Showing posts with label Homeless. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homeless. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The Military-Civil Society Suppression Interface - "The Other Side Of The Coin: Counterinsurgency And Community Policing"
Interface: a journal for and about social movements
Volume 3 (1): 81 - 117 (May 2011)
The Other Side Of The Coin:
Counterinsurgency And Community Policing
Kristian Williams
(This paper grew out of a lecture presented at the "Econvergence," First Unitarian Church, Portland Oregon; October 3, 2009.)
Abstract
This essay outlines the current counterinsurgency model, with an emphasis on its domestic application in the United States. It shows that many contemporary counterinsurgency practices were developed by police agencies inside the U.S., and illustrates the transfer of theory, strategy, and technique from domestic police to the military - and back. The essay also examines the state's use of nongovernmental or nonprofit agencies, as one element of counterinsurgency strategy, to channel and control political opposition. [emphasis mine -RR] The conclusion briefly considers the strategic implications for social movements, especially as we learn to recognize and respond to political repression.
Introduction: expect repression... [Full PDF @ Interface]
(page w/ volume index here)
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Why Don't Homeless People Stay At Homeless Shelters? Lots Of Reasons... Good Reasons!
This is not surprising if one considers the county and city of Santa Cruz never wanted a shelter program to start with, so they've done their best, with taxpayers dollars, to make it absolutely useless to anyone but exactly the cohort within the homeless population that the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the Downtown (business) Association, and Take Back Santa Cruz complain about... Funny how that happens. You'd think they had created their own perception management program for vilifying the homeless.
[A little perception management for the rest of us]
Because they have. Only people who have been institutionalized, unaware they're being institutionalized, or forced by circumstances beyond their control into an institutionalized environment, would tolerate it, and many of the people mentioned, the mentally ill, drug addicts in need of substance abuse/psychological care, and sociopaths unable to integrate in a cooperative manner with the larger community of homeless, make the best 'poster people' for 'everything wrong with the homeless'.
[Thank YOU for being here James... Filmed @ SXSW 2010 in Austin, Texas.
Ask any of the literally thousands of travelers coming through Santa Cruz every year, some young and adventurous... 'roadies', some older and simply looking for work or a safe place where they won't freeze to death in the winter.
Ask them if they've been out to 'River Street'.
They'll tell you either they'd been there, but won't be again, or that they'd heard through the grapevine before they ever arrived in town that SCRCH is an out of control behavioral health unit and were warned to stay away from it.
It's disgusting that homeless 'activists' in Santa Cruz would support a facility like this... but they do.
It's NOT a 'shelter'... Or even a 'resource center'. It's a county run prison yard for drug addicts and people with' behavioral problems' who can be used by the city and business community as PR and rationale for their overall hostile attitude and often illegal (unconstitutional laws intended to target the homeless and blatantly selective enforcement of those laws) behavior towards their un-housed citizens, whom a recent survey showed a large majority of those people were working and housed in the area until unchecked redevelopment and gentrification occurred in the wake of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake . ~~Razer Ray
This post is dedicated to Logan. Panhandling and sleeping out doesn't kill people, but living simply as a young person in a world based on 'stuff' can be a killer. Even still one must pity people so poor that all they have are money and 'things'.
After my first rape, it was a homeless man who saved me. I was tucked into a bloodied ball behind a dumpster, deep in shock. Without his intervention, I would have died. He covered me and sang mumbled songs. He bathed me like a child in someone's motel room where he'd carried me. Fittingly, his name was Justus. My angel had Parkinson's and had suffered several strokes. His bladder control wasn't perfect so he smelled pretty bad, too. He talked to me of soldiers he'd seen shell-shocked in Vietnam. He prayed and sang "Amazing Grace" as I stared into space, trembling and waiting, hoping to die while he carefully dabbed my face with a washcloth. He showed me a very old picture of his daughter, a cute toddler in corn rows. He spoke of her with such love. It was then I unfroze and began to cry. If this gentle, lovely man could be discarded and dying out where no one cared what hope was there for anyone? (source)
1> Homeless Shelter Hours Incompatible with Work HoursPlease Read FirstI spent a lot of the time when I was homeless sleeping "in the rough" which is another way of saying outdoors. I've been asked a lot of times why I didn't just stay in homeless shelters. The two answers most homed people will give as to why homeless people don't use shelters is that either such people are drug users and drug use is against homeless shelter rules or that some people refuse to follow homeless shelter rules pertaining to check in and checkout.
