Back from the Berkeley protest against new anti-homeless laws there, two HUFFsters wandereed in after midnight. This morning a HUFF meet is till planned at the Sub Rosa. On the agenda; Next City Council Meeting, Berkeley Solidarity, Charting the Stay-Away’s, and more if anyone’s awake or present.
Tag Archives: Protests
[huffsantacruz] Monterey, Venice, and Berkeley Protests Against Anti-Homeless Laws & Practices
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Community Members Continue to Protest the Sit-Lie Ban in Monterey
by Alex Darocy
Saturday Mar 14th, 2015 1:56 PM
Saturday Mar 14th, 2015 1:56 PM
Individuals with Direct Action Monterey Network (DAMN) and other community members returned to Alvarado Street in Monterey on March 13 for a second sit-in. They are protesting a law that went into effect in October that makes sitting or lying on commercial sidewalks a crime from 7am until 9pm. DAMN’s first demonstration against the sitting ban was held on February 13, exactly one month prior, and they say they plan to return again next month for a similar action. The idea to schedule the protests monthly was a calculated decision. The phrasing of the new law states that if an individual receives a warning from the police to stop sitting, they must not sit on the sidewalk again for one month, or they can be cited and or arrested.
“Join us as we sit and lie in solidarity with the homeless, travelers, and all people targeted by police and their brutality,” an announcement for the March 13 event read.
DAMN members are not using the word “brutality” lightly. As recently as two months ago they received a first hand account of police officers in Monterey physically beating a homeless person who had been lying on Alvarado Street’s sidewalk.
Those sitting during the demonstration held protest signs, and after reading them, one of the first people to pass the group said loudly, “Next thing you know, you can’t walk!”
A few minutes later Jason Coniglio, the owner of My Attic Bar & Lounge, asked them if they weren’t unfairly targeting his business, since they had already demonstrated in front of it once before.
One of the demonstrators then asked him if he had spoken out against the sit-lie law, and Coniglio did not respond.
Another downtown business owner spent a good deal of time sharing his list of complaints about street people with the group of demonstrators. One of his claims was that over the years he had offered jobs to a number of different people who he had seen panhandling, and none had ever taken him up on the offer of work.
In May of 2013, when the Monterey City Council was first considering a sit-lie ban, Monterey Chief of Police Philip J. Penko authored the staff report that explained a sit-lie ban proposal was brought to them because for several months city staff had received complaints about “a decreased sense of safeness” in downtown Monterey, around Fisherman’s Wharf, and long Roberts Road and Garden Road. Fred Meurer, who was City Manager at the time, told council members that the bulk of complaints came from the Old Monterey Business Association membership. The council decided at that time not to study the concept further, but increased pressure from the business community and the police led to a sit-lie ordinance being passed in 2014.
During DAMN’s first sit-lie protest on February 13, there was a strong police presence on foot monitoring the group’s activities, but not so for the second protest, and so far no one has been warned by police to stop sitting at the demonstrations.
The next sit-in is planned for April.
For more information about Direct Action Monterey Network, see:
https://solidaritymonterey.
http://www.facebook.com/
Alex Darocy
http://alexdarocy.blogspot.
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by Alex Darocy Saturday Mar 14th, 2015 1:56 PM
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by Alex Darocy Saturday Mar 14th, 2015 1:56 PM
§A Downtown Monterey business owner speaks to the group
by Alex Darocy Saturday Mar 14th, 2015 1:56 PM
§Alvarado Street
by Alex Darocy Saturday Mar 14th, 2015 1:56 PM
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by Alex Darocy Saturday Mar 14th, 2015 1:56 PM
Berkeley Barks Back: Human Rights Protest Tuesday at Berkeley City Council
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Note by Norse: Berkeley has long held off the worst anti-homeless ordinances. Far worse laws are entrenched in Santa Cruz since 1994 and have gotten exponentially worse.
Our latest obscenity is the Stay-Away-at-a-Policeman’s-
Santa Cruz’s laws on sitting and panhandling are harsher by an order of magnitude at least than Berkeley’s current and proposed laws. Our laws ban sitting on 99% of the sidewalks in business and beachfront districts and ban all panhandling at night, even if peaceful and only involving a silent sign. MC 13.08.090(b) banning “disorderly conduct on park property” makes it a misdemeanor to “by threatening or abusive or profane language, willfully molest or unreasonably interfere with the use of a city park or bench by any other person.”
Why such a discrepancy between Berkeley and Santa Cruz? Both are university towns with liberal reputations,. Berkeley is bigger and lies in a larger urban area where activists can more easily congregate to oppose the reactionary riptide. Berkeley also seems to be able to enlist–at least in part–many social workers and service providers, who remain starkly silent in Santa Cruz as nasty law after law is proposed and passed.
