Sleep without Drowning

[Indigo Blue]

Sleep without Drowning

The Mayor is water-hosing human beings in the most recent example of "cleaning up"

Bruce Allison/PNN Elder and Poverty Scholar
Saturday, October 18, 2008;

The increased criminalization of poor folk in San Francisco and across the nation is alarming. San Francisco has called for and will be implementing a community court in the Tenderloin at the behest of Mayor Newsom. There are reports of citizens, poor folk, houseless folks--ie, human beings being hosed by high power water hoses by DPW (Department of Public Works) trucks performing the noble job of cleaning the sidewalk. Hygenic metaphors such as dirt, blight, and "cleaning up the neighborhood" when referring to poor and houseless folks are dangerous because they ultimately cease to be just metaphors--they manifest into brutal attitudes that say that incarceration is the answer.

DPW has been driving down the streets with water canons, hosing people without warning. Those being hosed are elders, undocumented people, and people whose work is unrecognized--such as recyclers and street sheet vendors who can't afford a home. This is a direct result of limited beds due to Newsom's Care Not Cash policy. I personally talked to a DPW worker who said of the hosees, "These are just crackheads".

The Coalition on Homelessness plans to expose this ridiculous scenario to the public. They have cameras and are collecting more information. For the safety of the coalition, I cannot disclose the location of the cameras.

Using water hoses on human beings will cost the city money in medical costs as a direct result of illness such as pneumonia brought on by being hosed. This is not helping the city's economy--it's actually hurting the reputation of San Francisco. The city and DPW should be ashamed of their gestapo tactics-- hurting people whose only crime is not having any money in their pockets.

Mayor Newsom, I am tired of you using these cruel tactics on people who cannot fight back. And to the Chief of Police, you should be ashamed of yourself. You are hurting innocent people who are just trying to get a little rest.

http://www.poormagazine.org/index.cfm?L1=news&story=2096&pg=1

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 25

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

[Stardust]

1. Sad beyond words. Even crackheads (and they probably aren't) deserve dignified treatment.

[ColbertWatcher]

5. Everyone deserves dignified treatment.

Just because someone else is an asshole, doesn't make me one.

[cui bono]

10. No, you have your own reasons to be one.

Totally kidding! :hi:

[ColbertWatcher]

12. LOL! n/t

[Indenturedebtor]

13. You're wrong.

Anyone who supports this sort of thing deserves to be treated n a most undignified manner :grr:

[Robbien]

2. God dammit all to hell

What makes people think it is okay to harass people who are already have more than enough problems. What happened to treating people with respect.

This is not the world I signed up for.

[rebel with a cause]

3. Yeah they should put them all on mass transit and

send them back to NYC. :sarcasm:

This refers to when gullianini cleaned up NYC, he shipped the homeless to other cities. Miami had the most sent to them, but then they complained and California cities got a lot. The warm climate, you see.

[babylonsister]

4. San Fran, that liberal mecca? This really stinks. This would suck anywhere.

Sadly, SF isn't probably the only place this is going on.

Thanks for the exposure.

[petronius]

6. That's got to constitute an assault

Even if someone is illegally sleeping on the sidewalk (setting aside the question of whether such things should be illegal and what options the sleepers have), the appropriate response is for a police officer to respond. Having city employees from non-law-enforcement agencies attack people with water cannons is completely unacceptable and clearly criminal.

I'm sure the city will pretend that the street cleaners are merely doing a normal sanitary task and any dousings are unintended - an argument that will fall to pieces as soon as one of these hosers avoids spraying a 'good' citizen...

[Richard Steele]

7. Damn right it is. This is gonna cost the city for some fat lawsuits.

And rightly so. It's premeditated criminal assault & battery.

Anyone who would do such a thing is unfit to be a
member of society, IMO.

[tblue]

8. Do homeless people have NO rights?!

WTF is wrong with this country?

[roody]

18. It's obviously time for some socialism.

[Duer 157099]

9. This is the kind of shit that needs to be mentioned whenever

anyone brings up "socialism"!! We don't live in a world where people can just go live in the wild anymore, the very same people who dispise "socialism" are the same ones who dispise homeless people living on the streets! Jesus, if you're going to have a "society" where people are not allowed to live just anywhere, then goddammit, you're going to pay for that -- ie, socialism. Otherwise, stfu about homeless people living on the streets.

[lostnfound]

11. "Poor Magazine" -- thanks for bringing it to our attention.

I just popped online and made a donation, thanks to your link.
What a gaping hole to fill -- and a contrast to the thick monthly glossies with ads for million dollar homes or diamond necklaces, and fluffy content about urban socialites, that are distributed for free in the wealthy neighborhoods.

[KharmaTrain]

14. The Silent Homeless

Several months ago, my wife and I assisted at a local shelter...and what we saw nearly ate us alive. Here were families that had lost their homes...no places to live and having to spend the night in church basements...moving from shelter to shelter every night and attempting to maintain a life. One of the women I talked to had lost her condo and she and her two children were forced out with no place to go...during the day she still took her kids to their old school and then went off to work...and at night it was off to another shelter. With the way things have gotten, I can't imagine her life has improved much.