As someone who has worked in homeless shelters I am very aware that the vast majority of homeless shelter workers are good people who are doing their best. I am glad that homeless shelters exist to help people without homes. However, it would be an injustice to pretend that homeless shelters in America are plentiful enough or that all of those shelters that exist are safe enough, or free from downsides.
The issue is pretty complex, but no, I was neither using drugs nor too defiant to obey homeless shelter rules. I'd like to give my reasons for sleeping in the rough and also some of the reasons I've seen other homeless people avoid shelters while exposing some common homeless shelter dangers. Some of these reasons might surprise you. I know I was shocked to discover a few myself. ~~Kylyssa
Homeless shelters operate on rigid schedules... So do jobs!
Contrary to popular belief, many homeless people have jobs. Because check in hours for shelters are often rigid and the process of waiting in line and checking in usually takes hours, most working homeless people cannot use them. Other homeless people work evening or night hours which don't allow them to get into a shelter before curfew. People who work from nine to five usually can't use homeless shelters, either; by the time they get off work, it's usually too late for them to get in line to check into a shelter.
Another reason some homeless shelters are incompatible with having a job is that they require the shelter users to attend AA or other drug abuse rehab classes (often held during normal work hours) every day they use the shelter - whether those people have a drug or alcohol problem or not.
By the time I had a regular job, I had decided to sleep outside exclusively so this was not a problem for me.
Continue reading Why Homeless People Don't Use Shelters @ Kylyssa's Squidoo. Also see another of her articles: "What I Learned While Being Homeless" that addresses topics such as "Why I Hate The Words "The Homeless" and tips for survival if you find yourself in that situation.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Breaking: Santa Cruz California Lawyer Ed Frey Jailed For Protesting Anti-Homeless Laws Has Bail Reduced From $50,000 - $110
Breaking News June 24 2011:
Santa Cruz California lawyer Ed Frey jailed for protesting anti-homeless laws has had his bail (to allow for post-conviction appeals) reduced from $50,000 to $110.
Also, other charges against co-defendant Gary Johnson have been dropped (21 counts).Johnson is still imprisoned for six months(6/28/2011 - Gary Johnson released on bail pending appeal.) on a single protest conviction. [More]
Backgrounder Here
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Santa Cruz California Lawyer Ed Frey & Houseless Defendant Imprisoned Six Months For Sleep Protest
Santa Cruz California lawyer Ed Frey jailed for protesting anti-homeless laws has had his bail (to allow for post-conviction appeals) reduced from $50,000 to $110. Other charges against co-defendant Gary Johnson dropped (21 counts). Johnson is still imprisoned for six months on a single protest conviction [More]"Leave no brother or sister behind enemy lines..." ~~POCC (Prisoners of Conscience Committee).
A protest is scheduled for Monday, June 13th 2011, on the Santa Cruz California County Courthouse steps beginning at 7:30AM and continuing until....
Let's start with a brief summary of events.
[Above: Pseudo-Legal Camping (to spend money) Cinema 9 Theater]
Note that sleeping in plain sight, even on your own property, is illegal in Santa Cruz.
[Above: Pseudo-Illegal Camping (to protest city policies) @ SC County Courthouse]
The PeaceCamp 2010 protest and sleep-in responding to the unavailability of shelter space for the droves unemployed and homeless people in Santa Cruz California began on the steps of the Santa Cruz County Court House on July 4 last year, eventually moved to Santa Cruz City Hall, and continued 24/7/365 until October 2, with the admonition by lawyer and organizer of the event Ed Frey's words:
"the struggle is now moving into the courts"In the Cabale News Service report for August 09 2010, yours truly wrote:
Sorry occifer! we don't have relatives in Oklahoma Kansas Georgia Tennessee like the po' folk did in the 30s.Santa Cruz California Peacecamp2010 has been under siege over the weekend with dozens of Misdemeanor citations written and almost a dozen arrests. The camp's lawyer, Ed Frey, and other participants have been arrested for refusal to cooperate and sign the tickets, claiming the law they are being cited for is unconstitutional and invalid.