Activists in Berkeley hit the streets and demand real local police reform instead of largely limiting their concerns to symbolic targets like the BearCat armored personnel carrier, license recognition software, or “protection” from the NDAA. The most recent liberal coalition of organizations appearing faithfully at City Council to speak out against the BearCat have banned HUFF from their literature in a closed meeting without discussion, appeal, or notice.
Those interested in a possible caravan up to Berkeley on Tuesday March 17th, contact HUFF at 423-HUFF (4833). I hope to be heading that way with at least one vehicle. I’ll be hoping to interview someone from Berkeley on this issue tomorrow on Free Radio Santa Cruz at www.freakradio.org sometime between 9:30 AM and 1 PM.
Check the links in the three stories below to catch more photos, comments, and video.
Press Release: Rally and March Planned to Protest Effort to Pass New Anti-Homeless Laws in Berkeley
Osha Neumann Thursday March 12, 2015 – 10:07:00 PM
The Streets Are for Everyone Coalition (SAFE), is calling for an emergency march and rally on March 17 to protest efforts to get the Berkeley City Council to pass new laws targeting homeless people on the streets of the city.
The protest will precede a meeting of the Council at which it will consider a proposal by Councilmember Linda Maio for a raft of new ordinances, which would criminalize such innocuous activities as “lying on planter walls” and “deployment” of bedding on sidewalks and plazas during the day.
“Taken together with existing laws, these ordinances would essentially make it illegal for people who are homeless to have a presence on our streets and sidewalks,” said Osha Neumann an attorney with the East Bay Community Law Center. He has represented many homeless people who have received citations for, he says, “activities they engage in as part of their effort to survive.”
Professor Jeff Selbin is the director of Berkeley Law’s Policy Advocacy Clinic, which recently published a study about the growing enactment and enforcement of anti-homeless laws in California. He commented: “The evidence from around the state and country is quite clear: criminalizing people who are homeless doesn’t solve any of the underlying causes or conditions of homelessness; in fact, it only makes them worse. It would be inhumane, ineffective and expensive for Berkeley to double down on punitive laws that will only hurt our most vulnerable residents.”
Patricia Wall, Executive Director of the Homeless Action Center, expressed outrage that it was again necessary to fight for the rights of people who are homeless in the town with a supposed commitment to civil liberties. “Just under 2 ½ years ago,” she said, “Berkeley voters defeated Measure S, which would have criminalized sitting on the sidewalk. The same real estate interests that brought us that proposal are back again. And once again we need to show them that they don’t own this town, nor, hopefully, its politicians.”
Bob Offer-Westort of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness and former head of the “No on S. Campaign,” was astounded when he learned of Maio’s proposals. “Berkeley’s continuing failure to pay any heed to reason, research, or fellow feeling when developing homeless policy is mind-numbing. This city has a homeless commission, a homeless task force, and one of the best schools of social work in California. But our legislators can’t be bothered to lend an ear to either homeless people themselves, service providers, or policy experts, but legislation seems to be driven by a relentless cycle of panic and whim.”
The march will begin at 5 PM on the corner of Telegraph Ave. and Haste Street and proceed to the steps of Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, for a rally at 6 PM.
Streets Are For Everyone Coalition (SAFE) : safecoalitionberkeley@gmail.
Homeless advocates plan march and rally to protest proposals to regulate conduct on Berkeley streets
By Tom Lochner tlochner@bayareanewsgroup.com
http://www.montereyherald.com/
Posted: 03/13/15, 5:03 PM PDT |
BERKELEY — Advocates for the homeless are protesting a new set of rules, proposed by Councilwoman Linda Maio, that they say would criminalize much of what homeless people do to survive.
Maio says her proposals “will go a long way to establishing clarity for law enforcement and ensuring that the entire public has access to the public streets and plazas unimpeded.”
Maio, whose northwest Berkeley district includes the commercially booming Gilman Street corridor, proposes several ordinances to regulate a slew of activities in commercial areas, ranging from cooking, panhandling and storing possessions, to urinating and defecating.
“Taken together with existing laws, these ordinances would essentially make it illegal for people who are homeless to have a presence on our streets and sidewalks,” Osha Neumann, an attorney with the East Bay Community Law Center, said in a news release from the SAFE (Streets Are For Everyone) coalition.
The group has called a protest march and rally before Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
Maio says her proposals “will go a long way to establishing clarity for law enforcement and ensuring that the entire public has access to the public streets and plazas unimpeded.”
