Chalkers and Food Sharers Beware, Chalker Arrested

This is my small effort at humor, folks.

Chalkers and Food Sharers beware. Police are now indoctrinating and recruiting children in children's parks to be informants.



On a serious note, on May 23, 2006 at approximately 2:30 pm, Food Not Bombs supporter Joe Sacco was arrested for chalking with non-permanent, washable chalk on city park cement. He was approached by, tackled by, and arrested by Marshal R. McMenamy.

This marshal is the same marshal who told Joe (on Feb. 22, 2006) that protest signs were not allowed in the public park. Using the marshal's loudspeaker system of his patrol car, he told Joe, "No signs in the park. Take the sign out of the park." Thankfully when the marshal's superior arrived, McMenamy was reminded of Joe's free speech rights.

http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2006/03/02/local_news/shrapnel/shrapnel.txt

This marshal was visibly ticked off about being told about Joe's free speech rights- twitching his head and shoulder. (Witnesses are available.) Then the marshal tried to change his story saying that Joe was impeding pedestrian traffic- which was untrue. Joe was in the city park and not near any sidewalks with pedestrians.

On another occasion, this same marshal told me that he loves his job, and loves what he's doing when asked if he thought it was wrong for the city to prevent people from sharing food with the homeless and hungry.

Regarding how the marshals change their story, Joe was arrested for grafitti AND providing false information to a law enforcement officer according to the information I received when I called the jail on Wednesday morning. When in fact, the only thing Joe said to the marshals was, "I have the right to remain silent. I want to speak to my attorney".

Joe did not have any identification on his person and refused to identify himself. This is NOT the same thing as providing false information to a law enforcement officer.

Now, I really don't know WHAT Joe was actually charged with because the court told my lawyer that Joe pled no contest to grafitti and impeding an investigation. However, on Joe's release paper it states the charges as grafitti and obstructing a police officer.

Reminds me of when Norm "flipped off" the marshals and was tackled by an undercover officer in the MIDDLE of Circle Park. He was arrested for "misuse of a hand signal" and spent five days in jail. On his release paper it states the charge of jaywalking.

Is this the type of law enforcement we want and need here in Las Vegas?

Does this concern anyone but me?



We Just Want To Eat



Food is a Right, Not a Privilege



Food Not Bombs

Interesting Poll re: Homeless Families

Interesting Poll
by Mom Friday May 26, 2006 at 12:50 AM

Here's an interesting poll.

And then, go figure, the City of Las Vegas kicks out Family Promise who has been successfully helping homeless families in a residential neighborhood for the past TEN years. All because they (God forbid) have an office and the neighborhood is not zoned for offices.

May 21, 2006

Jon Ralston on the Family Promise eviction, the latest humiliation of the homeless by the mayor and City Council

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2006/may/21/566678044.html?homeless

Most Americans Misunderstand Homelessness - Poll

"For most Americans, homelessness invokes images of men sleeping in parks or panhandling on the street. However, data reveal another side of homelessness -- it is the face of families with children," explained Nan Roman, president, National Alliance to End Homelessness. "Despite perceptions, our paper shows that homelessness is different and imminently more solvable than Americans believe."

The poll revealed that almost half of the voting public believes that single adult men are more likely to be homeless than families and that only 25 percent of the homeless population is made up by families with children. In reality, over the course of the year almost 600,000 families with 1.35 million children experience homelessness, and 50 percent of the homeless population is made up of people who live in families.

http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/170238.html

Circle Park Meeting re: Homeless "Problem"

Sunday, May 21, 2006 Food sharer cited at Circle Park.

Monday, May 22, 2006 Food sharer cited at Circle Park.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 FNB supporter arrested for "graffiti" for writing on concrete in Circle Park with colored CHALK:

Food is a Right, Not a Privilege;

Food Not Bombs;

All we want to do is eat.

So remember folks, Hopscotch is not allowed in Circle Park!

Response to Resident
by Mom Friday May 26, 2006 at 12:20 AM

I live there by Circle Park Resident Thursday May 25, 2006 at 05:49 PM

Resident: I'm glad I found an online discussion on this issue. I attended the neighborhood meeting yesterday which the mayor attended. I thought that everyone got a fair chance to express themselves on this issue, including the homeless themselves, who are most directly affected.

Mom: I was also at the meeting and I think it went well. Yes, I think everyone who wanted to speak (who was there) got a fair chance to express themselves. (But it definitely was not advertised enough.) And also, one meeting is not enough, in my opinion. I think we should have more meetings before a final decision (on whatever that might be) is made at a city council meeting.