One man is on hunger strike and remains incarcerated until a Tuesday hearing.
One person was overheard telling the sheriffs involved in the raid: "Someone just got hit by a drunk driver... because you were here enforcing this unconstitutional law instead of patrolling the highways on Saturday night."
This correspondent saw the officer's shoulders rise with tension and one can only hope his 'dop kit' contains antacid.
The protest revolves around the apparent unconstitutionality of a total ban on sleeping outdoors, covered with a blanket, or in any manner, between the hours of 11pm and 8am anywhere within the city limits.
HOWEVER, to avoid testing the city of Santa Cruz' 'camping ban' ordinances, the law the arrestees are being cited for is California State Penal Code 647(e).
It is understood from sources that the Santa Cruz police department has refused to cooperate with the Santa Cruz Sheriffs in citing under their own 'ordinance' (not 'law'... 'ordinance').
California State Penal Code 647(e) is applicable to anyone...
...Who lodges in any building, structure, vehicle, or place, whether public or private, without the permission of the owner or person entitled to the possession or in control of it."This State Code implies that it's illegal to bed down (or perhaps even rest by the side of the road) anywhere in the state without domicile (housing) or a welcoming place to stay (the meaning of 'lodging' itself).
Put simply... without 'some place to go', it's apparently illegal to be "(any) place" in the state for any length of time (because one MUST rest or sleep).
[Santa Cruz lawyer Ed Frey forced to cooperate with arrest process]
It is a 'law' that should date back to slavery days when California was a 'free' state attempting to control the influx of escaped 'Nigras'. This law is eerily close to the "Vagrancy Laws" overturned or sun-setted since the 40s, except in the South where laws like this were used into the 1960s to control the movement of the African American U.S. citizens.Funny thing... (but I'm not laughing) you'd think this law was probably last used extensively in California during the GREAT DEPRESSION of the 1930s, but in reality this law was added to the state's law books over the last few years...
There are more writings on the PeaceCamp 2010 protests in the August 06 2010, August 09 2010, August 12 2010, and August 25 2010 editions of the Cabale News Service Report. Also see the PeaceCamp 2010 tag @ Becky Johnson's One Woman Talking for more extensive reports, documents, and details, and this posting at Santa Cruz IndyMedia, where you can see the hatred exhibited by certain elements of the community, typically representing the business community rather than the average Santa Cruz citizen, towards their disenfranchised neighbors.
Now, to the issue at hand...
Becky Johnson, host of the blog "One Woman Talking" attended the trial of the PeaceCamp Six and it's aftermath.
She writes:
(Santa Cruz California lawyer Ed Frey to Judge John Gallagher, Santa Cruz County Superior Court:)
"Where did you get the authority to claim the definition of illegal lodging included sleeping? It's not in the law itself. Opposing counsel cited two authorities, neither of which addressed sleeping as a criminal act. The defendants last August had no access to a definition of "lodging." The sheriff's who enforced it had no guidelines or definition to determine what "lodging" was. Only when we get to trial do we find that you, yourself provide that definition to the jury. Where did you get that definition? On what authority did you base it?"
"And how were the defendants last August supposed to know what "lodging" is? You, yourself said it is equivalent to sleeping. But where did you get that?"
"I got it from a dictionary," Gallagher admitted, so softly his words were barely audible. "And the defendants were warned first that they were illegally lodging."
