Re: ALERT: Homeless protest Sacremento busts of squatter camps - CA,USA
unclescam (unclescam@buskers.org)
Fri, 12 Nov 1999 22:17:30 -0500
tom this seems to be a deal for the legal aide society or the american civil
liberties union. vagrancy laws, per se, were thrown out as unconstitutional. i no
longer have to prove i have enough to get to the next town . arrest for
panhandling is a free speech issue, in massachu protected by constitution.
camping out should be adjudicated.
at the same time the question of squatting/camping out is one of property rights.
if squat is on public property ,one assumes a case can be made for the squatter
living on shared property. you and i have the same sharehold(along with 6 million
in mass 360 million on federal land.) and rights as to personal use. where are
the lawyers protecting the rights of citizens to use public facilities;ie parks.
one more point. if you can't keep my park clean i don't want you there either.
if we ask for respect we must show some,at least for the sake of mother earth.
homeless doesn't forgive the destruction of the planet.
Tom Boland wrote:
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> Can protesting at state houses help to end homelessness, squat evictions
> and "street sweeps"? Why or why not? If so, under what conditions?
>
> http://www.sacbee.com/news/news/local03_19991112.html
> FWD [California, USA] Sacremento Bee - November 12, 1999
>
> HOMELESS PROTEST CITY'S CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL CAMPS
>
> By Matthew Barrows
> Bee Staff Writer
>
> Waving American flags and signs that read "Homelessness is not a crime,"
> more than 100 homeless people and their supporters gathered Thursday on the
> steps of the Capitol to protest the crackdown that is landing many of the
> homeless in jail.
>
> Atop their list of complaints are local illegal camping laws. Homeless
> advocates say the laws -- which prohibit camping or sleeping along
> sidewalks, in parks or along the rivers -- essentially make being down on
> your luck a criminal offense.
>
> "If you smell like a campfire, you're going to jail in Sacramento," said
> a man dressed in a tie-dyed shirt, black jeans and muddy boots who called
> himself Hippie Vince.
>
> What Vince and his mates have run into is part of a nationwide trend
> that has turned frustration over aggressive panhandling, public drunkenness
> and illegal encampments into stern new laws designed to sweep streets clear
> of vagrants. Local lawmakers have said years of social programs have failed
> to yield results. Now it's time to get tough.
>
> Some cities are buying one-way bus tickets for people who live on the
> streets. In Marysville, "Dumpster diving" has been declared a crime. In
> Roseville, police go undercover to nab panhandlers.
>
> And against a backdrop of protest from homeless advocates, San Francisco
> police last month threatened to seize shopping carts used by the homeless
> and dump the contents into plastic bags.
>
> In Sacramento, the issue is illegal camping.
>
> Hippie Vince said while local authorities once targeted encampments
> along the American River, they are now coming down hard on illegal campers
> throughout the city. Vince said he's gone to jail twice on illegal camping
> charges.
>
> "It's gotten to a point where people can't enjoy themselves on the
> river," he said. "It's a war zone."
>
> Local authorities said the crackdown should come as no surprise.
>
> For two years, Sacramento police have driven a four-wheel-drive vehicle
> up and down the American River Parkway, giving homeless campers a list of
> shelters and resources as well as a warning that if they resist, the result
> could be jail time, said Capt. Jim Hyde.
>
> Hyde said the people who are ending up behind bars typically have been
> cited several times in the past.
>
> "To be honest," he said, "it's the population that is resistant to change."
>
> In 1995, police handed out 20 illegal camping tickets. Over the last
> four years, that number has grown to more than 2,500, most of which result
> from nighttime "sweeps" along the American River.
>
> Hyde said the Police Department gets complaints from neighbors whose
> homes border parks, from bicyclists who are scared to ride the American
> River Parkway and from business owners who say it's impossible to attract
> customers when someone is sleeping beside the doorway or hitting up patrons
> for change as soon as they step outside.
>
> The campsites -- usually shared by three or four people -- also produce
> huge volumes of garbage and human waste, officials said. According to the
> Sacramento County Park Rangers Service, more than 15 tons of trash was
> removed from abandoned camps this summer.
>
> But homeless advocates Thursday said it was unfair and illegal to target
> people just because they're unwanted.
>
> Max Biddle, one of the speakers at Thursday's protest, likened
> conditions to Nazi Germany or apartheid-era South Africa. "We're going
> backwards," said Biddle, a local advocate for the homeless. "We're going
> back to the old days of taking away the rights of the homeless."
>
> Others said the fact that cities and towns are using their police forces
> to solve homeless problems is an indication the system that was designed to
> help these people has broken down.
>
> Mayoral candidate Julie Padilla said the "government-sanctioned
> harassment" could be averted if affordable housing were more readily
> available.
>
> Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, who spoke at a Veterans Day
> ceremony earlier in the day, said too many people on the streets suffer
> from mental problems and too many teenagers and young adults wind up
> homeless when they outgrow the state's foster-care system.
>
> The Bee recently completed a four-day series about the challenges of
> four runaway teenagers living on Sacramento's streets.
>
> Steinberg said that a bill he introduced earlier this year addresses
> some of the issues raised in the series.
>
> The bill is designed primarily to keep the mentally ill from becoming
> homeless. A stronger mental health system in the state, he said, not only
> would save people from a life on the streets but also would save local
> police and sheriff's deputies from having to enforce these tough measures.
>
> "The problem is falling too much in the hands of law enforcement," he
> said. "That's not law enforcement's fault. They should be the last resort."
>
> END FORWARD
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