on the signage issue because of the general message he's received from the DA's Office during the past few weeks. He said there were some issues surrounding the Penal Code section cited on county signs.

”I got a call from Paul, and he told me that he looked at the section and didn't think it was a good section,” Harpham said....

In a Feb. 13 email obtained Thursday by the Times-Standard, Harpham told county officials -- including Downey -- that EPD officers will no longer be enforcing Penal Code section 602f per the DA's suggestion....

In a March 8 email obtained by the Times-Standard, Downey told Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos what he'd heard from Harpham and occupiers and his subsequent course of action.

”So with this I am suspending all efforts to do anything with the continued assault on the courthouse, the employees and the general public due to the immunity given to them by your office,” Downey wrote...

”I'm not saying it's OK; it's just not a crime,” Gallegos said about the signs. “There's a lot of things out there that aren't OK, but aren't criminal.”

Gallegos said the focus needs to be on the criminal conduct that takes place -- such as smoking marijuana on the courthouse steps and disruptive behavior -- instead of the signs. He said he knows law enforcement officials are frustrated at having to utilize their resources at the courthouse.

”Everyone's over-burdened,” Gallegos said. “What we all would rather do is prosecute bad guys, dangerous people.”

Downey's email to Gallegos states things at the courthouse “will only intensify and get worse” if Gallegos chooses not to prosecute signage cases....

”The public generally is no longer in support of what's going on,” Downey said. “The public needs to give direction to the Board of Supervisors.”

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