Stop Smart Meters! Director Arrested in Capitola Today

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 31st, 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 28th.  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.”

Media is free to use any of this footage as long as StopSmartMeters.Org is credited as the source.

This entry was posted in Citizen rebellion, Democracy, Health studies, PG&E, Police. Bookmark the permalink.

20 Responses to Stop Smart Meters! Director Arrested in Capitola Today

  1. Sierra says:

    Nice job folks. Obviously we are being railroaded by a corrupt system which is beholden and catering to corporate dictatorship where monetary profits are all that matter, not health, not sustainability, not a livable future. It is time for WE THE PEOPLE, to alter or abolish our government, and replace it with something which will leave this planet habitable in 50 years.
    What we have now is out of control insanity, run by crooks, and the media just obfuscates most issues and spreads lies.
    What we need is truth, and justice.

  2. Grace says:

    God Bless you Josh! Thank God for people like you. THIS IS SICK AND INSANE! WAKE UP PEOPLE. THERE IS A CITY ORDINANCE IN PLACE AND JOSH GETS ARRESTED???? WHAT IS GOING ON???? HOW COME THE POLICE DID NOT GO IN THERE AND QUESTION THAT??!!! SICK SICK SICK!!! AND WHY ARE PEOPLE LEFT TO STAND UP FOR A CITY ORDINANCE, THERE ISNT ANYONE OR ANYTHING TO ENFORCE THE ORDINANCE??

    • Thanks Grace. We are expecting the city police and county sheriff’s department to enforce the existing laws and residents to take up the slack as soon as full scale installation begins- perhaps within days. -Josh

  3. marcia says:

    Ditto Sierra. Thanks to Josh for all he does in our behalf. Would like to help him, and Katharina and June and others who get arrested for this. Is there a fund?

  4. Ellie Marks says:

    THANK YOU Josh. We are living in a country that has greater concern for big business and money than the health and welfare of citizens- children, the infirmed and the elderly included. The WHO classified this radiation as a possible carcinogen and these not so smart meters are being forced upon us. The FCC is inept and industry is regulating them instead of the other way around. We need more brave souls like Josh to stop this nonsense.

  5. Robert Riedlinger says:

    I thought we won a war against dictatorship.Seems we lost after many good people lost their lives to get rid of DICTATORSHIP.

  6. Shucks the Explorer says:

    If Wellington shows up on your property, call the sheriff and have THEM arrested. The county LAW says NO SMART METERS WILL BE INSTALLED in this county. And yet Josh gets arrested. We are living in Kafka-land.

  7. Robert says:

    Thank you, Josh, for your wisdom, courage and tenacity. Will mail my donation today.

  8. Tammy says:

    Josh thank God for people like you who are willing to stand up for what is right even when it is difficult to do so. PG&E are wilfully and blatantly breaking the law and should be held accountable ! We are also fighting here in Bristish Columbia and will use your bravery as inspiration to continue our battle against the stupid ‘smart’ meter.
    I know you and the many supporters there against smart meters will never stop, and I can guarantee neither will we until a safe solution is found that does NOT expose people to dangerous microwave radiation 24/7 while in their homes.
    Power to the people!

  9. John says:

    At least 40 California jurisdictions have demanded a halt to SmartMeter installation due to various health, privacy or fire safety concerns. Other states including (to my current understanding) Maryland, Maine, Colorado, Hawaii, New York, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin either have legal challenges to SmartMeters, opt-out programs or have entirely prohibited the installation of SmartMeters.

    Of course, we are grateful that the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors has adopted (for the unincorporated areas of Santa Cruz County) an urgency ordinance “imposing a temporary moratorium (until December 31, 2011) on the installation of SmartMeters and related equipment in, along, across, upon, under and over the public streets and other places within the unincorporated area of Santa Cruz County.

    SmartMeters raise the huge issue concerning the right to privacy and may indeed violate the principles set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in Kyllo v. United States (2001), 533 U.S. 27. The language in the Santa Cruz County provision details how “Energy usage data, measured moment by moment, allows the reconstruction of a household’s activities…[representing] “a new form of technology that relays detailed hitherto confidential information reflecting the times and amounts of the use of electrical power without adequately protecting that data from being accessed by unauthorized persona or entities…” and “significant health questions have been raised concerning the increased electromagnetic frequency radiation (EMF) emitted by the wireless technology in SmartMeters…”

    I hope that Santy Cruz County will not only enforce the above law but will make it permanent!

