#clear homeless encampments

[reportwire]

California Primary: Is This the End of the George Floyd Moment?

California Primary: Is This the End of the George Floyd Moment?

Since the massive nationwide protests that erupted in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, the debate over crime and public safety in the Democratic Party has been dominated by urgent calls for reforming police departments and confronting entrenched racial inequities in the criminal-justice system. History might record yesterday’s elections in San Francisco and Los Angeles as the end of that…

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#better results #Black Lives Matter movement #brief moment #California Governor Gavin Newsom #cause of criminal-justice reform #clear homeless encampments #criminal justice #criminal-justice reform #criminal-justice system #Democratic Party #Democratic Representative Karen Bass #former Republican developer Rick Caruso #front lines of crime #general election #George Gascón #good entrepreneur #greater threat #L.A. City Council #L.A. County sheriff #last fall #leading advocate of criminal-justice reform #liberal policies #Los Angeles #low-income #massive nationwide protests #Mayor Lori Lightfoot #mayoral primary #mayoral race #much discontent #murder of George Floyd

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

Check out this great letter challenging the City of Kingston's plans for daytime evictions in Belle Park (from Mutual Aid Katarokwi-Kingston, March 19, 2024):

"I am a citizen of Kingston who lives on Montreal Street and volunteers five to seven days per week, for two or three hours per day, at the Integrated Care Hub with my colleague Brigit Smith.

In our role, at this grassroots level, we support the ICH shelter residents, substance users at the Consumption Treatment Centre, encampment residents at Belle Park and many unhoused in the community who have learned about the kindness, warmth and support we provide to the homeless.

As background, one of our business clients donated $10,000 to purchase a golf cart for the CTS and ICH staff to provide swift responses to overdoses, ultimately saving lives. We set up a prepaid account at BnB Pharmacy to support fulfillment of prescriptions, which we top up on a monthly basis. We raised over $12,000 this past winter to provide tents, air mattresses, sleeping bags, pillows, hygiene products, winter coats, boots, hats, gloves, running shoes, back packs, and warm clothing. We have built relationships with businesses in the community who support our efforts to take care of our homeless. We often purchase and donate coffee, donuts and

muffins so our unhoused feel, in some small way, that we care about their well-being. We process all incoming donations. We take care of everyone with respect and dignity and we are honoured to serve them. They are warm, friendly, appreciative, and respectful in all interactions. We do not deny the reality of challenges, as we see them every day, however one would think the threat to life would include concern for fires and freezing to death. We do not feel your decision is taking all complex matters into account. We feel uniquely qualified share our perspective.

The announcement of the City of Kingston to prohibit day use and evict our encampment homes on a daily basis, effective April 2, 2024, simply must not go forward.

We are in the midst of a national housing, economic, substance use and drug poisoning crisis. This is our reality. It is not going away. Delegations have approached council to talk about substance use in our schools at the elementary and secondary levels. Poverty and homelessness are growing. This is evident in the statistics authored by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. These may be the most complex times we will face in our lifetime and as citizens we can not condone the short sited and thoughtless approach of daily prohibition and daily eviction of homes. Asking our vulnerable residents who are often medically ill with complex mental illness, and or substance use and many fragile elderly, to pack up their homes and belongings daily, is inhumane. We must have more scope than knowing we will be complicit in the death of our vulnerable citizens, if we push them further into the woods and isolation, as Justine McIsaac stated at your council meeting in January 2023.

Moreover, the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate, authored by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (Feb 2024) clearly indicates the need for the City of Kingston to comply. It is a human right to receive adequate housing and yet you are proposing we dismantle the only home they have on a daily basis, destroying the little dignity they have. These are their homes, and it is incumbent upon us to improve their homes, not dismantle them. Our citizens in Belle Park are already a community in crisis, a traumatized and disadvantaged population. We have a group of seniors who depend on us to listen to their stories and memories and be present for their needs. Many, are quite sick and dropped off from the hospital in various states where continued active care is required. We also provide walkers, canes and wheelchairs. It is our norm. How can we respect and support the decision of the city when you do not seem to understand the complex matters of these very important citizens. We need to collaborate to find common ground.

Can you imagine what will happen to our emergency departments when we can no longer administer naloxone in Belle Park. An already overburdened HDH and KGH will now be providing overdose support because residents have moved further away from their support at the CTS and ICH. We serve hundreds of overdoses. These overdoses will land squarely at emergency along with the Paramedics and Police who must remain present until the emergency dept can serve them.

Our residents will find places to live in their tents further away from the ICH. Tent encampments will not cease to exist, with your dismantling strategy. Recently, you took the tent of a resident, and this particular resident continues to live at Belle Park under a tarp. You accomplished nothing but putting this resident further into crisis. This is their community, it is their home, their tents are their homes. Let that sink in, tents are the best we have provided them. This eviction will push them further into crisis, despair and desperation and as Justine stated, resulting in death.

It is our understanding, a resolution from Council is required to move forward with your April 2 directive and we did not find this resolution. Can you please advise us as to how this decision was made as we understand this directive to be illegitimate

Please let us work with our community, fire department, police and bylaw to educate and support our residents. Our outdoor engagement team has worked very hard to collaborate with citizens, police and fire and we believe with a dedicated team we can build understanding and find common ground. We are inviting the community to volunteer with us. Give us a chance to build relationships. Please reconsider your decision and work with us to support our community while we build a made in Kingston strategy together. On a strategic level, we have a made in Kingston plan to collaborate with private sector and all levels of government to lift Kingston as the innovative and dynamic city it is. Please reconsider and work with us toward a sustainable solution.

