Possum-Playing Woman Arrested for Public Disturbance
Santa Barbara – The usually august—if somewhat dry—City Council proceedings at Santa Barbara City Hall were boisterously thrown into pure cacophony on the afternoon of October 2nd when a well-known and vociferous critic of local government made apparent her dissatisfaction with the management of her esteemed hometown.
So upset was Kate Smith that her vocal outburst—which she failed to moderate despite repeated entreaties to that effect—became a loud rant of “Arrest me! Arrest me!”. According to Santa Barbara Police Department spokesman and onetime Public Information Officer Lt. Paul McCaffrey, there was a police officer in the City Council chambers who witnessed her exclamatory taunts and advised her to stifle her combative oratory. “She was speaking at a time that wasn’t appropriate and was asked to sit down,” McCaffrey reported to the media. “She refused,” he said, reporting further that when the police officer asked her to step away from the microphone she fell to the floor in front of the public podium and “remained motionless and unresponsive.”
Paramedics were quickly summoned out of concern that Ms. Smith had suffered a medical emergency, but it was quickly discovered that she had not. City Hall staff familiar with Ms. Smith from prior similar incidents attempted to counsel her to cooperate with the needs of the public and officials to continue the council meeting with due decorum, but she failed to respond to their entreaties.
At that point, additional police officers arrived and Ms. Smith was removed from City Hall in a wheelchair, which was rolled right to a waiting police cruiser. Ms. Smith was arrested and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on charges of disrupting a public meeting and interfering with officers.
Photo: Courtesy City of Santa Barbara
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