Measures include:
UC Berkeley professor Jeff Selbin is cited in the SAFE news release as saying evidence from around the state and nation clearly shows that “criminalizing people who are homeless doesn’t solve any of the underlying causes and conditions of homelessness; in fact, it only makes them worse.”
Maio says she seeks “consistency in the enforcement of current ordinances,” to protect public infrastructure, facilitate maintenance, promote cleanliness and safeguard public access, among other goals.
She also wants a review of ordinances in other cities that address public urination and defecation and to ensure that public restrooms are available and well publicized, in collaboration with BART.
She also wants to survey business districts about the adequacy of enforcement of current ordinances; study whether
a six-foot right of way is adequate for pedestrian and wheelchair passage in high-traffic areas; and explore extending transition-aged youth shelter hours beyond winter months.
The regular council meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
The march will begin at 5 p.m. at Telegraph Avenue and Haste Street and will proceed to Old City Hall for a rally at 6 p.m., according to the SAFE news release.
Contact Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760.
Why Criminalizing Poverty Sells
Carol Denney
Friday March 13, 2015 – 12:17:00 PM
Criminalizing homelessness is the most expensive, least effective way to address homelessness. Studies prove it, reporters note it, and common sense suggests it since paying for a year of low-income housing or even a college education costs a lot less than a year in jail. So why does it sell like crazy?
Nationwide we’re bristling with new anti-homeless and vagrancy laws according to a report by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. California leads with way with an average nine such laws per city according to the UC Berkeley School of Law Policy Advocacy Clinic’s recent study. The laws typically criminalize standing, sitting, lying down, sleeping, having belongings with you which might define you as “camping”, sleeping in your own car, sharing food with others, asking for money or help from others, and other behaviors which are unavoidable, especially for people who have no place
to go.
Why are these embarrassingly heartless laws so easy to pass and so popular? The answer is that there’s currently a political cost to any politician who insists on the creation of low-cost housing as a priority. But there is very little political cost at present to passing yet another law, even an unconstitutional law, which burdens the poor.
Berkeley is a great example. Berkeley is a college town, notoriously liberal, consistently cast as comically out of touch with mainstream American politics in national press. But successive mayor after mayor has been more than willing to override community will, ignore the moral objections of religious and human rights groups, and go to bat in court for unconstitutional legislation on behalf of political groups who want the poor to just disappear.
In an interview with Berkeley author John Curl, Mayor Tom Bates referred to rent control in particular as “a no-win position” for him and “a death knell” for politicians generally. Berkeley citizens, in the absence of honest leadership on the issue of low-income and affordable housing, cite their own frustration with panhandling and homelessness as reason enough to vote repeatedly for laws of dubious constitutionality which target poor people on the street struggling with unemployment, evictions, and skyrocketing rents.
U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken issued a temporary restraining order in 1995 against Berkeley’s 1994 anti-panhandling law, noting that “some Berkeley citizens feel annoyed or guilty when faced with an indigent beggar . . . Feelings of annoyance or guilt, however, cannot outweigh the exercise of First Amendment rights.”
Poor and homeless people are notoriously ill-equipped to hire lawyers and mount legal challenges to the anti-poor laws generated primarily by merchant associations which, in the case of the powerful Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA), get mandated “membership” payments from all the businesses within its expanding downtown footprint. The DBA’s board is dominated by large property owners who were the primary funders of the failed anti-sitting law campaign in Berkeley’s 2012 election. There is not a single representative on the board from the poorly funded non-profits and law clinics who work with the poor and homeless people caught up in the endless web of the criminalization of poverty. Those are the groups who will show up in opposition to new anti-homeless initiatives. But they are much less likely to be as able as wealthy investment and property companies to toss large campaign donations the council’s way come the next election.
The Berkeley City Council knows that circling poor and homeless people endlessly through overburdened courts and jails over unpayable fines for innocuous offenses is dumb. They tend to be intelligent people who by now have had somebody toss a copy of Berkeley Law’s Policy Advocacy Clinic’s report on California’s New Vagrancy Laws or the No Safe Place report on the Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities from the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (or both) on their desks. They may even have read the reports.
But it takes courage to say no to merchant associations’ and the University of California’s short-sighted effort to make homelessness and poverty invisible. Courage is in short supply in the Berkeley City Council chambers. For all the opining in January and February 2015 about the Black Lives Matter campaigns, and even though the majority of those affected are people of color and people struggling with disabilities, the anti-homeless laws slated for passage at the March 17th Berkeley City Council meeting seem to be proof that the war on the poor will go on without interruption.
Public Comment
Progressive in District 4 may as well elect an ultra-right conservative
(An open letter to the progressive voters of Berkeley)
On March 17th the Berkeley City Council will consider expanding the authority and practice of police, especially in downtown Berkeley. The council will consider authorizing the police to treat the down and out even more harshly than they are already treated.