Sincerely,

Pamela Gray and Brigit Smith"

#kingston ontario #belle park #encampment #clearing encampments #municipal politics #homeless encampment #homelessness #punishing the poor #poverty in canada #policing the crisis #canadian politics #ontario politics

[allthecanadianpolitics]

New analysis from the University of British Columbia has identified “alarming” issues with the way B.C.’s courts have handled a number requests for injunctions against homeless encampments on public land. Stepan Wood, a professor in the Peter A. Allard School of Law and the Canada Research Chair in Law, Society and Sustainability, analyzed 24 injunction decisions in the province between 2000 and 2022. He describes his findings as “disturbing” in a report released this month called “Rush to Judgement.” “We already knew that the courts were pretty eager to grant injunctions against homeless encampments when governments ask for them, but we didn’t really have a clear picture of exactly how eager,” Wood told Global News. “The key finding was that the picture is actually even worse for homeless encampment residents than we thought.”

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

#Homeless #Poverty #income inequality #british columbia #canadian #canadian news #canadian politics #canada

[fatehbaz]

In May 2023, the city of Phoenix began its project to clear and eliminate its largest homeless camp, known as The Zone, a refuge for hundreds of people. During the record-breaking heat of the summer of 2023, Phoenix cleared the camp, block by block. By the beginning of September 2023, just as the city was experiencing over 50 consecutive days of temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit, the city cleared the block of the camp where most seniors and the elderly lived.

The trend of unhoused people moving from [the neighboring city of] Tempe into Phoenix has implications for Phoenix, which is under intense scrutiny for how it has handled its own growing homelessness crisis. Phoenix has been battling [...] lawsuits since 2022. [...] [One] was brought be the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, which alleges the city unlawfully cited people and threw away their belongings during encampment sweeps. The U.S. Department of Justice has also been investigating the Phoenix Police Department since 2021 over several issues, including its treatment of people experiencing homelessness. [...] “They say it’s not illegal to be homeless. But it totally is. There’s nowhere you can be homeless,” said [AD], a community organizer who hosts weekly picnics in Tempe for unhoused people. Others agreed. “It’s become kind of a police state for the homeless within the city,” said [KE], founder [...] of [a] homelessness nonprofit [...]. Both the River Bottom in Tempe and The Zone in Phoenix, two of the largest encampments in the region, have been or are currently being cleared out. Smaller encampments are also frequently broken up by police or private security [...].

Text excerpt from: Juliette Rihl. "Tempe's clearing of homeless camps has ripple effects for Phoenix, aid workers". The Arizona Republic. 11 July 2023.

---

The city continued clearing Phoenix's largest homeless encampment known as "The Zone" on Friday morning [1 September 2023], in the aftermath of a severe storm that raged the night before. [...] This was the eighth block cleared [since May 2023] [...]. The block cleared was [...] where many elderly people lived. [...] [A] nonprofit organization providing supportive resources for seniors experiencing homelessness, is located along the same street. 'The Zone' was hit hard by Thursday night's monsoon storm. [...] [H]igh winds scattered some people's possessions. [...] At the start of August, around 700 people lived in and around The Zone [...].

Text excerpt from: Helen Rummel. "Eighth block of 'The Zone' homeless encampment in Phoenix cleared out after storm". The Arizona Republic. 1 September 2023. [Bold emphasis added by me.]

---

As the city cleared another block late last week [September 2023], local activists gathered outside the barriers set up around it. [...] A man who goes by [Q] has been unhoused for roughly four years. [...] “It is kind of heartbreaking to see,” he said, watching city staffers pick through piles of belongings left behind. [...] Neighbors from different mutual aid groups set up folding tables just outside barriers on either side of the block. [NA] was among them. [...] He said they form relationships with the people living here. Most are elders, many people with disabilities that prevent them from working. “They’re dejected, they’re demoralized, they’re upset,” [NA] said. “These are homes that they’ve built for themselves that have taken some time, and resources that they’ve just had to come by because nobody’s providing them.” [...] [JS] said when people are moved, they often don’t stay sheltered. [...] “But a lot of people go into these [shelters] and then they’re hit with restrictions when they get there. They’re told one thing, and then they arrive, there’s a curfew, [...] they can’t have whatever. And then it’s: You either follow our rules right now, or you’re going out into the heat.” [...] [AM] watched the street sweep from behind the yellow tape. “Well, I think that this is a human rights violation,” [AM] said. “What I’m seeing is just a bunch of people being paid to dislocate people.” [AM] is a legal observer, volunteering with the National Lawyers Guild. [...] “They're being moved out of one street,” said [AM]. “But the reality is, they have nowhere to go."

Text by: Kirsten Dorman and Tori Gantz. "Another block in 'The Zone' is cleared, but the path forward for those living there is unclear'. Fronteras Desk. 7 September 2023. [Bold emphasis added by me.]

[anarchywoofwoof]

do you see the microscopic text underneath this image? it's actually kind of relevant. let's zoom in and i'll make my point.

when you have a 12% success rate at putting people in permanent housing, how can you justify the implementation of these types of laws against homeless people simply trying to exist?

it is a known fact that Housing First permanent supportive housing models result in long-term housing stability, improved physical and behavioral health outcomes, and reduced use of crisis services such as emergency departments, hospitals, and jails.

furthermore, The Lancet has done a study on the effectiveness of permanent supportive housing and concluded that permanent supportive housing interventions - particularly housing subsidies combined with case management - are an effective methodology at addressing homelessness.

it is not enough to throw unhoused people in temporary housing with no plan for how they will be there the next month, or the month after that. observations of programs already carried out by various states like California have been proven to be lackluster in their ability to provide long-term support to the unhoused.

and yet now the Supreme Court will get to decide whether states can unilaterally clear encampments while many states have no other meaningful plans to address the people being displaced.