  10. Mia Nony says:

    IS THIS WHY TAXPAYERS PAY THE SALARIES OF THE POLICE WHO, LIKE PG&E THEN TURN AROUND AND FURTHER VIOLATE COUNTY ORDINANCES AS WELL?
    BY THE TIME POLICE ARE ONLY THERE TO SERVE AS A PROTECTION RACKET FOR CORPORATIONS…BY THE TIME COPS CHOOSE TO PROTECT THE ILLEGAL ACTIONS OF PRIVATE CORPORATE INTERESTS AT THE EXPENSE OF THOSE WHO PAY THEIR SALARIES, ESPECIALLY A CORPORATION WITH A TRACK RECORD FOR KILLING PEOPLE (ERIN BROCKOVICH) …AND BY THE TIME THOSE WHO HARM US ARE FREE TO ACT LIKE CORPORATE THUGS, IGNORING LOCAL LAWS AND DOING US SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN HARM…. IT IS WELL PAST TIME FOR A REVOLUTION.
    WHEN THE POLICE WE PAY ARREST THEIR OWN EMPLOYERS, WE THE TAXPAYERS, THEY HAVE EXCEEDED THEIR OWN AUTHORITY.
    WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?
    WELL, THE FACT IS THAT THIS WHOLE METER MONITOR “FIRS T DO HARM” METER ROLL OUT IS REALLY ABOUT ORDERS FROM ON HIGH, MUCH HIGHER AND MORE POWERFUL THAN ANY SOVEREIGN NATION.
    WHICH AGENCY OVERSEES GLOBAL IMPLEMENTATION OF SMART METERS?
    THE UNITED (READ “MERGED”) NATIONS.
    IT IS ALL THERE IN BLACK AND WHITE, RIGHT UNDER THE CLIMATE AND DEPOPULATION SECTION OF THIS PRETEXT FOR A TAKEOVER OF NATION STATES ON THE GROUNDS OF CLIMATE.
    JUST READ THE 40 CHAPTER DOCUMENT CALLED AGENDA 21, PENNED BY WAR CRIMINAL HENRY KISSINGER.

  11. Mia Nony says:

    My apologies for the use of capitals on my last post. That is what I get for not looking up and over at the screen before pressing “post comment”!
    Then too, my keyboard and mouse are corded, and the computer and non WIFI modem are all more than is 8 feet away, the screen is over five feet away… and all of it gets shut off at the surge bar the minute I am through posting, all to avoid EMFs…
    I am SERIOUSLY motivated.
    Getting a “touch” of cancer can be like that.
    And? Learning how to reverse one’s own cancer naturally can turn one into a fighter too, (first and foremost by avoiding all forms of metastasizing biopsies, surgeries, any and all standard mainstream conveyor belt diagnosis and treatment, radiation and toxins which cause cancer in the first place)
    That learning curve had that affect on me.
    I am funny that way.

  12. Susan Foster, MSW says:

    Nicely done, Josh.

  13. SOS Florida says:

    Josh and fellow Patriots, The word is still NOT getting out in Florida. Commercials are appearing with a cute older couple “learning how to navigate the new energy savings program on line”. Like Orlean Koehle says, this is done by “Stealth and Deception”. The major problem is that the words SMART METER are never used….anywhere. People don’t understand that part of the grid is on their own home! At this point, it is a matter of education but I can’t get anyone to care.

    Stay Strong!!

    • Redi Kilowatt says:

      Sorry SOS, but peoples homes are NOT a part of the power grid, that is the problem. People have been brainwashed by this false advertising.

  14. VerticalSmiIe says:

    These Smart Meters take an electronic picture of a resident’s indoor activities. They are in essence a “camera ” in one’s home.This is truly Orwellian.
    Add to that the high frequency radio wave exposure, & you have an assault on the privacy & well-being of the citizens.

    • Redi Kilowatt says:

      I’ll bet some of the PG&E employees read the posts on this site and laugh hard.
      The more bizarre stuff that some people post like, hackers can turn off blocks of refrigerators, the utility will have an electronic cameras watching every use of electricity and will somehow know what you will be using it for and when, like the battery powered vibrator story and the bathroom fan story are amuzing, but also false information. The more crazy talk that people post the worse we all look.
      The Utility companies will hold all that false information and use it against us to try and discredit our efforts to halt the AMI meter project. They will accuse us all of being kooks, but we are not all kooks, some people know what is going on. It is the ones who know what’s really going on that will be more effective in fighting the deployment of the AMI meters.

  15. Fucksmartmeters says:

    so-called smart meters… they are killing machines, the government found its “POPULATION CONTROL KILLING MACHINE”. supported by Obama and enforced by each city’s P.U.C. and energy companies. It’s time for the people to fight back! its time for the people to take back the government! Remember when the Government was For the People and By the People? now we are reverting back to England’s Control. It’s time to fight the power! Impeach everyone in congress! overhaul these 2 political party and ad in the people’s Party.

Leave a Reply to Tammy Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.