{"id":3852,"date":"2017-01-11T11:59:41","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T19:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=3852"},"modified":"2017-01-11T12:17:50","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T20:17:50","slug":"op-ed-shooters-stabbers-carjackers-tent-occupants-one-things-not-like-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/01\/11\/op-ed-shooters-stabbers-carjackers-tent-occupants-one-things-not-like-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Berkeleyside Op-ed: Shooters, stabbers, carjackers and tent occupants \u2013 one of these things is not like the others"},"content":{"rendered":"

Berkeley police should be spending their time chasing murderers and carjackers, not evicting people from the tents they use for shelter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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January 9, 2017<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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By JP Massar<\/p>\n

JP Massar is a Berkeley activist working on issues around homelessness, privacy and unjust debt.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What\u2019s wrong with this picture?<\/p>\n

From headlines in local papers recently:<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung woman stabbed; police search for suspect.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPolice hunt for armed and dangerous Berkeley suspect after homicide, stabbing<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBerkeley police release video of armed bank robbery.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMen, girl arrested after carjacking attempt and robbery<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChild hurt by shattered glass after Berkeley shooting<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

From eyewitness accounts Friday morning, 1\/6\/17:<\/p>\n

\u201c5 AM Jan 6 \u2013 Berkeley Police raiding First They Came for the Homeless camp now at Spruce and Rose. 34 BPD officers, 8 City workers, 13 City squad cars, 1 paddy wagon, and 4 Public Works trucks \u2013 all to evict 8 disabled, unsheltered tent occupiers.\u201d
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

And from the East Bay Times 1\/7\/17:<\/p>\n

City spokesman Matthai Chakko said Friday that \u201cit takes a tremendous amount of resources\u201d to disperse a camp.
\n<\/em>
\nThere are things police should be doing. Arresting carjackers, searching for armed and dangerous suspected murderers and dealing with armed robbery suspects are three of them. Figuring out how to prevent or minimize such incidents is another. What the City of Berkeley\u2019s police should not be doing is evicting homeless people \u2013 especially at 5:00 AM using large-scale operations that take \u2018a tremendous amount of\u2019 resources.<\/p>\n

The Berkeley City Manager has lost all sense of proportion here. An autocrat who is not subject to accountability by the people or their elected representatives, she has seen fit to launch 15 raids against a single group of politically active homeless people. On the day before meteorologists predicted one of the worst rainstorms in memory she decided it was a good idea to evict and harass this same group, along with at least one other set of homeless individuals, confiscating possessions. All while on our streets we end up with victims of stabbings and children threatened by gunshots.<\/p>\n

The end result of all this expenditure of time and effort? There are still as many homeless residents in Berkeley as there were before the raids, if not more. There is still no housing for them. The City is now potentially liable for civil lawsuit damages arising from these raids, just as happened with the Black Lives Matter protest two years ago. Berkeley is now the proud owner of yet another set of actions intended to squash dissent and political speech; actions that have operated in total disproportion to any conceivable threat.\u00a0 And who knows how many crimes that could have been prevented with a\u00a0sensible deployment of resources.<\/p>\n

When 900 people sleep in doorways and bushes around town, mostly out of sight and out of mind, no one cares to care. But let a group be \u201cin your face\u201d about the situation of the unhoused \u2013 suddenly outrage is the order of the day and the engines of oppression rev into overdrive. Just days ago 34Berkeley Police were marshaled (more than half of an entire shift!) to demonstrate once again that the City will brook no opposition. Similar \u201cshock and awe\u201d displays have taken place previously. The City sends the only message it wishes to send \u2013 go to a shelter and hope that there is space, be grateful if we don\u2019t arrest you (and if we do we\u2019ll charge you with \u201clynching\u201d), otherwise sit down and shut (tf) up.<\/p>\n

Berkeley could do it differently. Berkeley\u2019s homeless are not nails and Berkeley has other tools than hammers. First They Came for the Homeless has ideas on that here: http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/jmqp4kj<\/a>. Please check them out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Berkeley police should be spending their time chasing murderers and carjackers, not evicting people from the tents they use for shelter. January 9, 2017 By JP Massar JP Massar is a Berkeley activist working on issues around homelessness, privacy and unjust debt. What\u2019s wrong with this picture? From headlines in… 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\/3852"}],"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=3852"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3860,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions\/3860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}