Homeless Grandmother Arrested 59 Times for Sitting on Sidewalk

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/homeless-grandmother-arrested-59-times-sitting-sidewalk



Here's an interesting use of public resources: as part of a decade-long effort to "clean up" Skid Row in Los Angeles (i.e. run the homeless out of the area to ease development), the city of LA has spent at least a quarter of a million dollars arresting, prosecuting and jailing just one homeless woman, 59-year-old Ann Moody, mostly for sitting on a public sidewalk.

Moody has been arrested 59 times in six years, reports the Los Angeles Times. She's spent 15 months in jail since 2002. As the article points out, Moody has been arrested more than any other person in the entire city of Los Angeles.

The 59-year-old grandmother earned that distinction by flouting part of the municipal code that restricts sleeping, lying or sitting on a public sidewalk between 9pm and 6am, although she's also been bagged for selling cigarettes. She explained her bad behavior to the Times: "We're human beings, not to be pushed around like cattle," she said. "We have a right to be stationary."

Police and local business leaders disagree with Moody's interpretation of her human rights. Emails between members of a business association and LAPD officials refer to efforts to roust her as "Operation Bad Moody." In the emails they pat each other on the back for sending her to jail and seem to delight in the fines she racks up. There's even a hilarious joke about an Ann Moody Halloween costume. Police officials detail their Moody-fighting strategies, like tracking her to make sure she's in exact compliance with a court order that she stay 200 yards from a particular street.

[Recursion]

1. I've only been arrested three times for sitting on a sidewalk

(I actually do have a point here; bear with me.) All three times I was doing a sit in about DC's lack of Congressional representation.

As a bourgeois white guy, I can choose to get arrested for sitting on the sidewalk for a cause, in which case it usually makes the Post and nearly always the Citypaper, rather than alternet, or I can choose not to get arrested when I sit on the sidewalk. That power is in my hands. When people are curious what privilege is, I wish I could point them to this...

[Heidi]

3. !

When people are curious what privilege is, I wish I could point them to this...

[deafskeptic]

7. What if you had no home. Where would you go? n/t

[KG]

2. yay cops!

[pinboy3niner]

4. Crime-fighting is such a thankless task

It's about time the LAPD was recognized for its tireless work to remove the most dangerous criminals from our streets.

[Helen Borg]

5. It's about minimizing wear and tear of sidewalks!

[liberal N proud]

6. Meanwhile around the corner...

A woman is getting raped or a teen is getting gunned down in gang violence.

What would a quarter of a million dollars done to help the homeless? Things are all backward in this country, just backward. When someone tells you we are a Christian Nation, point them to these actions arresting and prosecuting homeless people!

[Generic Other]

8. How do we at DU find a way to help this woman?

It makes me livid to hear of how she is being treated. The LAPD needs to be sued on her behalf for violating her civil rights.

[red dog 1]

9. + 1

[red dog 1]

10. It doesn't surprise me that this is a direct result of former-LA Police Chief Wm. Bratton

who is now back in charge of the NYPD, (under a Democratic Mayor)

I would like to see a list of the businesses in LA who are the ones responsible for this poor woman's 59 arrests, so that some kind of a boycott could be organized.

Also, I'd like to know which LAPD officials are sending the congratulatory e-mails to the business owners who are laughing at this lady's horrible situation