Jesse Arreguin and Linda Maio have brought this authoritarian measure before council.
Here is one good description of the proposals, via Copwatch:
“1. Ordinance preventing panhandling within 10 feet of a parking pay station (akin to our ATM ordinance).
“2. Review ordinances other cities use to address public urination/defecation and return with recommendations for implementation; ensure public restrooms are available and well publicized. Involve BART in exploring possible locations.
“3. Ordinance preventing the placement of personal objects in planters, tree wells, or within 3 feet of a tree well.
“4. Ordinance preventing lying on planter walls or inside of planters.
“5. Ordinance preventing deployment of bedding, tenting, sleeping pads, mattresses, blankets, etc. on sidewalks and plazas from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
“6. Ordinance preventing personal items from being affixed to public fixtures including poles, bike racks (except bikes), planters, trees, tree guards, newspaper racks, parking meters and pay stations. Pet leashes exempt only as not prohibited in BMC 10.12.110.
“7. Ordinance preventing unpermitted cooking on public sidewalks.
“8. Survey business districts to determine adequacy of enforcement of current ordinances; develop an action plan for consistent enforcement as needed.
“9. Clarify if “no trespass” signs on private property extend to sitting against buildings.
“10.Assess adequacy of six-foot right-of-way to enable sufficient pedestrian and wheelchair passage particularly in high-traffic areas.
” 11.Refer to the budget process extending transition-aged youth shelter hours beyond winter months”
To that list we might add an item carried over from March 10th: Jesse Arreguin’s proposal to compete against panhandlers with donation boxes downtown, branded “positive change”. These new boxes would turn over donations to city bureaucracy, either directly or in the form of the Downtown Berkeley Association. The middle class will take a large cut of handouts meant for the very poor.
Quite simply, Jesse Arreguin and Linda Maio are launching a doubling down on the police attack on the down and out.
Our supposedly progressive District 4 councilman, the supposed inheritor of Dona Spring’s legacy, has joined with those who want to bum rush the poor and the crazy out of town, by means of police and court system violence.
Let us be clear on the morality of this maneuver:
Nobody likes being panhandled but proximity to a parking pay station has nothing to do with it. “10 feet from a parking pay station” is a feeble excuse to write tickets, to send random-down-and-out people to jail, to enrich the police forces, and to pretend for the sake of effete snobs that at long last Something Is Being Done.
And what of “personal objects in planters, tree wells, or within 3 feet of a tree well”? Here, Jesse and Linda propose to penalize poor people for owning a few things, and setting them down where they are out of the way.
What of an ordinance preventing stretching out on a planter wall, an architectural feature perfect for relaxing in public while not spending money for the benefit of local landlords?
Jesse Arreguin and Linda Maio have taken the view that if you aren’t giving money to Berkeley’s landlords then you have little business downtown and should certainly not try to make yourself comfortable or set anything down.
The measure goes on like this and only hypocrites and liars can find in this sorry excuse for legislation anything much more than an attempt to respond to a humanitarian crisis by penalizing the victims further.
Linda Maio once declared that she trembled with rage on the dais at the assertion she was less than a progressive.
For reasons that are hard to imagine, Jesse Arreguin is still presumed a progressive.
Listen, folks:
Nobody particularly enjoys an overly aggressive panhandler.
Nobody thrills to the “fun” of encountering a homeless mentally ill person in mid-crisis.
White people don’t like being name called racial names.
People of color don’t like being eyed with obvious suspicion and disgust.
Poor people don’t like getting brushed off the sidewalk by aggro khaki’ed business bros.
Nobody can stand dumb students who zombie through town deafened by ear buds and tunnel-visioned into their not-so-smart phones.
Women righteously resent the cat calls and the “b word”.
The list goes on and on.
Yet none of this justifies blue-suited men with guns and restraints violently punching down the most vulnerable.
None of this justifies our society’s failure to manage public restrooms and showers and shelter.
None of this justifies the equally offensive sneering and snarky behavior of rich theater patrons, ice cream seekers, and khaki-and-hemp swells about town.
Expanded police, and jail, and court system violence is not the answer and it will only make matters worse.
It is the height of malevolent cynicism that Linda Maio and Jesse Arreguin propose such state sponsored violence as a condition of meager improvements to social spending.
There will be protests at the March 17th council meeting and I have no idea if they will be large or small. Regardless, if Berkeley wants to keep going in this direction, our City Council will make Berkeley ground zero for a lasting confrontation. Berkeley will lead the nation, even if the council dais can not.
