{"id":954,"date":"2013-04-27T02:44:14","date_gmt":"2013-04-27T02:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/?p=954"},"modified":"2013-07-04T20:01:30","modified_gmt":"2013-07-04T20:01:30","slug":"poverty-crime-in-ohio-and-santa-cruz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/poverty-crime-in-ohio-and-santa-cruz\/","title":{"rendered":"Poverty Crime in Ohio…and Santa Cruz"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NOTE BY\u00a0 NORSE:\u00a0\u00a0 Walter Lilly called me from jail several times in the last day, and whose account I’ll be broadcasting tomorrow at 10 AM on Free Radio Santa Cruz (101.3 FM <\/span> http:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/FRSC-s47254\/<\/wbr><\/a>)\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/span>His “crime” was failing to pay Sleeping Ban infractions and then being jailed under a Municipal Code passed a few years ago to by-pass the reality that Infractions crimes are normally not jail offenses.\u00a0 <\/span>
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\n<\/span>Santa Cruz’s <\/span>MC 4.04.010(4) makes failure to appear in court or post bail for 3 infractions within 6 months (such as sleeping, sitting on the sidewalk, being on a bench for more than an hour, jaywalking) then all subsequent infraction offenses become misdemeanors at the city attorney’s option punishable by up to 1 year in jail and $1000 fine.\u00a0 MC 4.04.015 makes such a failure to show or bail three infractions in six months a crime in and of itself punishable with the same penalties.<\/span><\/span>He was arrested and told he’d be held on bail he couldn’t pay until trial, so in January he agreed to a stay-away order from Pacific Avenue to settle the cases in January.\u00a0 However when crossing Pacific Avenue (and perhaps hanging out there) he was accosted by cops who told him they’d not only arrest him for violating the order, but “throw away” all his possessions, by his account.<\/p>\n

Some days ago he was arrested and goes to court next week with $10,000 bail for “violating probation”, which is to say the deal his PD talked him into in January.<\/p>\n

Poverty crime is no novelty in Santa Cruz, but a regular process these days.<\/p>\n

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Making poverty a crime<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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By Jim Hightower\u00a0 http:\/\/www.standard.net\/stories\/2013\/04\/24\/making-poverty-crime
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Other Words<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Wed, 04\/24\/2013 – 3:06pm<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ebenezer Scrooge, the Dickens character, perfectly personified the nasty rich. For example, when asked to make a charitable donation for people trapped in poverty, Scrooge curled his lip in contempt and snarled: \u201cAre there no prisons?\u201d<\/span>
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\nBlessedly, our American society has progressed well past such heartless disdain. Unless, of course, you happen to be poor in Ohio. Or Georgia. Or in the nationwide utopia envisioned by Newt Gingrich.<\/span>
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\nOhio\u2019s Civil Liberties Union recently issued a report documenting the Scroogian return of debtors\u2019 prisons after finding that municipal courts in that state are jailing poor people unable to pay court fines. Last summer, a suburban Cleveland court threw 45 people in jail because they couldn\u2019t come up with the money for fines they were assessed, and the Sandusky Municipal Court imprisoned 75 down-and-outers for the same \u201ccrime.\u201d<\/span>
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\nBesides the fact that jailing indigents for debts cost the courts way more than the fines they owe, it also violates the U.S. and Ohio constitutions.<\/span>
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\nBut what the hey \u2014 on to Georgia, which has enhanced the debtor prison experience by privatizing it.<\/span>
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\nSay you roll through a stop sign. Uniquely, the Peach Tree State counts that as a criminal offense.<\/span>
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\nNow, say you can\u2019t pony up the full fine. Suddenly, you\u2019re in the clutches of a for-profit, private probation corporation. It charges probationers a $15 \u201cstart-up\u201d fee, a $25 photo fee, and a myriad of other fees \u2014 on top of the fine they owe. Fail to pay, go to jail.<\/span>
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\nWhere did this rip-off system come from? A private probation outfit bribed the head of Georgia\u2019s Board of Pardons to get it passed.<\/span>
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\nAnd don\u2019t forget Newt! During his failed campaign for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, the former House Speaker said America needs to bring back workhouses for welfare children. Neat, huh? Let\u2019s criminalize poverty. That\u2019ll teach \u2018em.<\/span>
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\nOtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s also editor of the populist newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown. OtherWords.org<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTE BY\u00a0 NORSE:\u00a0\u00a0 Walter Lilly called me from jail several times in the last day, and whose account I’ll be broadcasting tomorrow at 10 AM on Free Radio Santa Cruz (101.3 FM http:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/FRSC-s47254\/)\u00a0\u00a0 His “crime” was failing to pay Sleeping … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56,58],"tags":[3,107],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1131,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954\/revisions\/1131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}