[Click for larger image]
JURY FOREMAN: Personally I found it pretty crappy that it was clear that they were citing people as soon as they fell asleep. That was the one thing they were really going after.Frey was adamant about pressing this point. He had filed a motion to dismiss based on vagueness of PC 647 (e) at a January 21st hearing this year. At that hearing, DA Sara Dabkowski argued that a definition was not necessary since "everyone knows what "lodging" means. It is a common word that puts people on notice that they can't lodge, can't live, can't stay the night, can't sleep somewhere, can't set up roots somewhere if they don't have permission. So it's not unconstitutionally vague on its face as written." (A complete transcript of that hearing can be found here.)
Yet at trial, and against the objections of the defense, Judge John Gallagher introduced his own definition of "lodging".
o
o
o
Indeed, Gallagher's language, which he claims came from a dictionary, contains suspect language. He used the term "settled in" as an indication of illegal behavior.
There is legal precedent for this language. Article 13 of Indiana's 1851 Constitution stated
"No Negro or Mulatto shall come into, or settle in, the State, after the adoption of this Constitution."While PC 647 (e) does not prohibit blacks from coming into the State, it does condemn to jail any person found within the State boundaries who does not have some form of permission to to sleep, live, or spend the night. That means any person in the State of California can be arrested on sight if they can't prove they have permission to "live" somewhere.
This sounds little different than article 13 of the Indiana State Constitution of 1851.
Just substitute the word "homeless" for "Negro."
o
o
o
But the County of Santa Cruz, the County Sheriffs, City police, and the judges at the Santa Cruz County Courthouse have all decided that sleeping is a criminal act. They have decided that depriving homeless people of any right to sleep, any ability to sleep on either public or private property is the cornerstone of their policy to criminalize homelessness. And the jails are full of homeless people.
"I instructed correctly at trial that sleeping is part of the definition of lodging. And you can be punished for that conduct."DA DABKOWSKI moved on to the sentencing phase.
"We are asking for 400 hours of community service from Mr. Frey. People who worked at the County Building said they feared for their safety when they had to walk by people."Frey argued,
"We were expressing ourselves. The first amendment is the most valid right we have. 400 hours of labor for expressing ourselves? That's outrageous. I didn't even know there was a "lodging" law. We were there to protest the Sleeping Ban of the City. We were speaking on behalf of the poorest of the poor. 400 hours is outrageous. I won't serve them."
"Then I sentence you to 6 months in County Jail,"Gallagher announced, the maximum sentence possible under 647 (e). Frey asked to be released long enough so he could file an appeal.
"Okay. $50,000 bail!"
Double-outrageous.
"I can't find it in any of the laws that were cited that you can't sleep. Go home tonight and sleep if you can, and let my words ring in your ears."Then Gallagher turned to Gary Johnson, who is homeless.
"Do you accept 400 hours of community service?"Gary Johnson and Ed Frey were handcuffed and led off to jail by County Sheriff's. A protest is scheduled for Monday, June 13th, on the County Courthouse steps beginning at 7:30AM and continuing until....
"I have more of a problem with the 3 years probation clause "obey all laws." I have to sleep. I can't go three years without sleeping."
"Are you turning down the conditions?"
"It's not that I won't. I can't. I have to sleep. I have to sleep tonight. Where can I go and legally sleep in the State of California?"
"Do you accept the 400 hours of Community service?"
"As a citizen and a patriot, I cannot."
"Okay. Then 6 months in the County Jail for you too. Report to jail next Friday at 3PM."
"But I have to sleep TONIGHT."
"Okay. You can sleep in jail. You will be remanded into custody at the end of this hearing."
In Full @ Becky Johnson's One Woman Talking
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Voices From The (Santa Cruz) Village: Controversy at the "Red Church" - Is The City Interfering With The Church's Homeless Outreach Program?
[This Video Is One Hour Long... Pop Out Player?]