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Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom – Santa Cruz
Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom – Santa Cruz
w. http://www.huffsantacruz.org/
e. info@huffsantacruz.org
p. 831-423-HUFF
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5:14 PM (16 hours ago)
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Hey Bathrobey,
Spent this fine Saturday morning at the spectacular 7th annual Poverty & Homelessness Symposium at Cal. The event was sponsored by the:
Public Service Center
Suitcase Clinic
Street Spirit
Habitat for Humanity
Red Cross
Berkeley Service Network
Cheese n’ Stuff
Noah’s Bagels
Semifreddi’s
Cal Band
UC Jazz
Western Regional Advocacy Project
Write Home Project
Among many others, a couple of our council people put an item on the Action Calendar and many of us on Berkeley Commissions would not of even had a chance to speak out about it if we hadn’t moved up our monthly meetings to respond to the City Manager on budget issues. The action was hidden behind hundreds of pages of the Berkeley Sewer Plan.
Working with HAC, E.B.C.L.C. and others I and my comrades made sure this sneaky move was the top subject at the Symposium. What the council members thought was a very clever ploy turned out to be the worst mistake they ever could of made. Ah to feel young again!!!
So give me a ring if you like 510-684-5866 and we can talk.
Your comrade and friend,
Danny
Daniel J. McMullan III
Director/Advocate/Consultant
Disabled People Outside Project
East Bay/San Francisco, CA
Commissioner
Human Welfare and Community Action Commission
City of Berkeley
(510) 684-5866
Commissioner
Human Welfare and Community Action Commission
City of Berkeley
(510) 684-5866
HUFF prepares for Protest Against Police Cover-Up 11 AM-1 PM Sub Rosa 703 Pacific Wednesday 12-17
HUFF looks for clearer skies tomorrow after its meeting when we assemble at the police station at 2 PM on Cop Corner for some flyering, feeding, fasttalking for passing pedestrians and vehicles. Then closer to Copland for a Speak-Out, perhaps a Shriek-Out against police violence.
The HUFF meeting at 11 AM will consider the latest police non-response to Public Records Actg requests for police use of force (tasers, batons, pain-compliance holds, choke-holds, bullets, etc.). We will discuss a response to the upcoming Homeless (Lack of) Services Center Homeless Death Memorial (reportedly Thursday), consider emergency responses to the unmet Warming Center crisis, take Street Reports, and attempt to link up with protesters across the state and country who are addressing police violence against the unhoused communities.
Come, have fun, discuss what might work, then do it!
More Fuel for Wednesday’s Protest at Cop Corner in Santa Cruz
The protest against SCPD acquisition of the Bearcat armored vehicle,
its targeted attacks on homeless people,
its lack of transparency,
its huge bite out of the Santa Cruz budget,
its growing militarization,
its backroom manipulation of the political process,
its use of force record
its failure to discipline abusive officers
its failure to address real crimes of violence against women, minorities, and the poor
…all will be up for discussion, debate, and protest tomorrow at 2 PM at Laurel and Center Streets.
Bring an umbrella, warm clothing, noise-makers and friends! https://www.indybay.org/
Information and a downloadable flyer about the protest are at
A gripping and informative video and a series of hard questions can be seen at https://www.indybay.org/
Protest Rising in Santa Cruz?
Escalating Protest Against Institutionalized Police Bullying on the Horizon?
by Robert Norse
Saturday Dec 6th, 2014 12:33 AM
Saturday Dec 6th, 2014 12:33 AM
I see rising national outrage against police, prosecutors, and politicians for the entrched system of callous class and vicious racial warfare. Will this find local expression in demands for profound change here in Santa Cruz? HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) will be serving Shout-Out Soup at Tuesday’s afternoon City Council meeting opposing the “Stamp-Out-the-Homeless” Stay-Away Orders. I’m also suggesting some ideas for a overturning the current SCPD system that covers up class and racial abuse, targets and scapegoats the homeless, packs the jails with Drug War criminals, and makes the community less safe. HUFF will be supporting a Saturday of protest on December 13th, demanding justice for us all.
Protests continued in many cities across the nation for the third day and night (see even Fox news at http://www.foxnews.com/us/
§Protest at City Hall Tuesday 12-9
by Robert Norse Saturday Dec 6th, 2014 12:33 AM
§Reiterated Background
by Robert Norse Saturday Dec 6th, 2014 12:33 AM
Jilliam Pam Hunger Striker Grows Weaker in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
NOTE BY NORSE: Food servers have largely been driven off the streets of Santa Cruz–except for the twice weekly Food Not Bombs [FNB] folks, who serve 4-6 PM Saturdays and Sundays near the main post office downtown. Previously, Ronne Currey, Pastor Dennis Adams, and Pastor Steve used to serve in downtown Santa Cruz until they were pressured into leaving. The Circles Church near Garfield Park has stopped some of its meals and its entire Sunrise Hangout Cafe Warming Program in response to bigoted neighbor pressure and the increased influx of clients driven there from elsewhere in the City by anti-homeless laws and policies.
