When the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that anarchists involved with the May 1 riot downtown set fire to the porch at Caffe Pergolesi and blocked access to firefighters, it left out one important detail: there was no fire on the porch. According to a 911 recording obtained by Santa Cruz Weekly and the accounts of SCPD spokesman Zach Friend and Pergolesi baristas Hiram Coffee and Sam Trude, what really happened was that someone lit a bag on fire across Cedar Street from the café and a bush on fire on Elm Street.
“We responded to a call of a fire near Caffe Pergolesi,” says Friend. “Yes, you are accurate that the fire was across the street.”
Though an initial call of a fire near the coffee shop prompted a fire crew to respond, upon arrival the firefighters found little to respond to. Indeed, by Monday there was no visible damage to the store or immediate area around it.
“There was no fire here,” says Coffee. “Some idiots had torches across the street, but that’s it.”
The mix-up is notable mainly because it’s not the first time Caffe Pergolesi has been reported as having a connection to dangerous activism. In the wake of the 2008 firebombings of two UCSC researchers’ homes by animal rights activists, the Sentinel and many national outlets implicated the shop when word got around that fliers containing threats to the scientists had been left at Pergolesi’s community info table. Ironically, the shop, which is known for its grand balcony, underground concerts and left-of-center clientele, also took flak from the anarchist community for cooperating fully with the FBI when they investigated the incidents.
As the police, and once again the FBI, pore over the countless videos and witness accounts of what went down during the hour-plus of supreme idiocy last Saturday night, we at the Weekly trust the culprits will be ferreted out and exposed. Until then, we’ll be staying caffeinated with regular trips to our favorite lefty coffee shop—violence promotion-free since 1886.