Louis LaFortune, host of Santa Cruz Community Television's "Voices From The Village" hosts a roundtable discussion with local leaders about the situation between the city and Calvary Episcopal Church's homeless outreach program, which illustrates the unnecessary city-driven adversarial relationship between the independent homeless programs of Santa Cruz and the city, with Father Joel Miller, Pastor at Calvary Church, Richard Enriquez, a Calvary Church volunteer, Don Lane, Santa Cruz City Councilman, and Scott Galloway, Calvary Church volunteer/former Santa Cruz Metro Transit District Director, and others.Video source: Santa Cruz Community Television
The document in question is Here... Written by FORMER city councilmember Cynthia Matthews, the document is a letter to the archdiocese of the Episcopalian church on a Santa Cruz city letterhead requesting their assistance in forcing Reverend Joel Miller of the Calvary Episcopal Church to end the homeless assistance program by pretty much falsely claiming alleged 'behavioral problems' and 'noise issues' "requiring" 'excessive' police and emergency service calls.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
America "Profiled": 'Countries With Wide Income Inequality Are Unstable, Have Large Underclasses, High Rates Of Crime & Little Opportunity'
Alternet:If current trends continue, “The United States by 2043 will have the same income inequality as Mexico.” (Tula Connell, Mar 12, 2010, AFL-CIO Now.)
The Class War Launched by America's Wealthiest Is Getting More Savage
By Larry Beinhart, AlterNet
January 13, 2011We’re in a class war.
It’s the corporations and the very wealthiest against all the rest of us. We’re losing.
In 1962 the wealthiest 1 percent of American households had 125 times the wealth of the median household. Now it’s 190 times as much.
Is that a case of a rising tide lifting all boats, just a few of them a little bit higher? No.
From 1950 to 1965, median family income rose from $24,000 a year to $38,000 a year. That’s close to 4 percent a year, close to 60 percent over 15 years. That’s a rising tide.
In 1964 there was a big tax cut. That’s when things started to slow down for average people. By the mid-'70s the rise of the middle class stalled. From 1975 to 2010 median family income rose $42,936 to $49,777. That’s not quite 16 percent over 25 years, less than six-tenths of 1 percent per year.
Briefly, when taxes went up under Clinton, median income rose, peaked at $52,587 in 1999, and then, after Bush cut taxes, declined. Keep in mind that this is median family income. In the '50s and '60s, family income was usually earned by a single person. Today, family income normally comes from at least two people.
At the same time, income for the richest soared. In 1979 the richest 1 percent of Americans earned 9 percent of all U.S. income. Now they earn 24 percent of all U.S. income. One percent of Americans earn nearly one-fourth of all the income in the country.Then came the crashes of 2001 and 2008 and the recessions that followed.
The crash hasn’t changed anything. Things have become worse.
From 1990 to 2005, adjusted for inflation -- the minimum wage is down 9 percent, production workers’ pay is up only over 15 years 4.3 percent.
At the same time, the rich get richer:
Corporate profits are up 106.7 percent. The S&P 500 is still up 141.4 percent since 1990. CEO compensation is up 282 percent. Call it transfer of wealth. Or call it class warfare.
What’s wrong with the rich getting richer?
Slate's Timothy Noah, in "The United States of Inequality," wrote, “Income distribution in the United States [has become] more unequal than in Guyana, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and roughly on par with Uruguay, Argentina, and Ecuador.”
Take a look at that list.Countries with wide income inequality don’t lead the world in research, technology, industry, and innovation. They’re unstable. They have large underclasses. They have high rates of crime. They have little opportunity.
In such countries the rich have disproportionate power. They take control of all aspects of society, especially government, the police, and the judiciary. They become self perpetuating.
If current trends continue, “The United States by 2043 will have the same income inequality as Mexico.” (Tula Connell, Mar 12, 2010, AFL-CIO Now.)
Countries with high levels of income inequality are third-world countries... "...Here’s how regular people can deal with cultures of high inequality."
Saturday, December 25, 2010
"Sorry... Two Words" (That Describe How Corrupt A Local Government Official Can Be) - Santa Cruz California Edition
A forwarded document from a friend of mine (click for more on this subject) regarding a local Presbyterian church (hereafter known as "The Red Church") that feeds the local homeless and droves of displaced workers every Monday evening.Apparently SOME PEOPLE in the city government are upset that the pastor of the church did not respond as expected when asked to discontinue the meal citing alleged 'behavioral problems' and 'noise issues' "requiring" police and emergency service calls arising from the serving of a meal for 100 plus mostly homeless youths, over a period of TWO hours, weekly.
