In the photo above, taken about 7:30am the morning of August 18, 2009, we see a 72 year old man that's been awakened by a Berkeley Police officer and has been sitting in his sleeping bag for a good half hour or so while the officer uses a device to measure the area occupied and actually awaited arrival of a "Crime Scene Unit" so that another officer could bring their digital camera and take pictures.
THEN the first officer gives him a citation ticket for being there. These tickets can mean a fine of over $200, which is more than for entire vehicle parking infractions or even some traffic violations, including those that might pose even dangerous safety risks. Huh?
Does this seem out of scale, at all? Overkill? A good, appropriate or cost-effective use of city budget, police, civic resources?
HOW might this "solve the problem"... and just what IS "the problem"? Did ANYone actually complain about this old guy sleeping there, or is this yet another in a program of basic harassing actions by the cops and the city, on their own initiative?
I mean, really. It's an old man. A homeless old man. One that was sleeping and obviously has tidily arranged his meagre collection of belongings, which have only been temporarily located at that spot and which he'd move once he awoke and got going.
This police action followed a growing number of similar ones in recent times, where homeless folks were disturbed and either made to leave and/or cited. Tellingly, the police deliberately do so either late at night or early in the morning, apparently purposely awakening people and harassing them at the most inconvenient and difficult times. And then only made to go... where else?
Worse, last week like many times before, homeless people not only get chased away and/or cited, but their minimal possessions are taken. Just thrown away. This has included their bedding, clothing, etc. leaving them all the more destitute and trapped on the streets empty handed... where they continue to be at risk for just more of this same callous, heartless harassment... to WHAT possible good end?
Late one night not long before this photo was taken, several cops and cruisers had arrived at a location where a number of people had been sleeping to drive everyone away and I had approached two officers on foot that were walking about waking people up to chase them away. I asked them directly and outright where people COULD go and be peaceably, instead. All they could and did tell me was that it was not there. Nor the next block, nor the next.
One officer said: "If you tuck yourself away somewhere else and there's no noise or problem, then I probably will have no reason to bother with you." Somewhere... else. "Tucked away". Probably.
Berkeley applies for, and receives, millions of dollars in various federal/state/etc. funding "to help the homeless". Here's how considerable city funds are actually being spent, for example.
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