Elected officials urged the justices to take up the case because they say the rulings complicate their efforts to clear tent encampments, which have long existed in West Coast cities, but have more recently become more common across the U.S. The federal count of homeless people reached 580,000 last year, driven by a lack of affordable housing, a pandemic that economically wrecked households, and a lack of access to mental health and addiction treatment. “The Supreme Court can now correct course and end the costly delays from lawsuits that have plagued our efforts to clear encampments and deliver services to those in need,” Newsom said in a statement.

thank goodness that liberals like Gavin Newsom are out there fighting the good fight.

#united states #houselessness #us news

[gsirvitor]

"Correct, which shows they have the capabilities and authority to actually clean up their city"

Except they don't and they didn't. They just pushed the trash to another part of the city. The San Francisco government doesn't have the capacity to clean up the entire city because that would require actually putting the trash someplace else. But there is no someplace else.

You saw these people clear out a part of a landfill, but failed to notice the trash wasn't removed, just put atop other piles in other within the landfill.

And yes I called homeless people and drug dealers trash. Just to hammer home the landfill metaphor.

So you're saying, the government of not only San Francisco, but California, neither has the capability nor authority to exercise their power?

Incorrect, they power washed entire streets, cleaned up graffiti, threw away trash, cracked down on crime and moved homeless encampments/open air drug markets off the street, sure some of this may have just moved to a new locale, however that does not detract from the fact they do indeed possess both the power and authority to right the wrongs they force their constituents to live under, but choose not to.

This is a rather simple concept to grasp, and I'm baffled as to how some are incapable of comprehending that things could be better.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ian Millhiser at Vox:

The Supreme Court will hear a case later this month that could make life drastically worse for homeless Americans. It also challenges one of the most foundational principles of American criminal law — the rule that someone may not be charged with a crime simply because of who they are. Six years ago, a federal appeals court held that the Constitution “bars a city from prosecuting people criminally for sleeping outside on public property when those people have no home or other shelter to go to.” Under the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Martin v. Boise, people without permanent shelter could no longer be arrested simply because they are homeless, at least in the nine western states presided over by the Ninth Circuit. As my colleague Rachel Cohen wrote about a year ago, “much of the fight about how to address homelessness today is, at this point, a fight about Martin.” Dozens of court cases have cited this decision, including federal courts in Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Florida, Texas, and New York — none of which are in the Ninth Circuit.

Some of the decisions applying Martin have led very prominent Democrats, and institutions led by Democrats, to call upon the Supreme Court to intervene. Both the city of San Francisco and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, for example, filed briefs in that Court complaining about a fairly recent decision that, the city’s brief claims, prevents it from clearing out encampments that “present often-intractable health, safety, and welfare challenges for both the City and the public at large.” On April 22, the justices will hear oral arguments in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, one of the many decisions applying Martin — and, at least according to many of its critics, expanding that decision.

Martin arose out of the Supreme Court’s decision in Robinson v. California (1962), which struck down a California law making it a crime to “be addicted to the use of narcotics.” Likening this law to one making “it a criminal offense for a person to be mentally ill, or a leper, or to be afflicted with a venereal disease,” the Court held that the law may not criminalize someone’s “status” as a person with addiction and must instead target some kind of criminal “act.” Thus, a state may punish “a person for the use of narcotics, for their purchase, sale or possession, or for antisocial or disorderly behavior resulting from their administration.” But, absent any evidence that a suspect actually used illegal drugs within the state of California, the state could not punish someone simply for existing while addicted to a drug.

The Grants Pass case does not involve an explicit ban on existing while homeless, but the Ninth Circuit determined that the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, imposed such tight restrictions on anyone attempting to sleep outdoors that it amounted to an effective ban on being homeless within city limits. There are very strong arguments that the Ninth Circuit’s Grants Pass decision went too far. As the Biden administration says in its brief to the justices, the Ninth Circuit’s opinion did not adequately distinguish between people facing “involuntary” homelessness and individuals who may have viable housing options. This error likely violates a federal civil procedure rule, which governs when multiple parties with similar legal claims can join together in the same lawsuit. But the city, somewhat bizarrely, does not raise this error with the Supreme Court. Instead, the city spends the bulk of its brief challenging one of Robinson’s fundamental assumptions: that the Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishments” limits the government’s ability to “determine what conduct should be a crime.” So the Supreme Court could use this case as a vehicle to overrule Robinson.

That outcome is unlikely, but it would be catastrophic for civil liberties. If the law can criminalize status, rather than only acts, that would mean someone could be arrested for having a disease. A rich community might ban people who do not have a high enough income or net worth from entering it. A state could prohibit anyone with a felony conviction from entering its borders, even if that individual has already served their sentence. It could even potentially target thought crimes.

Imagine, for example, that an individual is suspected of being sexually attracted to children but has never acted on such urges. A state could potentially subject this individual to an intrusive police investigation of their own thoughts, based on the mere suspicion that they are a pedophile. A more likely outcome, however, is that the Court will drastically roll back Martin or even repudiate it altogether. The Court has long warned that the judiciary is ill suited to solve many problems arising out of poverty. And the current slate of justices is more conservative than any Court since the 1930s.