This is what happened... Cynthia Matthews, FORMER city council person, wrote a letter to the archdiocese of the Presbyterian church requesting their assistance in forcing Reverend Joel Miller of the Calvary Presbyterian Church to end the meal.
The Reverend Joel P. Miller was called on the carpet by the archdiocese in their equivalent of a Grand Jury and 'convicted'. He IS appealing and the potential for punitive action, including his removal as pastor of the Red Church remains a distinct possibility.
What follows is the document received under the FOIA, penned by Matthews, essentially (at least inferentially) requesting punitive action be taken against Reverend Joel P. Miller of the Calvary Presbyterian Church, Santa Cruz California 95060.
For perspective... Matthew' whine that the Santa Cruz Police Department answered one hundred plus calls in one year from the site of the meal (mostly from affluent unappreciative-of-the-impoverished neighbors), pales in comparison to the three hundred plus assistance calls received in the same year from an organic food supermarket just a block away.
There IS NO hue and cry from the Santa Cruz City Council for New Leaf Market to stop peddling THEIR wares.
SC Supervisor Cynthia Matthew's Letter To The Presbyterian Archdiocese by Auntie Imperial
It would behoove one to note that this is occurring in a town that legislates and creates, in conspiracy with development and property interests, housing and jobs for affluent transients... University students and office workers from elsewhere in the country, who can afford the outlandish rental prices (the office workers come from elsewhere in the US and are far enough away from home that they can write off the often $2,000+ rents as a 'business expense') and have little or no interest in long term planning for the socio-economic health of the city and it's permanent population, but has absolutely locked their own workers AND CHILDREN out of decent affordable housing and jobs that would pay enough to afford the housing... by city policy.
There MUST BE a violation of the State City Charter in there somewhere...
Another example of the city's intent to gentrify the city of Santa Cruz at all social cost... After the suspicious forced closure of the local veterans hall (The vets sued and won... Stand by for a resolution. More from a SC Sentinel Search)
The city also conveniently forgot to assist in the relocation of the annual Thanksgiving and Christmas meals that were staged at the Vets Hall yearly, for the benefit of local senior citizens, the homeless... travelers stranded over the holidays, and anyone else wishing to attend a community meal and consort with other folks who make up Santa Cruz society.
The city of Santa Cruz, when pressured by a large number of citizens, hurriedly allowed the use of the Civic Auditorium for Thanksgiving, but for Christmas... The feast will be served at the INSTITUTIONALIZED homeless 'shelter' (quotes intentional) at the edge of town, near the highway, where the city of Santa Cruz SURELY wishes the less-than-affluent, AKA EX-Workers, of Santa Cruz, would take the hint... pull out the cardboard and marker, make a sign saying "Somewhere Humane Please" and leave the area.
There's one word to describe people like Cynthia Matthews and her merchant/property owner pandering cronies on the Santa Cruz city council...
Corrupt Scum.
Sorry... Two words.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Houseless: An Audio Collage... Media & Music - Skidmark Bob, Pop dEFECT Radio
Skidmark Bob from PoP dEFECT RADIO, Free Radio Santa Cruz, with an audio collage of media & music on the current economic crisis, mortgage and job loss The housing bubble as explained by comedian Lewis Black also various media & news stories of people made houseless by foreclosures. Unreported World program on Boston and California Homeless and Al Jazeera English Witness program on Las Vegas homeless living in the sewers.Note: This mix is ONE HOUR LONG!
Pop Out Player? Click Here
Produced mixed and edited by Skidmark Bob live on Free Radio Santa Cruz 101fm http://www.freakradio.org/ Tuesdays 2pm Music by Ben Harper, Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello, Otis Taylor, John Mellencamp, Unkle, Eric Clapton, Bruce Hornsby.
Visit Santa Cruz IndyMedia.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Visitors To Auntie Imperial's News & Blog Review
Thanks For Stopping By
Posts
Auntie Imperial Says:
