Manresa

My buddy is getting married, so some friends reserved four hike-in camp spots at Manresa State Beach as sort of a bachelor party.  Great views of the ocean, short walk to camp from the 20-minute lot, nice weekend of relaxation, I thought.

Sat night there were about 10 of us from our 15-person group still up around the campfire, with the radio on, around 11pm.  We were not being especially rambunctious, but when the State Parks guys rolled around to tell us it was "quiet time" we turned the radio off and immediately politely agreed to settle down around the fire for the night...  but the officers weren't happy with that and told us to go to bed, and started actually excorting us to our tents.  A few of us complied but two or three of the guys there started questioning why we couldn't sit quietly by our fire at the spot we had paid for, etc...  Finally after a lot of huffing and puffing,  20 minutes or so the officers leave one firmly defiant, yet politely calm person still by the fire, with threats of arresting anyone who was drunk and disorderly if they had to come back.

Of course after they left a few uf us, now quite worked up by all the excitement got back up to discuss the situation, but it was getting late so most of us were headed to bed anyway.

About an hour later, 5-6 guys still up around the fire, I'm 20 yards from the fire in my tent about to doze off and all of a sudden there's flashing lights with orders to "get your hands on top of your heads"...  first I thought it was a joke, then I thought maybe those cops were about to shoot or taze someone...  one cop, (this one a sheriff), spies me looking out of my tent and orders me out, asking if there are any dangerous weapons, etc, and proceeds to poke thru the stuff in my tent, and I'm like wtf is going on, meanwhile I hear cuffs clicking by the fire along with various exclamations of dismay and confusion.

They arrested four of those who were by the fire, by random, just picked out four and took em to the Santa Cruz Co jail, (including the man of honor, who wasn't anywhere near drunk).  No charges, no tickets, just 5 hrs donation of time, plus a $50 cab ride back to camp, (and a lost nights sleep).

It was a looong night, wondering what was up, and if we had enough for bail, etc...

I know it must be assumed that we were louder than we thought, but in all honesty this was a tame trip compared to many others I've witnessed or been part of.  Never in my life have I witnessed such unprofessional behavior by a law enforcement officer.  Escorting grown men to bed?  Please.

it would seem the guys were rookies because my buddy said the jail staff was complaining that they hadn't filled out the arrest sheets correctly.

So if you go to Manresa to camp out...  be quiet and do not question authority.

BTW the cops were 10 times louder than we were.

Uggggggggggggh....  Man, what a night that must have been     Sorry to hear that Eric, and hope you still got to have some fun for your boy's party.  Not only do I have some similar stories to share, but anytime I hear the words "SHERIFFS DEPARTMENT" I have a chill run down my spine. 

What A bunch of DICKS! .... Theres fucin people running around shooting and stabbing each other in Santa Cruz and they mess with A bunch of campers WTF!!!!!!!!

 
Like there isn't enough real crime being perpetrated here in Santa Cruz Co., they need to escort people to their tents? Crazy.

I do view police in a positive light in general, but yeah, next time I'm in camp and they roll around I think I will just quietly fade into the woods.

All I can figure is somebody said something that really got under the one officers skin, (it was only one of them who was really aggro).

you need to call in a complaint to the Sargent ... if you have any cop friends that will help you with any rules broken you will get a quicker response.

Two of the detainees are considering following up.  I'm not sure if any rights were violated, given it's not private property, and although i was peeved to have the one search my crap, I understand he was just playing it safe.  Did feel quite violated, tho, being roused like that.

if it was past 10pm and you were in a StatePark = you guys should have been quieter.

uih yeah, thats way out of line. Theres a stabbing every other night here in town and they worry about this crap.

All the local campgrounds are way over regulated around here.

What a bummer man..

uih yeah, thats way out of line. Theres a stabbing every other night here in town and they worry about this crap.

All the local campgrounds are way over regulated around here.

What a bummer man..

Stabbings, every other night???  Was feeling better about getting some distance from that stuff by moving out of the valley into the hills...  Guess there is no place to hide from that crap.   

theres a lot of them, not literally every night, but a lot! Halloween is usually peak sesaon for downtown stabbing season

crime is every where, you know how it is.

Stoked for you though Al!!!

uih yeah, thats way out of line. Theres a stabbing every other night here in town and they worry about this crap.

All the local campgrounds are way over regulated around here.

What a bummer man..

Stabbings, every other night???  Was feeling better about getting some distance from that stuff by moving out of the valley into the hills...  Guess there is no place to hide from that crap.   

Your gonna be neigbors to some of the best meth and pot dealers in the state Al.The hillbillys!

if it was past 10pm and you were in a StatePark = you guys should have been quieter.

I totally agree...  it wasn't my radio and when I saw it I suspected there would be a complaint later on because of it, (although it wasn't very loud, I know sound carries).

But escorted to bed?  And others getting arrested for basically being awake?

I may have missed something, sure, but that just doesn't seem right.

But you were in your tent right, and you still got shook down?

Its still just camping, never seen anyone go to jail for it..

I was in my tent and got shook down because I poked my head out trying to see what was happening...  as four other guys in my camp were getting cuffed.

I get that a lot of people go to bed at 10pm.

Imo, the situation was over after they asked us to keep quiet and we did.

Only they weren't satisfied with that...  they wanted us in our tents and when they saw a few weren't, the cuffs came out.

Like I said, I suspect they disturbed more fellow campers than we did, by barking orders and flashing lights, etc.