[...]

The biggest problem with the Ninth Circuit’s decision, briefly explained

The Ninth Circuit determined that people are protected by Robinson only if they are “involuntarily homeless,” a term it defined to describe people who “do not ‘have access to adequate temporary shelter, whether because they have the means to pay for it or because it is realistically available to them for free.’” But, how, exactly, are Grants Pass police supposed to determine whether an individual they find wrapping themselves in a blanket on a park bench is “involuntarily homeless”? For that matter, what exactly does the word “involuntarily” mean in this context? If a gay teenager runs away from home because his conservative religious parents abuse him and force him to attend conversion therapy sessions, is this teenager’s homelessness voluntary or involuntary? What about a woman who flees her violent husband? Or a person who is unable to keep a job after they become addicted to opioids that were originally prescribed to treat their medical condition?

Suppose that a homeless person could stay at a nearby shelter, but they refuse because another shelter resident violently assaulted them when they stayed there in the past? Or because a laptop that they need to find and keep work was stolen there? What if a mother is allowed to stay at a nearby shelter, but she must abandon her children to do so? What if she must abandon a beloved pet? The point is that there is no clear line between voluntary and involuntary actions, and each of these questions would have to be litigated to determine whether Robinson applied to an individual’s very specific case. But that’s not what the Ninth Circuit did. Instead, it ruled that Grants Pass cannot enforce its ordinances against “involuntarily homeless” people as a class without doing the difficult work of determining who belongs to this class. That’s not allowed. While the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure sometimes allow a court to provide relief to a class of individuals, courts may only do so when “there are questions of law or fact common to the class,” and when resolving the claims of a few members of the class would also resolve the entire group’s claims.

The Grants Pass v. Johnson case at SCOTUS could make life worse for unhoused Americans.

#Unhoused People #Homelessness #Grants Pass v. Johnson #SCOTUS #Crime #Martin v. Boise #9th Circuit Court #8th Amendment #Poverty #Grants Pass Oregon

[babblingeccentric]

Strawhat Real World Jobs

Yes Oda did give out alternate jobs for all the strawhats in an SBS but I will die before I accept Zoro as a cop and I have a few other quibbles and elaborations I'd like to put forth for Modern AUs. I want you to keep in mind that I'm writing this from a distinctly US American point of view so some of the job cultures may be slightly different to your locality.

Luffy- Firefighter: this one is correct. Luffy needs a job that is highly physical with low organization and intelligence requirements (sorry) This man is not going to college. He isn't a hero but there's no other legal way to get the adrenaline rush he needs. Also firefighters have a higher tolerance for fistfighting than other jobs, but not as much as construction. I think he could do construction labor if needed but I also think he would get bored. He would also be a PR nightmare as a professional athlete or wrestler. Could make it as a YouTuber but only if someone else edited his videos. Honestly YouTuber Luffy is your best choice if you want to preserve the feel of canon in a modern world.

Zoro- Cop: I'm sorry Oda but this is dumb as shit. Zoro would get asked to serve an eviction to a struggling mother of three or clear out a homeless encampment and quit on the spot. Or he would get into fights with other cops and get walled out and have to quit. He could still be a swordsman as a professional Kendo fencer? Athlete? Idk what they call those but he'd go on the pro circuit and absolutely decimate. He'd teach at a dojo in the off seasons. I'd also see him as an athletic trainer. I think Zoro could make it through college

Nami- Nursery School Teacher: While Nami is canonically very fond of children and quite good with them this feels like kind of a cop out. I think meteorologist suits her skills really well and I think she could kill it in the looks contest that weather anchors have to play.

Sanji- Stylist: I love this one so much. Idk what the original was but a stylist in the US refers to either a personal stylist which is a person who picks rich people's outfits or a hair stylist which is a person who cuts and styles hair, usually women's. Both jobs are associated with flamboyant gay men. He goes to his job and he gasses up women and calls men ugly for eight hours and then comes home and cooks Luffy dinner because he got texted a picture of the most fucked up eggs you ever did see that morning.

Ussop- Graphic Designer: I honestly have no notes. Yeah Ussop can hold down a steady job, and yeah it should be art focused. What is art but lying anyway?

Chopper- Grade School Teacher: This one is just so cute. He's got a childishness to him that makes kids like him and he has a soft caring personality that makes him good at his job. He can also be strict when he really has to. I agree Chopper would be a great elementary school teacher

Franky- Pilot: I guess? The thing is I think flying a plane for a job is both stressful and boring and I honestly don't think it suits him as well as say mechanic. I think Franky would be great as a mechanic souping up hot rods and doing weird custom jobs and he would be very entrenched in the local car scene. I also do just love mechanic characters

Robin- Flight Attendant: We all know this is just for Frobin reasons. And while the idea of a hand sprouting from your fold down tray to serve you your in flight meal is charming Robin deserves better than being Franky's beautiful assistant. Also I don't wish customer service upon her after all her suffering. I think she would be a great lawyer. She's smart, she's eloquent, she's poised- she'd kill it in the courtroom. She does corporate law for Crocodiles unethical company for a ridiculous sum before quitting to start her own firm and defending Luffy's numerous aggravated assault charges cause she likes him.

Brook- Detective: I'm not really sure why they picked this but I now want a detective story where Brook runs around solving mysteries (wait isn't that just skullduggery pleasant?)

