Cleansing Homeless From Telegraph Ave Berkeley in Progress
Last edited Tue Feb 10, 2015, 01:55 PM - Edit history (2)
Today I had an appointment up on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. Before the appointment I noticed something was wrong with the street. Suddenly I realized the clumps of homeless people were missing! Ever since I have lived in Berkeley, homeless youth have gathered on Telegraph Avenue. Whether the merchant middle class likes it or not, this is part of Berkeley's culture and historical legacy. The merchants benefit from the tourism that legacy brings - they should also have some tolerance for the genuine "hippies".
I asked a barista how the streets had been cleansed, but she claimed ignorance even though the homeless teens normally park on the wide sidewalk in front of that cafe. I thought the Berkeley "Ambassador" Green Shirts might have been illegally rousting people for sitting on the sidewalk. This is an ersatz enforcement force run by the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. I've seen them acting as law enforcement in the Downtown Area, telling people they have to move along from sitting on the sidewalk even though Berkeley voters rejected this discriminatory, poverty-hiding law a couple of years ago.
After my appointment, the streets were just as bereft of homeless youth. However, I noticed sporadic clumps of police cars and patrolling officers. I asked an officer where the homeless people were. His partner made some crack about drug sellers making themselves scarce and then slouched off. I talked at length with the friendly officer. He confirmed that the Green Shirts should not be enforcing any laws, much less the non-existing Measure S (Sidewalk Sit/Lie Law). The officer claimed that neither the Green Shirts nor the police force had actively rousted the homeless youth. He said his boss had ordered police to patrol Telegraph Avenue and just the presence of police could have been discouraging people.
After I talked to the police officer, I walked several blocks until I spotted a group of homeless youth huddled against a power box up on a side street. I got a different story from them. They said the police had been patrolling Telegraph for a couple of weeks (start of February). I will look up protest schedules/locations when I get home, but I don't think this is about protecting businesses from protest-triggered vandalism. I suspect this is about "disappearing" the homeless in the wake of strong criticism of Berkeley's political establishment.
The homeless people told me they were actively shoved off their spots with threats and ISSUED TICKETS. One woman had swapped her shopping cart for a baby carriage since the threat of charging her for "stolen property" gad been levied. The ticketing was for smoking (unclear if this meant weed - there are laws about smoking cigarettes in certain public spaces in Berkeley) or "trespassing" for standing under the awning of a store.
These tickets are no joke for people without a direct cash income. One guy quoted his at $281. The kids told me about drawing frowny faces on their tickets or rolling them up and smoking them(!) This made me chuckle, but the sad thing is those unpaid tickets will get them into further legal trouble and make it harder for them to dig their way out of their situation.
They also told me how the police hauled off people to mental wards for a few days (friends just "vanished"
- but this didn't result in people getting into any sort of stable housing or support situation. After a couple of days of "crisis" treatment, people were being released back onto the (stressful) life of the street again.
There is a cynical political strategy at work here: "out of sight, out of mind." As soon as these kids are off of Telegraph Avenue, the homelessness problem - and the larger gentrification/displacement problem - will no longer be Top of Mind for the hoi polloi in Berkeley. They will go back to debating the merits of "slow food" and competing to curate matters of "Global Importance" in between opining on transcendent matters of Techno-Futurism. If people can avoid thinking about something as unpleasant as Alameda County's total failure to provide a decent Social Services safety net, they will! The only way a "social conversation" starts on the hard topics is if the aggrieved party starts that conversation and refuses to let the topic go until something is done about it.
This is the purpose that the homeless youth on Telegraph Avenue have served all these year: VISIBILITY of the issue. THIS is a purpose of National if not Global Importance. Is Berkeley's political establishment going to get away with using the police to "implement Measure S by other means" and further deliver Berkeley to the interests of the 1% without anyone even noticing what they did?
ps. Please pass the text of this post on to any interested policy groups.
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