Stop Smart Meters! Director Arrested at Capitola PG&E Payment Center

Although Capitola and Watsonville, among dozens of other California locales, have adopted ordinances to prohibit the installation of SmartMeters within city limits, PG&E's plans continue unchanged, with impending installation in the coming days throughout Santa Cruz County. 

In response to PG&E's refusal to comply with Capitola's ordinance, Stop Smart Meters! Director Joshua Hart, barricaded himself in front of the 41st Avenue PG&E payment center, and was arrested by Capitola Police on Tuesday.

About a dozen people associated with the cause went to the County Board of Supervisors office Tuesday morning to plead their case, Hart told Capitola-Soquel Patch. Half of the group then proceeded to PG&E with anti-SmartMeter banners.

"We've heard , particularly after the , when the analog meters needed replacing. They have tons of analog meters, but they refused to install them, even after being asked by the City Council and [Mayor] Dennis Norton," Hart said. "We asked them politely to stop installing illegally in Santa Cruz County, which they've threatened to do over the next couple of weeks, and they refused. So I sat in the doorway and blocked their business and was subsequently arrested."

Capitola Police arrived on scene after a PG&E employee called for assistance. When Hart refused to leave the area, he was put in the back of a squad car, asked to sign a release, and was given a July 28 court date on the charge of disrupting a business. 

"It was certainly an inconvenience to the public and we apologize for that, but it was only about an hour that we shut them down for," Hart said.

The bigger issue, of course, is the reported health hazard caused by SmartMeters. Stop Smart Meters! echoes the World Health Organization's message that SmartMeters put out potentially harmful pulses of microwave radiation. It is the health risk along with PG&E's refusal to comply with city ordinances that has Hart willing to be arrested.

"This is just another erosion of our civil liberties," he said. "PG&E is so arrogant that they consider themselves more of an authority on health than the World Heatlh Organization ... If PG&E wants to have good relationships with the community, which it certainly does not at the moment, they need to consult people. This backlash is their own fault." 

You can talk to Hart, and hear callers from all over Santa Cruz addressing the issue at 2 p.m. Wednesday on KSCO-AM (1080).

See the video, courtesy of Stop Smart Meters!, in the upper-right of this page for footage of the arrest.