Jinbe- Train Station Attendant: This is really cute, but we all know he'd be a retired yakuza boss. Maybe in some wild world where none of the strawhats turn to crime. I think he would be a local institution and know a lot of people and ask them about their families and such

#strawhat pirates #one piece headcanons #one piece strawhats #straw hat pirates #mine #i kinda ran outta steam with jinbe #sorry jinbe #My writing

[conniejoworld]

so fix everything but the people's homelessness

[workersolidarity]

The CIA budget is kept a tight secret.

This isn't because they are afraid or ashamed of the CIAs budget. After all, these are the same people who unabashedly send $80 Billion to Ukraine as our cities fill with homeless encampments.

No, what would become clear should the black books ever break open would be the global web of self-funding illegal arms trafficking and drug smuggling schemes that truly make up the funding apparatus of the Security State.

#CIA funding #national security state #military industrial complex #socialist politics #marxism leninism #communism #socialist #communist #marxism #marxist leninist #socialism #progressive politics

[rubyvroom]

What Do Cops Do?

I spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to excerpt from this essay on Alex Pareene’s substack, but in the end I think I have to just post the whole goddamn thing:

Lots of very smart (and even more not-so-smart) people have tried, over the years, to answer the question of what cops are for—whether they exist to keep us safe, to fight crime, to protect property, to enforce racial hierarchies, etc. I pose a simpler question: What do cops do?

Having spent many years observing cop behavior, reading news about cops, and occasionally even asking them for help, I have come to a pretty simple but comprehensive answer: They do what is easy, and avoid what is difficult. Seen through that rubric, much cop behavior suddenly becomes much more explicable.

Of all the improbable things about accused subway shooter Frank James’s last hours of freedom, the weirdest is how easy it is to imagine James still on the run, today, if he’d decided to do almost anything differently. Learning that he phoned in a tip on himself from a McDonald’s, and then that he eventually got tired of waiting there and left, was a sort of sublime punchline to the entire comic manhunt, in which New York City’s enormous and well-funded police department failed at basically every moment to stop or capture a dangerous criminal who literally told them where he was. Then, a few weeks later, another guy shot and killed a person on the Q. The shooter did so at what I’d consider, strategically, the worst time and place to kill someone on the Q: while it crossed the Manhattan Bridge, giving everyone on board both the time and ability to phone the police and have them ready to apprehend him the moment the train arrived in Manhattan. But when the train pulled into Manhattan, rest assured, the police were (according to one unconfirmed eyewitness) on the wrong platform. That shooter might still be on the lam, too, if he hadn’t turned himself in, an act the city authorities and a fame-seeking pastor with connections to the mayor apparently almost sabotaged.

In between those two shootings, and also before and after them, the NYPD busied itself with clearing homeless encampments. In the denouement to the subway shooting fiasco, the police arrested the panhandler into whose cup the second shooter deposited his gun, for illegal firearms possession. This is my thesis in action: It is difficult to prevent a random shooting. It is difficult to find a gunman. It is difficult to arrest an armed man. It is very easy to arrest an unhoused person.

Alexander Sammon just wrote a piece for the Prospect asking why the police are so bad at their jobs, based on their dismal “clearance” (arrests) rates and even more dismal conviction rates. The semi-glib leftist response is that they aren’t. They’re doing exactly what we pay them for. But even judged by their own cruel standards the police are extraordinarily lazy and incompetent. A study summarized by sociologist Brendan Beck in Slate earlier this year made a convincing case that more officers were associated mainly with more misdemeanor arrests. That is, the unimportant shit. It is nice to imagine that additional police spending will go to an army of Columbos solving the trickiest crimes. We are currently doing this experiment, with the real police, in real life, and it is proving that they are spending the money on throwing the belongings of homeless people into dumpsters.

It is easier to arrest a child for stealing chips than it is to apprehend an armed adult shooter. It is easier for several dozen police officers to arrest two unarmed people than it is for a cop to stop any single armed person. It is easier for hundreds of cops to kettle a largely unarmed left-wing protest than it is for an entire department to stop any armed right-wingers from entering a government building. It’s easier to clear homeless encampments than it is to investigate sexual assault. It’s easier to coerce confessions than it is to solve crimes. It’s easier to try to pull a guy over than it is to offer any sort of help when he crashes his car. It’s easier to arrest a mango vendor in the subway than to stop someone from bringing a gun into the subway. It’s easier to arrest a fifth grader than it is to save one’s life.

It is far easier to do “crowd control”—to restrain a panicking parent, perhaps—than it is to enter a room currently occupied by a psycho with a semiautomatic rifle.

#ACAB

[bronx-bomber87]

Holiday weekend gave me no time till now ha We hit our halfway point with the last review just realized. Exciting! ha S1 only has 20 eps. So we're making our way through S1 hehe. Appreciate you all reading and doing this journey with me truly. That being said lets move onto episode 11.

1x11- 'Redwood'

Gotta love Lucy. Little miss sunshine. Only one excited about their OT adventure for the VP. Everyone else sees discomfort and she sees an opportunity. Saying they deal with grumpy people all day anyways might as well get OT. She's amped to have the money to fix her a/c. Tim of course tells her it'll make her soft, she has to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Jackson asking if Tim is serious LOL Oh Jackson you have no idea how serious he is haha

Tim’s face right here. LOL I paused it for a second and it was this shot. If this isn’t them in a moment, especially if the early years. I don’t know what is heh. She’s all smiles and he’s a grumpy bear baha Judging her for all her positivity and sunshine she sends his way. god I love them so much.