This one meeting last night basically let the few neighbors vent. And it did also give the homeless a chance to defend themselves. But a few of the neighbors who spoke went to the extreme, imo. For example, the mother who said that she can't take her child to the park because the homeless "look" at her child. Don't all human beings look at other human beings during a course of a day, everyday? It sounded like she was trying to make all homeless people into pedophiles. I will give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she was just nervous about speaking. But pedophiles can be anywhere. There is not a bigger percentage of pedophiles in the homeless community. Unfortunately, some people are intiminated by anyone who is different from them or different from who they have been used to being around.

The other extremist was the guy who wants to round up all the homeless and bus them to Utah. Sheesh, I feel sorry for anyone who has to live or work with him.

God, I'm more comfortable around the homeless and needy than I am around uppety-up folks. I have found the oppressed to be more humble, more honest, sometimes more outspoken but only to the point of telling it like it is. I have more to fear from politicians, lawyers, business owners, etc. because it seems they always have a greedy agenda.

There are good people and bad people in the homeless community- just as there are good people and bad people in the non-homeless community.

All the homeless ask for is to be allowed to survive and die with dignity. And it helps when they know someone cares about them.

Resident: Basically, the residents feel like they've lost their neighborhood park because they are afraid to go there and be around all of the homeless. While they certainly aren't all bad people, drug and alcohol use, lewd acts, etc. are happening in the park, which would discourage any parent from bringing their children there.

Mom: I understand that some of the residents are intimidated by the homeless. And I absolutely agree that drug and alcohol use is bad news. Lewd acts, imo, and from what I've been told are far and few between. And lewd acts would most likely be committed by the mentally ill. And this is just another issue that the city, county, and state have not adequately addressed.

Resident: I do agree that the city doesn't have a good plan to help the homeless, and DIY efforts shouldn't be criminalized. However, to wait until the homelessness situation improves for us to have a park we can use is too much.

Mom: You do have a park that you can use. The neighbor gentleman who has been in the area for years suggested that the neighbors SHOULD use the park. I agree with him. The more people who use the park, the safer the park would be. Try using the park and you will see that most of the homeless would be very respectful in allowing you to have your space. Anyone who bothers you for a cigarette or money, and you don't want to give them any, just say, "No, sorry, I can't today." Say it everyday if you want. Most will be very respectful about this. Any illegal (drugs, alcohol, sex) activity should be discouraged and reported.

The city (the city attorney and the mayor) has metro and the marshals actively enforcing laws which criminalize homelessness, ie. laying on a blanket, sleeping, eating, standing in the park. These are all innocent actions which no one should be cited or arrested for.

If the city put that much effort into social services throughout the valley, and also focused on "real" criminals, Circle Park and all neighborhoods, AND the majority of the decent homeless folks would benefit. Even the homeless do not like being around other homeless who are not considerate of others.

I will say though, in the past year that I have been going to the park, the biggest problem is with the mentally ill (number one), then the drug users, and lastly the severe alcoholics who ALSO are mentally ill.

But I will add that I truly believe that ALL of the above have a right to daily food, water, shelter from the heat and cold, a safe place to sleep, and relieve bodily functions. If they want to go to work- which many do, they also need a place to shower and shave, and a safe place for them to leave their few personal belongings.

Resident: One proposed solution was to make Circle Park a children's park, where unless you are with a child, you cannot visit this park. Although this is a harsh measure, banning many residents along with the homeless, it does two things - makes Circle Park a place where kids can play as well as keeping our neighborhood from being an epicenter for the homeless population.

Mom: I spoke with the homeless today and even they do not think this would be fair to most of the neighbors. They believe the park should be used by the neighbors, the children, and the homeless. Even if this park was made into a children's park, it would be a VERY dangerous park for children in the middle of two very busy streets. This would only be done as a way to get rid of the homeless there.

Your comment about Circle Park being an epicenter for the homeless population is something I would like to address. I don't believe that "Circle Park" is an epicenter. I think we have to learn the facts. I don't even know all the facts. However, say we have over 10,000 homeless people in the Las Vegas Valley. X amount are mentally ill. X amount are heroin users. X amount are meth users. X amount are chronic alcoholics. X amount at little or no fault of their own became homeless. X amount are veterans with low income. X amount of veterans are homeless because of an experience directly related to the military. X amount come to this city and blow all their money in the casino. (Many of these folks are the easiest for us to help because with a little help, they get back on their feet, get a job, make a little money and GO back home.) X amount want to be homeless- free.