On 11-17, the Transportation and Public Works Commission voted to approve permit parking in spite of questionable documentation and most folks speaking against it with the threat of further expansion of the homeless nighttime parking ban in the Errett Circle area. Recently folks report being told they could not sleep under bridges in the rain.. On December 9th, an unprecedented Stay-Away order law is likely to be handed to police allowing them to unilaterally ban homeless people from many areas around the city without court process for such “crimes” as sleeping, being in a park after dark, and smoking.
As pushback, on Saturday at the FNB literature HUFF regularly has claim forms for folks who want to sue abusive authorities for camping, sleeping, and other sorts of homelessness tickets they’ve been given in the last 5 months. If you’d like to help in this effort, contact HUFF at rnorse3@hotmail.com or call at 831-423-4833.
On 11-17, the Transportation and Public Works Commission voted to approve permit parking in spite of questionable documentation and most folks speaking against it with the threat of further expansion of the homeless nighttime parking ban in the Errett Circle area. Recently folks report being told they could not sleep under bridges in the rain.. On December 9th, an unprecedented Stay-Away order law is likely to be handed to police allowing them to unilaterally ban homeless people from many areas around the city without court process for such “crimes” as sleeping, being in a park after dark, and smoking.
As pushback, on Saturday at the FNB literature HUFF regularly has claim forms for folks who want to sue abusive authorities for camping, sleeping, and other sorts of homelessness tickets they’ve been given in the last 5 months. If you’d like to help in this effort, contact HUFF at rnorse3@hotmail.com or call at 831-423-4833.
For video, to post comments, and to contact Pim and/or the Sun-Sentinel, go to http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Hunger striker vows not to eat until Fort Lauderdale homeless can be fed in public
Jillian Pim of Food Not Bombs has been on a hunger strike for 20 days, protesting Fort Lauderdale’s new restrictions on feeding the homeless outdoors.
By Larry Barszewski, Sun Sentinel contact the reporter
Hunger striker said she has lost 25 pounds already, going from 143 lbs. to 118 lbs.
“My friends, when they look at me, they hold back tears,” hunger striker says.’
Hunger strike enters 20th day in opposition to Fort Lauderdale outdoor homeless feeding restrictions.
Jillian Pim said she hasn’t had a bite to eat since police cited Arnold Abbott three weeks ago for feeding the homeless at Stranahan Park.
Since then, the 90-year-old Abbott has garnered international attention in his battle with the city, but few have noticed the 30-year-old Dania Beach hunger striker.
Pim said she won’t eat again until the city stops enforcing its month-old law that restricts where charitable groups can feed the homeless outdoors.
Jillian Pim, who has been on a hunger strike for 20 days, gets a hug from Jimmy Dunson at Friday’s Food Not Bombs food-sharing at Stranahan Park in Fort Lauderdale. At right is Thursday Addams, who joined Pim as a hunger striker a week ago. (Larry Barszewski / Sun Sentinel)
“I can imagine it’s a lot easier for me than for the people who are on the streets who are starving involuntarily,” said Pim, a member of the Food Not Bombs group that has actively protested the city’s recent spate of laws affecting the homeless.
She said she has lost 25 pounds, bringing her to 118. A bicyclist who once clocked several hundred miles a week, she now uses a walker to keep from falling. She is visibly thinner than she was during an appearance at a City Commission meeting in October.
“My friends, when they look at me, they hold back tears because I’ve gotten so frail and tiny,” Pim said. “I’ve not only had to tighten my belt, I’ve also had to tighten my wristwatch.”
She said she subsists on water with lemons, sometimes with salt. Her boss asked her to take time off 10 days into the strike, fearing she could hurt herself. She takes more naps and has called a doctor because she’s noticing tingling in her extremities that she said shouldn’t have started for several more days.
How quickly the body’s systems break down without food vary by individual, but death is generally considered a severe risk after 45 days. As of Friday, Pim was on Day 20.
“It definitely hurts seeing her,” said Paulino Mejia, who was with Pim at Friday’s Food Not Bombs food distribution at
Stranahan Park, which went off without police showing up to issue citations. Pim made the pumpkin soup.
“She’s definitely an incredibly strong person,” Mejia said. “It’s very powerful to see someone doing what she’s doing.”
