Speech by Robert Norse to Community and City Council 2-10-15
Three homeless people have filed four claims against the City for being awakened at night and given citations for sleeping between the hours of 11 PM to 8:30 AM at night. This in a city where homeless camping is not only effectively illegally but regularly persecuted with seizure of homeless survival gear, tough treatment of homeless sleepers, and a habitual refusal to acknowledge basic human rights for the poor outside without options. Thnere has been a massive expansion of such citations. In two days the city’s additional Stay Away penalizations will be intensified against homeless people sleeping where they must—in the many areas overseen by Dannette Shoemaker’s Parks and Recreation Department…
…We will be helping victims of this law sue for sleep deprivation damages. The four current claims request $2500 per incident of sleep deprivation. Each time an officer violates a homeless person’s privacy, health, and safety–we shall help them hold the offender responsible. If at first we failm, we will try again and again. We’ll be there until it is no longer necessary and you have repealed this inhumane and abusive law, which materially injures people…
TO READ THE FULL TEXT OF THE SPEECH (SLIGHTLY MODIFIED), AND/OR VOLUNTEER TO HELP, GO TO: https://www.indybay.org/