Then we have to look at the resources: social services, catholic charities, st. vincent's, las vegas rescue mission, shade tree. We also have some places who pack in the homeless for $100 a week each to share a bed with the bed bugs, spiders, and mice. Then we have the "individual" folks who share food, water, clothing, their own homes for individuals to take showers, etc.

But getting back to the "epicenter". We have 64 parks in the city. And the beautiful parks are where the homeless would rather be than sleeping in the alleys with the brown recluse. Yes, I've seen a lot of spider and ant bites. And there is more chance of violence (committed by the non-homeless gangsters) in the alleys. Most of the folks will tell you that they feel safer in the parks.

Sorry, I got off track. Basically, my point was going to be to compare the number of homeless to the number of beds in the city for the homeless. And I think it is unrealistic for the city to think that the majority of the homeless should all go up to Owens and Main Street area for food, water, shelter, sleep, showers, and social services.

Resident: I know there are no easy answers, but discussion is good.

Mom: I believe that there is no one way of ending homelessness- or minimizing it.
I do believe that it has to be a collective effort. Many individuals have taken on the responsibility of helping anyway we can. Food and water, imo, is a priority. We cannot help dead homeless folks. We have been working day and night, 7 days a week with food, water, clothing, jobs, identification, mental health, drug rehab, taxi-cabbing, bus tokens, and housing with no city, county, or state funding.

The non-profit organizations who received the $3 million dollar grant are overloaded with clients. The non-profit shelters are doing what they can or want to.

We need more resources from the city, county, and state. We do NOT need more law enforcement citing and arresting homeless (on a daily basis) for innocent actions.

Re: DIY efforts shouldn't be criminalized.

I agree. The DIY efforts are needed because the government cannot or will not take care of the many issues of homelessness. Criminalizing innocent actions or humane actions only promotes the hatred, misunderstandings, and animosity between the homeless and non-homeless. Even most of the marshals don't want to be giving out these citations. The "good" cops and marshals are being used as a buffer between the city and the homeless. And the non-homeless residents are being used as a buffer between city and the homeless. This is just a distraction from the fact that the city, county, and state has inadequate resourses.

Oh wait, let me take that back. This city has plenty of money to sell govt. land to outside high-rise condo builders, take property by eminent domain for casinos, give land to outside contractors for a baseball park, build a new arena, etc., etc., etc. but they don't have the resourses to build real affordable housing (not $710 per month rent) or give us more locations for social services.

I still believe there are plenty of answers out there for us all to research and work together. We must be persistant TOGETHER to encourage the city, county, and state to do more. Also, community and individuals must be willing to help and not totally depend on government.

I don't think that the Circle Park or any other city park should be an all or nothing deal. I think we can figure this out so everyone can benefit in one way or another.

Resident, thanks for posting your comments. Please know that my long-winded note is/was not directed AT you. You've given me the opportunity to voice my opinions. And I may be naive or even wrong. But I am certainly willing to work toward positive solutions.

Thanks, Mom

Sheriff defends officers in actions against homeless

May 01, 2006

Sheriff defends officers in actions against homeless

By Matt Pordum

Las Vegas Sun

Re: According to the police report, she grew belligerent and was arrested for disturbing the peace.

Comment: I have known Bernadette for 11 months now. She is one of the most soft-spoken, passive, non-violent, respectable (former) homeless women I know.

Re: "I'm fighting not just for me but for all the homeless in this city being harassed," Jacaruso said last week.

Comment: It is not only "harassment" that is the problem. Many marshals and metro officers are totally disrespectful and degrading to homeless folks (or people who they think are homeless) from the onset. They initiate the confrontation by saying things like, "You low-life, vagrant, scum of the community have 5 seconds to get the f*** out of here or you are going to be arrested." This is one of the most common complaints I hear- the uncalled for disrespect.

Re: "I don't mean to be flippant about this, but we have better things to do than arrest the homeless," Young said. "I want to catch bad guys, the really serious, hard-core criminals out there. That's why I took this job. What we don't want to do is waste time arresting the homeless."

Comment: I know many homeless folks who have been arrested (or given citations)multiple times for innocent conduct which NO non-homeless person would be arrested for. These actions include sitting, eating, sleeping or otherwise innocently being on public property, including city sidewalks; sitting on a bus bench, cutting through a grocery store parking lot on the way to work, standing under a bank over hang to stay out of the rain, missing a trash can with a gum wrapper falling to the ground, etc.

I will give Sheriff Young the benefit of the doubt and assume that he is a sincere, good man. And I would assume that we have many marshals and metro officers who are sincere, good people. However, the fact still remains that many, many homeless are being arrested on a daily basis for breaking local laws that "criminalize" homelessness.