They’re getting super loaded up for the day. Lucy all of a sudden looks so very overwhelmed. Tim closes the scene like only Tim can. ‘But hey least you’ll get to ride in comfort’ 😂 such a bristly bear but he’s her bristly bear haha

Tim and Lucy get called to clear out a homeless encampment. Lucy breaks up a fight and is thrown down. Tim notices the dirty needle minute she gets up. The instant worry on Lucy’s face is evident. When she sees that needle sticking out of her leg.... I can’t blame her I would be the same way. The panic and anxiety would consume me. Tim knows this about Lucy and instantly goes in protect/distract mode.

It’s just like in 1x09 when she was stressed about delivering the baby. What did Tim do? Distracted her with a Tim Test. He knows he has to channel her emotions into something else. If he doesn’t she’s going to spiral out of control. The soft but commanding way he talks to her is perfection. Going over step by step what to do in this situation. He can't control what happened but he can control how she reacts.

Trying to keep her even keel with procedure and a game plan. He’s so damn good at this with her. Reminds me of my leader at work. Knows exactly when I’m about to spiral And de-escalates the panic and worry. Tim knows he has to keep her calm before they can head to the hospital. Amazing to watch him instantly command that situation and protect her from herself. You can see the stress on his face when she walks away, but refuses to let her see that.

I do think that stress bleeds over to when they arrive. The way he is incensed at her being told to sit in the lobby. I saw a post one time said sunshine (being Lucy) and sunshine protector. Clearly that’s Tim. If this scene could be boiled down to one sentence. It would be this. He's protecting his sunshine right now. The way he basically eats the nurse alive for her. Phew lord. Protective Tim is a fav of mine. He’s already trying to keep her mentally calm and this delay will only make it worse. She’ll get inside her head and self destruct. Tim demands for her seen/tested ASAP. He's scared the nurse shitless so it happens.

This nurse sure as hell will never forget this procedure after this. Tim basically chewed him up and spit him back out. Poor Lucy is on the verge of a breakdown and Tim makes sure she’s taken care of. Him eating this nurse alive is his way of showing he cares. It's also the best way he can control this situation for Lucy. He’s so very right that she can’t just sit with civilians. She’s nearly in tears when they head to her room, but she knows Tim has her back. Its one less thing to worry about.

Tim comes back to her exam room to see her on her phone. She’s fallen down the Web-Md hole before he could stop her. He goes right back into protect mode, with a side helping of logical/tough love T.O. his usual M.O for Lucy. Especially when she is beyond the point of logic. I feel you Lucy I get the same way. Tim's purpose right now is to right her mental ship.

Her panic spiral is in full force at this point. Poor girl is a mess. The amount of scenarios she's running through is immense. Her panic/anxiety is ruling her. Luckily she has Tim with her. He meets each panic attack/scenario she's having with solid logic. Trying his best to deter her from worst case scenario thinking. Because at the moment that is where she is living. He's trying to shake her out of it.

He adds some tough love in there with his concern. Wouldn't be Tim if he didn't. Letting her know this was the job she signed up for regardless of the outcome. Sometimes it’s just what she needs to get back to reality. That perspective Tim gives her brings Lucy back to dry land emotionally. Giving her a chance to catch her breath. He knows she's drowning right now and he's throwing her an emotional life saver. The only way he knows how.

Then Tim does what he does best. Distracts her with work. Once he's gotten her to a more stable place, he makes a funny jab about her a/c. Trying to get her to smile/laugh. Cracks me up when he replies how he can’t fix all her problems in one day LOL Lucy laughs for the first time since this happened. Huge Victory for Tim. Massive growth for him as well to take the time to make her laugh. Show he cares about her. Its not just him calming down his trainee. He’s got this beautiful mixture of protecting her/empathy/tough love and touch of logic. Just the combo she needs to self regulate and reset.

Like I said earlier he’s so damn good at this with her. Knows exactly what to do in these moments. He only gets better the closer and longer they work together. It’s a thing of beauty to watch develop. In this moment specifically. Just letting her know it’s going to be ok, even if ultimately it won’t be and she gets infected. It will still be Ok. That is a wonderful thing to do for someone who’s in a heightened fight or flight mode. Tim does it masterfully for her.

That looks of relief on her face and that slight smile on his is amazing. He knows he's gotten her through this portion. Lucy is taking a deep breath for the first time since that needle stuck her. They're both in a much better place than when they got here.

I love what a BAMF work duo they are in this scene. Also doesn't hurt Lucy saying she needs Tim. Its not in the way we all are thinking haha but lovely to hear none the less. Honestly them just standing next to one another is a wonder to behold. They exude chemistry.

I do love how his eyes shift to her during it all. Checking in on her even without her knowing it. Constant protection mode this entire episode. Tim makes another joke about he can’t leave her alone for a minute hehe When we know he’s proud of her for catching this woman in first place. She took care of business and saved a man's life.

Ahhhh this scene. The first and probably most popular OTP Tag for them. ‘Doing my job’ Another crack in the wall that is Tim Bradford. The art is the crack growing. The artist Lucy Chen.