Pim is getting closer to the time when she can do permanent damage to her body, but that hasn’t weakened her resolve.
City officials have said they have no intention of putting the law on hold. The best chance for Pim to break her fast is if a judge issues an injunction against the law. Several suits have been filed.
Pim knew the feeding ordinance was coming and prepared for a hunger strike. “I did a month and a half of research and three weeks of prepping my body for it,” Pim said.
She described herself as athletic, doing up to 800 situps a day, exercise she had to wind down before starting the strike.
Pim is used to the commissioners paying her little attention when she gets up to speak for the homeless. She wasn’t sure what to expect when she started the strike.
“I am a little concerned it’s not getting enough support in the media.” Pim said. “What I’m more upset at is the city commissioners, the mayor, the [Downtown Development Authority], all the people we’ve been protesting. I’ve sent them emails about this hunger strike and none of them have responded at all.
“I was at last Tuesday’s City Commission meeting, and none of them would even look at me.”
Pim said this is her first hunger strike. She joined the local Food Not Bombs chapter in 2010 after moving to the area from Tampa in 2009. She has been active in a number of protests, including the 2008 Republican National Convention in Tampa.
Another member of Food Not Bombs, who goes by the name Thursday Addams, has completed one week of a hunger strike.
“It felt like someone else should also be doing it,” the Lake Worth resident said.
Pim’s husband, Nathan, does not think the effort is for nothing.
“I think overall it’s helped with the overwhelming sort of outrage and sentiment that’s been going on to get people to do something about this,” he said.
lbarszewski@tribpub.com or 954-356-4556
Hernandez not Azua Drew a Gun on Jasmine Thanksgiving 2013
Correcting An Error: Hernandez not Azua Drew a Gun on Jasmine Thanksgiving 2013
A prior flyer I posted on Santa Cruz Indymedia & the HUFF e-mail list, and distributed at two rallies erroneously identified Officer Frank Azua as the SCPD off-duty officer who drew a gun on Jasmine Byron and her family at the Salvation Army Thanksgiving meal in 2013. They reported Hernandez was menacing them for “taking a plate of food outside” as others were doing. I apologize for any confusion caused by this error and further discuss it below. I also include the corrected flyer for those who want to read and/or distribute it. –Robert Norse
Officer Frank Azua has been accused of racial profiling downtown. (See “Santa Cruz Police Racism by Officer Azua and Unidentified PO ” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?
He has also been identified in numerous incidents in radio interviews with those who reported abuse: (search for “Azua” at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/
Officer Joe Hernandez was identified by Jasmine Byron, her partner, and her mom as the man who drew a gun on her for taking a plate of food out of the Salvation Army Thanksgiving meal last year. In radio interviews on November 28, 2013 and December 8, 2013, Hernandez was described as the gun-pointing and subsequently taunting individual. (See http://www.huffsantacruz.org/
The flyer included with this comment is a corrected version with the proper information.
Confront Local Bigotry in Santa Cruz With Names, Dates, and Actions
I’ll be distributing the following flyer today and in the days ahead at the Stand Up/Speak Out Rally demanding Justice in Ferguson (and Santa Cruz). See http://www.facebook.com/
events/309072619289447/?pnref= story
grand_jury_protest.pdf
download PDF (103.6 KB)
Test of the Flyer:No Ferguson in Santa Cruz!
STOP LOCAL RACIAL AND CLASS PROFILING !
STOP LOCAL RACIAL AND CLASS PROFILING !
ATTACKS ON THE POOR & HOMELESS
+++ Police abuse against poor and homeless persons is a widespread reality, empowered by laws that criminalize basic human needs and rights—like sleeping at night & public assembly.
+++ New laws coming to City Council will criminalize homeless with cop-initiated Stay-Away orders & ban RV parking city-wide. http://www.indybay.org/
+++ Recycling centers and needle exchange have already been removed from Santa Cruz City Limits as the new “brand the homeless as criminals” campaign has taken hold.
+++ Nearly three of every four of Officer Bradly Barnett’s citations made downtown were issued to homeless people for essentially victimless crimes, such as sitting, smoking, and skateboarding. http://www.indybay.org/
+++ Officer Bill Azua confronted Jasmine Byron & her mother at last year’s Thanksgiving Salvation Army meal with a drawn gun for “taking a plate of food outside”. No response from Chief Kevin Vogel of the SCPD. http://www.indybay.org/
+++ Officer Arnold Vasquez dropped a handcuffed Richard Hardy to the sidewalk face-first on Pacific Avenue in a video picked up by the Sentinel (http://www.santacruzsentinel.