So, if Sheriff Young is not giving the orders to harass and arrest the homeless for these non-violent, innocent actions, why do we have so many of these arrests?

Re: hiring a social worker to serve as his liaison to the homeless

Comment: This may be a good start, however, there is so much more that needs to be done. In a city with this much wealth, there is no excuse for our homeless problem to be so out of control.

Homeless plan shifts to awareness,
By Timothy Pratt, Las Vegas Sun

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-other_cut/2006/jan/28/c00006506.html

"Educating the community" must also include educating Metro and City Marshals, and encouraging them to use alternatives other than enforcement action as a response to homelessness.

From what I have read on the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty

http://nlchp.org/

there are already programs out there that Las Vegas could learn from.

1. Local laws that "criminalize" homelessness should be challenged and removed.

2. "Constructive Alternatives to Criminalization"

http://nlchp.org/FA%5FCivilRights/CR_conalt_booklet.pdf

a. Build a Day Center open 8 am to 4 pm funded by business owners.

b. Written Police Protocol: before arrests or issuing any citations for misdemeanors: give a verbal warning to relocate; if that fails, issue a written warning to the homeless person; if that fails, the police officer must call an Outreach Team that can offer social service alternatives to the homeless person including a [free and safe] shelter bed [with free transportation to the shelter.]

However, if no shelter bed is available, any type of enforcement must cease immediately. If a shelter bed is available and the homeless person refuses to locate there, he/she can be cited, or left alone, depending on the discretion of the officer.

Officers must document such encounters as part of their police records...

c. All homeless individuals should be treated with dignity and respect just as any non-homeless individual.

d. After any arrest of a homeless individual, all means should be taken to return all of their personal property, including their clothing, blankets, and identification. All persons should be released with a state issued laminated photo ID. If the individual did not/does not have a stated issued ID, the city or county should provide one immediately before release.

This should be witnessed and signed by a member of an Outreach Team who is not employed by the city, county, or state.

e. Mandatory training for police officers to increase awareness about the causes of homelessness, to learn alternatives other than enforcement action as a response to homelessness, and to teach the above (b) Written Police Protocol.

Our main goal should be to END homelessness with safe, permanent, affordable housing; quality, affordable medical care; and, jobs that pay a living wage. Shelters and Day Centers should be used as an intermediary stage between homelessness and safe, permanent, affordable housing.

Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan Speech for International Women's Day 2006

Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan Speech for International Women's Day 2006
by reposted by kiadso Tuesday April 18, 2006 at 12:09 PM

Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan, mother of Smadar Elhanan, 13 years old when killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem in September 1997, made this speech in Strasbourg on International Women's Day 2006.

WOMEN
by Nurit Peled-Elhanan

Thank you for inviting me to this today. It is always an honour and a pleasure to be here, among you (at the European Parliament).

However, I must admit I believe you should have invited a Palestinian woman in my stead, because the women who suffer most from violence in my country are the Palestinian women. And I would like to dedicate my speech to Miriam R`aban and her husband Kamal, from Bet Lahiya in the Gaza strip, whose five small children were killed by Israeli soldiers while picking strawberries in the family`s strawberry field. No one will ever stand trial for this murder.

When I asked the people who invited me here why didn't they invite a Palestinian woman, the answer was that it would make the discussion too localized.

I don't know what is non-localized violence. Racism and discrimination may be theoretical concepts and universal phenomena but their impact is always local, and real. Pain is local; humiliation, sexual abuse, torture and death, are all very local, and so are the scars.

It is true, unfortunately, that the local violence inflicted on Palestinian women by the government of Israel and the Israeli army, has expanded around the globe. In fact, state violence and army violence, individual and collective violence, are the lot of Muslim women today, not only in Palestine but wherever the enlightened western world is setting its big imperialistic foot. It is violence which is hardly ever addressed and which is halfheartedly condoned by most people in Europe and in the USA.

This is because the so-called free world is afraid of the Muslim womb. Great France of "la liberte égalite et la fraternite" is scared of little girls with head scarves. Great Jewish Israel is afraid of the Muslim womb which its ministers call a demographic threat.

Almighty America and Great Britain are infecting their respective citizens with blind fear of the Muslims, who are depicted as vile, primitive and blood-thirsty, apart from their being non-democratic, chauvinistic, and mass producers of future terrorists. This in spite of the fact that the people who are destroying the world today are not Muslim. One of them is a devout Christian, one is Anglican, and one is a non-devout Jew.