That slight smile he gives her before he takes off is everything. His last bit of comfort headed her way before he has to go. Such a huge moment for them. What I've always loved about Chenford and their slow burn is the small things. They add up to the incredible bond that is formed. This is one of those iconic moments for them as a ship. If you’re not paying attention you’ll miss it all together. To say I love them is an understatement baha it’s why I’m doing these reviews. To analyze them from beginning to end. They are a beautiful thing to watch unfold.

~~~~

Side notes. Non chenford

I do enjoy Jackson’s SL in this one a lot. I can relate to family drama and having that invade your work space. To have family ask a lot of you and want you to put something you wanna do on hold for them. It’s a huge burden Jackson had placed on him. He didn’t tell Lopez but told Lucy she needed one last distraction with Tim gone. e’s there when she gets the results she’s ok. Tells her he will call Tim for her. Jackson was always such a solid A+ friend to her.

That is it for ep 11. Woo! As usual feel free to like/comment I'll always reply to comments/reblog whatever your heart desires haha See you in 1x12

#Caitlin rewatches The Rookie #chenford #chenford hiatus #summer rewatch #waiting on s6 #s1 #1x11 Redwood #tim x lucy #tim bradford #lucy chen #lucy x tim #the rookie #otp: doing my job #eric winter #melissa o'neil #tim bradford x lucy chen

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The City of Vancouver and Vancouver Police Department spent a total of $548,000 to clear a homeless encampment on East Hastings Street in April — money critics say could have been spent on providing badly needed services for the city’s growing number of unhoused people. “You think of how many shelter beds could they have opened for that,” said Jean Swanson, a former city councillor who advocates for homeless people as a member of the Carnegie Housing Project. The Carnegie Housing Project recently released a list of nine recommendations it said were urgently needed as winter approaches, from increasing the number of shelter spots to opening more daytime drop-in spaces.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

#Vancouver #income inequality #Classism #homeless #cdnpoli #canadian politics #canada #canadian news #british columbia

[fatehbaz]

There are thousands of people homeless in Edmonton. About only one week ahead of the winter holidays in December 2023, the City of Edmonton pursued plans to sweep over 130 homeless encampments as part of a what has been described as a "shocking" eviction plan. But at the same time, in January 2024, the city was clearing camps amidst sustained deadly severe weather, during a polar vortex event with temperatures of -50 F/-46 C. Meanwhile, a court case presented by homeless advocates with Coalition for Justice and Human Rights was trying to slow brutal sweeps and evictions. But when a judge shut down the case in the middle of January 2024, it took the City of Edmonton just one single day to turn around and set up an "operations centre" to expand sweeps again, as the daytime high temperatures for the preceding week and over the next few days were sometimes as low as -25 F/-31 C. In less than two weeks after the lawsuit was scrapped, by the beginning of February 2024, the city had already cleared 49 encampments. (The city ostensibly has access to institutional and financial power as the Alberta provincial capital and a center of the province's massive fossil fuel industry, yet the city spends its effort on evictions.)

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[Quote.] Two weeks since a lawsuit challenging Edmonton's practice of dismantling homeless encampments was scrapped by a judge, nearly 50 encampments around the city have been torn down. A new emergency operations centre - set up by city administration one day after the suit was dismissed - is helping co-ordinate sweeps as evictions continue at an accelerated pace. The Emergency Operations Centre has overseen the removal of 49 encampments, the city said in a statement. About 211 structures were removed during the sweeps [...]. The encampment operations centre was established on Jan. 17, as Edmonton police promised to hasten tearing down encampments [...]. The day before, a judge ruled Coalition for Justice and Human Rights, a group that challenged the city's encampment policies, did not have legal standing in the case, putting an end to the high-profile legal challenge and, in turn, lifting restrictions on how the evictions could proceed. "The bottom line is they're doing this because that lawsuit longer exists," [A.N.], a lawyer for the group, said. "They feel emboldened.[...] And that means, from our perspective, they're continuing to breach the fundamental rights of the most vulnerable and marginalized within our city." [End quote.]

Text by: Wallis Snowdon. "49 homeless encampments dismantled in Edmonton since lawsuit scrapped". CBC News. 1 February 2024. [Bold emphasis added by me.]

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Screenshot of headline from 15 December 2023.

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Headline from 12 January 2024 (updated 15 January 2024).

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[Quote.] It feels like housing is at a tipping point in the city of Edmonton. There have been four main events highlighting the situation: [1] A case that was brought against the City of Edmonton by the Coalition for Justice and Human Rights about encampment sweeps; [2] Encampment sweeps perpetrated by the Edmonton police days before a forecasted deadly cold snap; [3] A decision by Edmonton City Council to declare a housing and homelessness emergency; [4] The Alberta government’s announcement that encampments will continue to be cleared out, while also arguing there’s sufficient shelter room. That contention has been refuted by advocates, shelter workers and the province’s official housing critic. [...]

The state of housing both in Canada and globally is worsening, but the housing crisis is not new. [...] Under Canada’s National Housing Strategy Act passed in 2019, the federal government affirmed the human right to housing. [...] This isn’t happening, apparently, when it comes to encampments, which are both a site of human rights violations and of human rights claims. The Coalition for Justice and Human Rights was denied legal standing by the judge in its case against Edmonton because he ruled it wasn’t the right group to represent the interests of people experiencing homelessness. While that means this particular case will not proceed, it garnered significant media attention and does not refute the claims by the coalition, only its standing. The coalition argued human rights were violated during encampment sweeps. It sought to maintain permanent restrictions on encampment evictions, and had been supported by many advocates in Edmonton, including those who submitted affidavits. [...]

[U]nhoused people [...] are disproportionately Indigenous [...]. When authorities make reference to “public safety” concerns about encampment, unhoused people are positioned as dangerous.