[bertman]

15. This may be an example of a terrible situation where public workers are caught between

the proverbial rock and a hard place. These folks are given the job of cleaning the streets and sidewalks. That's very difficult to do when people are camped out on them or sleeping on benches or congregating where you have to clean. This stuff usually happens in the early morning or very late night when the daytime traffic is lightest. It has to be almost impossible to get people who are tired or sleeping or drugged out to get up and out of the way so the cleaning crews can do their jobs

Just the other afternoon I was working late and left my office to get a newspaper. As I walked past the storefront next to our office I noticed a man standing, facing the wall, in the partly obstructed front area of that store. On my way back I verified my suspicions: he was taking a piss. The urine was all over the stoop of the storefront where people who are waiting for the bus often sit, and it was running down the step and onto the sidewalk. This is in a busy, main street area of downtown.

So, multiply this by many more people who are making their temporary homes on the street. With no toilets available in the wee hours of the morning and with some people who are surely mentally incapacitated to the point that they don't know or care what they are doing, the sanitary issues could quickly become overwhelming.

I'm not saying that city workers should hose people down. I'm saying that there may be more here than meets the eye. It would be good to hear from those city workers and administrators who are involved in this before we automatically assume that the city workers are doing something heinous.

[Laelth]

17. I appreciate your sympathy for the sanitation crews who must keep the city clean.

But I say these people should have places to sleep ... shelter of some kind ... tiny apartments ... something. We should not tolerate homelessness.

The United States is a LIBERAL Country.

:dem:

-Laelth

[bertman]

25. I AGREE 100%. It's a disgrace that we have not done more to address that issue.

[hamsterjill]

28. I couldn't agree more!

It is ridiculous that anyone has to be homeless in a country with as much abundance as this one.

Simple common sense.

[awoke_in_2003]

23. "public workers are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place"

[EmeraldCityGrl]

29. Where would you suggest he take a piss?

Possibly in one of the fine dining or retail establishments in the area?

Gentrification is alive and well in SF.

[Laelth]

16. That's very sad. We should all be ashamed. n/t

The United States is a LIBERAL Country.

:dem:

-Laelth

[wildflower]

19. This is "Care Not Cash"?

[frog92969]

20. I would blame Nancy...

but she said they should be arrested, not drowned.

[renate]

24. she said they should be arrested?

For being homeless?

I don't understand this merciless attitude that cities have towards the homeless. They are human beings and they have to sleep somewhere--they can't just teleport themselves to Homeless Planet at night so they'll be out of the way.

[snake in the grass]

21. How is this possible in San Francisco?

[Jed Dilligan]

22. Typical Newsom behavior. "Care not Cash" has always been

a euphemism for round 'em up and ship 'em out, and if that doesn't work, beat on them until they leave to get away from you.

[raccoon]

26. Wish it wasn't too late to rec this. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

27. I worked in the "Skid Row" of SF for 6 years.

This is what I can tell you
San Francisco is 7 miles by 7 miles. .There are about 75000 people living in a 49 square mile area,
plus thousands more who commute in to work.
I was a social worker, I evaluated street people for treatment. So our offices were naturally in the "Tenderloin " area. I also had satellite offices in other parts of the city.

SF has public toilets in several places in the downtown Tenderloin. Costs a quarter to get the door open.
maybe 50 cents.
The facility is a large round steel and plastic container, about 20 feet in height.
Inside is room for a steel toilet, small steel washbasin, towel dispenser. One person can fit in there, 2 is really crowded.
Theoretically you use the facility, flush, wash, and leave, the door locks behind you.

Every single one of those bathrooms was littered with needles, toilet bowl is overflowing, un-flushed,
feces and urine on the floors, no matter how often the street crew came in and hosed them down.
They are used as bedrooms at night, as a place to turn tricks, as a shooting gallery for junkies.
Meanwhile, a river of urine, beer, and other body wastes are in the streets, doorways, even the subway cars 24/7. The sidewalks are sticky.
Day or night, most of SF smells like an open sewer.
I had to use Vicks in my nose every day, and shower and change clothes when I came home.
Then wash down the tires of my car.
Drugs are sold and used openly on the street. Used needles litter the sidewalks.
There are 2 elementary schools in the middle of this area. The little kids walk past people selling,using drugs and even having sex in doorways.
The same smells and problems can be found in every area of SF. There are many public parks of varying sizes, all are used by homeless people.

One of the reason the hard-core homeless avoid shelters is because of the no drug or alcohol use rule in them. Same for the SRO ( single residency only) hotels, most of which are pretty rundown.
Until Newsom changed the law, anyone declaring themselves to be homeless could get a monthly 300.00 check.
Hundreds of people would come to the city from other nearby cities on the first of every month to get checks, then they would hop on the subway and go back to their city. Oakland is just 15 minutes away by subway.

Panhandling occurs at stop signs, street corners, almost everywhere.
In interestingly, I never saw any aggressive panhandling.
The Haight Ashbury district has a lot of teens sitting on the sidewalks begging money.
Heroin use is very high. Free clinics are available and used a lot.
The city was, and I think still is, very conscious of HIV issues, does provide a lot of free medical care.
Many agencies and churches provide food, sleeping areas, clothing, etc.

I dunno the answer. I do know there were a lot of people like me getting paid to do some fashion of service to a large homeless population. I do know there are many types of homeless people.
I am really surprised that there has not been a mass outbreak of disease linked to incredible amount of body waste that covers the streets and sidewalks. I had to take preventive Hep B. vaccines, .
And I know that every day when I drove into the city, I could smell it before I got even close to where I worked.