ATTACKS ON AFRICAN-AMERICANS
+++ Additionally, nearly 10% of the citations Barnett issued were to African-Americans, in a county where 1.4% of the population is black according to a recent census. http://www.indybay.org/
+++ Yannidies Brown reports her brother and cousin were brutalized and jailed in another “no smoking or else” Barnett incident. http://www.indybay.org/
+++ Officer Azua has been videoed harassing blacks for “smoking on Pacific” while ignoring whites doing the same thing. http://www.indybay.org/
REAL SOLUTIONS AND VAIN HOPES
+++ The local ACLU, NAACP, and SCCCCR have named no names, nor acted on any specific complaints in the last decade in spite of the widespread awareness among the black community that racial profiling is a humiliating reality here.
+++ Police-partial “review” boards, co-opted city council committees, & “law and order” neighborhood organizations will do nothing but support more “tools” for cops.
+++ Frequent Street Protest, Sit-in’s, & Occupations may help deter police violence-as-usual.
Real tools are the camera, the internet, the press, and our own voices !
Video, audio, and post incidents on line when you see them!
Stop and make time to hold police accountable. No one else will.
Flier by Norse, HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) 831-423-4833 http://www.huffsantacruz.org 309 Cedar St. #14B 11-25-14
HUFF meet Wednesdays 11 AM-1 PM at Sub Rosa 703 Pacific. Contact Norse at HUFF or on the air at Free Radio Santa Cruz [FRSC]
FRSC: 101.1 FM & freakradio.org Sundays 9:30 AM – 1 PM, Thursdays 6 PM-8 PM 831-427-3772. Archives: http://radiolibre.org/brb/
Contact HUFF to fight back in Small Claims Court; Write for the Street Shit Sheet. Back issues: http://huffsantacruz.org/
COMMENTS CAN BE LEFT AT: https://www.indybay.org/
“No Ferguson in Santa Cruz!” Protest Resumes 2 PM Wednesday at Center and Laurel
| Title: | October 22nd “Say No to Police Abuse” Day Protest Against Racial and Homeless Profiling |
| START DATE: | Wednesday October 22 |
| TIME: | 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM |
| Location Details: | |
| Cop Corner at Laurel and Center Streets across from Louden Nelson Center. | |
| Event Type: | Protest |
| Contact Name | Robert Norse |
| Email Address | rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com |
| Phone Number | 8314234833 |
| Address | 5749 Hiway 9 #A |
| October 22nd is a Day of National Concern and Protest against police violence. (Seehttp://www.october22.org/ In Santa Cruz, a collusive City Council prepares to hand greater enforcement and banishment powers over to individual officers and rangers with it steroid-enhanced expansion of Stay Away Orders (See “Nasty Anti-Homeless Stay-Away Laws to Get Exponentially Worse” athttp://www.october22.org/) Recently there have been reports of an SCPD assault on Oliver Howard on October 11th (“Witnesses Report Excessive Use of Force by SCPD during Arrest near Court House” athttp://www.indybay.org/ The review of the citation records of Community Service Officer B. Barnett has revealed a disturbing pattern apparently targeting homeless persons and disproportionately citing African-Americans. Nearly 3/4 of Barnett’s citations in his ignoble career downtown have involved citing homeless people for essentially victimless crimes (sitting, smoking, skateboarding). Nearly 10% of his citations were for African-Americans in a county that is 1.4% black by a recent census. Other recent incidents of alleged racial profiling written up on this website include “Santa Cruz Police and First Alarm Brutalize and Arrest People for Being Black and Homeless” athttp://www.indybay.org/ “Selective Enforcement of Smoking Ban, Obstruction of Video Reporting–Report to the Chief!” athttp://www.indybay.org/ A prior protest is shown and described here: “Protesters Demand Faster Response from SCPD Regarding Record’s Requests” at The ongoing attack on homeless people is intensifying as winter gets closer as church programs are cut back, city council rubberstamps harsher laws, and the SCPD continues in its role in an ongoing Class War. The SCPD continues to seek more money for surveillance software (license plate readers), declines to provide records of its contacts with other agencies re: military-style equipment and other forms of prepared repression against political protesters such as those in the Occupy Movement. We will continue to be organizing volunteers to defend the rights of homeless people (Homeless Encampment Defense) as well as co-ordinate Copwatch efforts city-wide. Come on down for “Don’t Beat ’em, Eat ‘Em'” brownies and Mid-Day Coffee. Hoist a sign to defend the rights of all of us in public spaces sick of a militarized downtown. Added to the calendar on Tuesday Oct 21st, 2014 6:25 PM |
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§Homeless Cites
by Robert Norse Tuesday Oct 21st, 2014 6:25 PM