I have never experienced the sort of suffering Palestinian women undergo every day, every hour, I don't know the kind of violence that turns a woman's life into constant hell. This daily physical and mental torture of women who are deprived of their basic human rights and needs of privacy and dignity, women whose homes are broken into at any moment of day and night, who are ordered at a gun-point to strip naked in front of strangers and their own children, whose houses are demolished, who are deprived of their livelihood and of any normal family life: this is not part of my personal ordeal.

But I am a victim of violence against women insofar as violence against children is actually violence against mothers. Palestinian, Iraqi, Afghan women are my sisters because we are all in the grip of the same unscrupulous criminals who call themselves leaders of the free enlightened world, -- and in the name of this freedom and enlightenment rob us of our children.

Furthermore, Israeli, American, Italian, and British mothers have been for the most part violently blinded and brainwashed to such a degree that they cannot realize their only sisters, their only allies in the world are the Muslim Palestinian, Iraqi or Afghani mothers, whose children are killed by our children or who blow themselves to pieces with our sons and daughters. They are all mind-infected by the same viruses engendered by politicians. And the viruses , though they may have various illustrious names--such as Democracy, Patriotism, God, Homeland--are all the same. They are all part of false and fake ideologies that are meant to enrich the rich and to empower the powerful.

We are all the victims of mental, psychological and cultural violence that turn us to one homogenous group of bereaved or potentially bereaved mothers. Western mothers who are taught to believe their uterus is a national asset, as they are taught to believe that the Muslim uterus is an international threat. They are educated not to cry out: `I gave him birth, I breast-fed him, he is mine, and I will not let him be the one whose life is cheaper than oil, whose future is worth less than a piece of land.`

All of us are terrorized by mind-infecting indoctrination, to believe all we can do is either pray for our sons to come back home, or be proud of their dead bodies.

And all of us were brought up to bear all this silently, to contain our fear and frustration, to take Prozac for anxiety, but never hail Mama Courage in public. Never be real Jewish or Italian or Irish mothers.

I am a victim of state violence. My natural and civil rights as a mother have been violated and are violated because I had to fear the day my son would reach his 18th birthday and be taken away from me to be the instrument of criminals such as Sharon, Bush, Blair and their clan of blood-thirsty, oil-thirsty, land thirsty generals.

Living in the world I live in, in the state I live in, in the regime I live in, I don't dare to offer Muslim women any ideas how to change their lives.

I don't want them to take off their scarves, or educate their children differently, and I will not urge them to constitute Democracies in the image of Western democracies that despise them and their kind. I just want to ask them humbly to be my sisters, to express my admiration for their perseverance and for their courage to carry on, to have children and to maintain a dignified family life in spite of the impossible conditions my world is imposing on them. I want to tell them we are all bonded by the same pain, we all the victims of the same sort of violence even though they suffer much more, for they are the ones who are mistreated by my government and its army, sponsored by my taxes.

Islam in itself, like Judaism in itself and Christianity in itself, is not a threat to me or to anyone. American imperialism IS, European indifference and co-operation is, and Israeli racism and its cruel regime of occupation is. It is racism, educational propaganda, and inculcated xenophobia that convince Israeli soldiers to order Palestinian women at gun-point, to strip in front of their children for security reasons; it is the deepest disrespect for the other that allows American soldiers to rape Iraqi women, that gives license to Israeli jailers to keep young women in inhuman conditions, without necessary hygienic aids, without electricity in the winter, without clean water or clean mattresses, and to separate them from their breast-fed babies and toddlers. To bar their way to hospitals, to block their way to education, to confiscate their lands, to uproot their trees, and prevent them from cultivating their fields.

I cannot completely understand Palestinian women or their suffering. I don't know how I would have survived such humiliation, such disrespect from the whole world. All I know is that the voice of mothers has been suffocated for too long in this war-stricken planet. Mothers`s cries are not heard because mothers are not invited to international forums such as this one. This I know and it is very little. But it is enough for me to remember these women are my sisters, and that they deserve that I should cry for them, and fight for them. And when they lose their children in strawberry fields or on filthy roads by the checkpoints, when their children are shot on their way to school by Israeli children who were educated to believe that love and compassion are race- and religion dependent, the only thing I can do is stand by them and their betrayed babies, and ask what Anna Akhmatova--another mother who lived in a regime of violence against women and children--asked:

Why does that streak of blood rip the petal of your cheek?

May You Rest in Peace, Shelley

May You Rest in Peace, Shelley.

And may the Lord comfort the ones you left behind.

Shelley Bennett

++ April 27, 2006 ++