{"id":11987,"date":"2019-05-25T11:23:11","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T18:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=11987"},"modified":"2019-05-25T11:23:13","modified_gmt":"2019-05-25T18:23:13","slug":"jury-finds-berkeley-did-not-violate-a-homeless-groups-civil-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2019\/05\/25\/jury-finds-berkeley-did-not-violate-a-homeless-groups-civil-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury finds Berkeley did not violate a homeless group\u2019s civil rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0Natalie Orenstein<\/a> May 24, 2019<\/a> (berkeleyside.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
One of the \u201cFirst They Came for the Homeless\u201d encampments, before it was removed by the city. Photo: Natalie Orenstein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The city of Berkeley\u2019s repeated removal of a homeless group\u2019s encampment was not unconstitutional, a jury found Friday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week-long trial in federal court<\/a> examined whether Berkeley targeted the First They Came for the Homeless<\/a> group for protesting, and whether the city owed three men damages for taking and losing their tents, wheelchair tools and clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After deliberating for a few hours, the jury told Judge William Alsup that the city did not single out the homeless group or unfairly take their belongings without giving them notice.Read more about this week\u2019s trial<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re certainly pleased,\u201d said City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley outside the courtroom after the verdict was delivered. \u201cIt\u2019s a victory for the city, of course, but it\u2019s not a victory for everyone. We deeply care about our homeless community.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the trial, civil rights lawyers from the firm Siegel, Yee, Brunner & Mehta tried to demonstrate that city leaders and police were well aware of the First They Came for the Homeless group\u2019s vocal criticism of the city. They said other, more unruly, encampments were left untouched while Berkeley cleared out the camp in question eight times in a three-month period in 2016 and 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawyer EmilyRose Johns told Berkeleyside she was \u201cdisappointed\u201d by the verdict, and said testimony from a witness who was unable to show up could have made a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat might not have come out is that the city can\u2019t demonstrate they removed any other encampment during that period,\u201d Johns said. While the jury was on a break during the third day of the trial, city lawyers said records of the removal notices allegedly given to the encampments throughout the city were destroyed when the employee who kept them retired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the case, Deputy City Attorney Lynne Bourgault had police testify that they didn\u2019t care about homeless group\u2019s protests and had addressed others camps throughout Berkeley. First They Came for the Homeless was not removed because its members were politically active, Bourgault said, but instead because of health and safety issues connected to the encampments, which were typically established in highly public areas or on medians. She repeatedly mentioned instances where feces were smeared on a city office door and pro-suicide messages were written on sidewalks outside Berkeley High, both occurring when the camp was set up in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jurors also rejected claims that Berkeley violated the three plaintiffs\u2019 \u2013 Adam Bredenberg, Benjamin Royer and Clark Sullivan \u2013 14th Amendment rights. The 14th Amendment prohibits the seizure of property without due process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plaintiffs testified that they didn\u2019t know how to retrieve the belongings taken from them during the camp removals, couldn\u2019t make it to the city\u2019s storage facility in their wheelchairs, or arrived there to find their items soaking wet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
The city recently posted notices warning that objects left on sidewalks are in violation of new rules. Photo: Natalie Orenstein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Friday following the verdict, Johns said outside the court that the notices posted at the First They Came for the Homeless camp during the period in question did not have information on where to retrieve stored items.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johns said the city\u2019s attitude was: \u201cYou, disabled homeless person, make all of the effort to find out this information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the trial, the city argued that staff readily shared information about the storage facility, and supporters of the encampment showed up often to collect items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the verdict was announced, a distressed Royer told reporters he would immediately pack up all his belongings and bring them to his personal storage space today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Royer, who has severe sciatica and bipolar disorder, said he lost his wheelchair repair tools, a therapy object, and a sleeping bag during encampment removals. He is still living at the current site of First They Came for the Homeless, near Adeline Street and Alcatraz Avenue, and said he fears retribution from the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to get hit hard,\u201d said Royer. \u201cThe only thing that\u2019s stopped the city is this case. Since we\u2019ve lost now, there\u2019s no reason for them to hold back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams-Ridley told reporters the city would \u201cstay consistent\u201d in its approach to homeless services and enforcement of the law.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are rules and regulations that we have to abide by,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city has begun enforcing a new policy limiting the amount of space<\/a> objects can take up on the sidewalk and banning tents between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can put up your tent at 10:01,\u201d said Williams-Ridley. \u201cBut pack it up so we can share our streets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday\u2019s verdict concludes a case first filed in October 2017\u00a0against both Berkeley and BART<\/a>\u00a0alleging Eighth and Fourth Amendment violations as well. Johns said it is too early to say whether the firm will appeal the verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note from Mike Zint of First They Came for the Homeless:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We lost. 0-3. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Housed judging homeless. I tried to explain that housed will not understand. And they did not get to hear the actual truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s next? This case gets looked at, that’s what. There are many, many questions about how this case went from our filing a TRO ourselves, to having the only people represented as the plaintiffs to be the names on the tro. Many, many questions that will be answered. See, I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know. But I’m the cofounder, organizer, and the only person that has participated from beginning to end in every protest. And I was not represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Natalie Orenstein May 24, 2019 (berkeleyside.com) The city of Berkeley\u2019s repeated removal of a homeless group\u2019s encampment was not unconstitutional, a jury found Friday morning. A week-long trial in federal court examined whether Berkeley targeted the First They Came for the Homeless group for protesting, and whether the city owed three men damages for… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11987"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11988,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11987\/revisions\/11988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}