The destruction of those encampments simply drives people who are unhoused further to the margins. Sweeps do not end people’s experiences of homelessness; they move them out of public view. [...] Homelessness in Edmonton has resulted in increased amputations due to exposure to extreme cold, while encampment sweeps lead to the overburdening of a shelter system that is already inadequate and the denial of rest for people who are unhoused. [End quote.]

Text by: Katie MacDonald. "Encampment sweeps in Edmonton are yet another example of settler colonialism". The Conversation. 8 February 2024. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Image shows screenshot of article's headline.]

[reasoningdaily]

The District attorney dropped the charges due to an investigation into text messages of the police department…the DA felt that the officers who burned her body were targeted in the investigation despite the fact they were caught on video setting her afire.

The men were captured on security cameras borrowing a dolly from a 7-Eleven and pushing the dumpster four blocks to a paved trail, where witnesses from a nearby homeless encampment saw them allegedly pour lighter fluid into the dumpster and set Sharlman's body on fire, Eason said. Roughly a week later, after Sharlman's family reported the 25-year-old as missing, Eason said authorities confirmed her death.

The sister of a woman whose torched body was discovered in a dumpster last year slammed Northern California prosecutors after they dropped charges against two men accused in her death, citing the case’s link to racist and derogatory text messages that have shaken a local police department.

Nicole Eason told NBC News that the messages — which were released earlier this year after a joint investigation into the Antioch Police Department by the FBI and the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office — should have had no effect on the prosecution of Ashton Montalvo and Deangelo Boone.

Eason called the decision to drop the charges “unacceptable” and said that prosecutors should “recant and scrutinize" evidence that she described as insurmountable, including security video and eyewitness testimony.

“We’re getting ready to lawyer up” Eason said. “We’re getting ready to fight.”

A spokesman for the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office declined to comment. In a statement Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office "extended its deepest sympathies" to Sharlman's family and said it would seek to renew the prosecution if possible.

The spokesman, Ted Asregadoo, said in an earlier email that prosecutors are "hopeful APD can pursue other investigative avenues and bring our office more evidence to review for a charging decision."

The statement said the prosecutor's office dropped the charges because the case relied heavily on the investigative work of officers associated with the text messages.

"After thoroughly reviewing the officers’ role in this case, applying relevant legal principles, and considering ethical responsibilities, the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office no longer has confidence in the integrity of this prosecution," the statement said.

The officers were not identified, and it isn't clear which messages they sent or received.

An Antioch Police Department spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment, nor did a lawyer for the local police union.Homophobic slurs, racist images

The messages, from 2020 and 2021, were sent and received by dozens of officers and include homophobic slurs, racist images and the casual discussion of using “less lethal” weapons on people, including the city’s mayor, who is Black, according to an investigative report compiled by the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office.

California's Attorney General opened an investigation last month to determine if the police department engaged in a pattern and practice of unconstitutional policing.

Asregadoo said Wednesday's announcement marked the first time the prosecutor's office has dropped a felony case linked to the messages.Overdose death

Eason described her younger sister as the "life of the party" — someone who loved praise dancing at church and dreamed of opening a salon. She fell in with friends who were into drugs and began experimenting, Eason said.

The medical examiner determined that Sharlman died of a fentanyl overdose, said Eason, noting that her family had attended all of the court dates in her sister's death, including the preliminary hearing, where a judge determines if prosecutors have sufficient evidence to make a defendant stand trial.

Eason said that during court testimony Montalvo and Boone were accused of dumping her sister's body in a dumpster they grabbed from a nearby building after she overdose at an abandoned apartment in Antioch, a city of roughly 114,000 northeast of San Francisco.

The men were captured on security cameras borrowing a dolly from a 7-Eleven and pushing the dumpster four blocks to a paved trail, where witnesses from a nearby homeless encampment saw them allegedly pour lighter fluid into the dumpster and set Sharlman's body on fire, Eason said.

Roughly a week later, after Sharlman's family reported the 25-year-old as missing, Eason said authorities confirmed her death. Eason compared the events to labor pains.

"I didn't have the joy of getting the baby out," she said. "We got death instead."

Lawyers for Montalvo and Boone did not respond to requests for comment.

The family found some solace in learning of Sharlman's cause of death, Eason said. She died before her body was torched, Eason said. The family was further heartened by the department's handling of the case, which Eason described as "nothing short of amazing," and by the arrests that followed.

"For us to have suspects in custody was exceptional," she said. "It was a win, and it doesn't always happen like that. Although they're under scrutiny now, they did their due diligence before they detained these two men."

Eason added that her family was "devastated" to learn that a detective involved in the case was linked to the text messages.

"However, this scandal came out after my sister's death," Eason said. "It shouldn't have had any bearing on the evidence."

Tim Stelloh

Tim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.

#Family of woman found in dumpster is 'ready to fight' after charges dropped because of police department's racist texts #northern california #Black Lives Matter #Black and Murdered for being Black #fentanyl #mykaella sharlman #race soldiers

[gsirvitor]

I dunno, man. I'm hesitant to call "push the druggies and homeless out of the area" as "fixing the issue." Twice as much, if the moment Winnie the Pooh leaves, they open the gates for those druggies and homeless to return.

They were able to clear homeless encampments off of the main streets, cleaned up the used needles and human shit, suppressed the open criminal element, and got rid of graffiti.

It's not a fix, it's proof they have the capability to address the issues with their city, yet refuse to do so, doesn't matter if they will let it run into the ground a week after Xi leaves, this is evidence that the government of California isn't incompetent, they're malicious, they want their citizens to live in conditions that have created a surge in medieval diseases.