Ordinance definition of Indigent

The ordinance defines an indigent as a "person whom a reasonable ordinary person would believe to be entitled to apply for or receive assistance" from the government under state law.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jul-23-Sun-2006/news/8638719.html

Las Vegas, Nevada Homeless, New Laws Updates

Sorry if this is not all in the order of events. It has been quite hectic here with all the political BS.

I also apologize that in the beginning of my new "venture" that I didn't realize that poverty and homelessness WAS political.

Oh, if I only knew. Would I have still wanted to "just help" those in need?

This new law was proposed on Wed., July 19, 2006 and the (city of las vegas, nevada) council unanimously passed the ordinance.

57. Bill No. 2006-37 - ABEYANCE ITEM - Prohibits within City parks the providing of food or meals as would typically be provided in a rescue mission or shelter for the homeless. Proposed by: Bradford R. Jerbic, City Attorney

http://www5.lasvegasnevada.gov/sirepub/cache/1/pxihkmbjqlqimoinhonwoi55/452350720200608332178.PDF

Definitions: (See: Rescue Mission or Shelter For The Homeless)

Rescue Mission or Shelter For The Homeless. A building that is used or intended to beused to provide to homeless individuals temporary accommodations, shelter, meals or any combination thereof. For purposes of this Title, a “homeless individual” includes an individual who lacks a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:tLfyk6YpZv0J:www.lasvegasnevada.gov/files/Chapter_19.20.pdf+LVMC+19.20.020+%22las+vegas%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

Feeding homeless outlawed

ACLU calls measure unenforceable

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jul-20-Thu-2006/news/8589438.html

Message to the Mayor

Message to the Mayor

Received these photos from Chip Mosher who writes for the Las Vegas City Life. Unfortunately, the editors did not want to publish them. However, I've been given permission to post them here. And, "I" don't have an editor that I have to report to.

< GRIN >

Photo Credit: Lisa Grenier

Idea Credit: Chip Mosher

Message #1















Message #2

Meeting of the Minds

To my fellow social activists, homeless advocates, Christian and non-Christian friends, non-violent anarchist friends, food not bombers, and all who are interested in fighting the good fight:

I would like to call for a gathering of minds to address the multiple issues of homelessness. I realize that homeless advocates have been doing this for years. But due to the recent attacks on the homeless and homeless advocates in Las Vegas by the City of Las Vegas, I feel it is important to address the recent aggressive, unjust exercise of power.

I am disappointed that this is needed as it is a distraction from my work with the homeless. However, Mayor Goodman's recent comments and directives to Las Vegas police to forcibly take homeless persons to treatment centers affects us all.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jun-22-Thu-2006/news/8102842.html


The two best days for a meeting for me would be Wednesday and Saturday. But I am willing to change my schedule to a different day if it is best for the majority of others.

I am open to all suggestions: time, date, place, and agenda.

Please e-mail me with your thoughts.

mom_in_las_vegas.yahoo.com


City officials' comments and proposals:

He [Goodman] said his proposal to force homeless to get services is meant to help them. "I want to take them by the hand and lead them to salvation."

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jun-13-Tue-2006/news/7928453.html

Earlier, Goodman refused to back down from his idea of forcing the homeless to get help.

"We have to help people who don't want to help themselves," he said. "If they don't (accept help), I'll take them and put them into the state house."

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jun-03-Sat-2006/news/7758533.html

Meanwhile, City Attorney Brad Jerbic said he plans to propose a new ordinance to the City Council on June 21 that would "prohibit mobile soup kitchens in our parks."

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2006/jun/11/566678359.html


...force a homeless person to get services.

...banning "mobile soup kitchens" in parks.

...throw the book at those violating the law at Huntridge Circle Park.

...take the next person they find who is mentally ill and refuses services to WestCare.

Details of the city's proposals were not clear Wednesday night.

The council unanimously passed the resolution.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jun-22-Thu-2006/news/8102842.html

City Watering Circle Park

Time of day watering restrictions

http://www.snwa.com/html/news_watering.html

Summer watering restrictions prohibit sprinkler irrigation between the hours of 11am and 7pm from May 1 through Sept. 30. Drip irrigation may occur at any time.


Circle Park, June 12, 2006 12:15 pm



During the hottest hours of the day, water is often lost to evaporation from the heat and high winds. Watering during restricted hours is considered water waste and may result in a water waste citation.






Circle Park, June 12, 2006 12:15 pm

















Water Waste

http://www.snwa.com/html/drought_waste.html

City and county ordinances as well as your water provider's Service Rules prohibit water waste.

How the SNWA handles water waste reports

http://www.snwa.com/html/drought_waste.html

When someone reports water waste to SNWA, we forward the complaint to the member agency that serves as the water provider for the property that is reported.

A representative from the appropriate water agency contacts the property owner to inform the customer of the water waste problem. The customer is given time to correct the problem. If the water waste continues, the water provider may issue a citation that requires a mandatory court appearance, or the provider may charge a water waste fee on the customer's water bill.

Member Agencies

http://www.snwa.com/html/about_index.html

SNWA is governed by a seven-member agency comprised of representatives from each of its member organizations. These member agencies are:

Big Bend Water District
Boulder City
Clark County Water Reclamation District
Henderson
Las Vegas ( http://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/index.htm )
Las Vegas Valley Water District North Las Vegas

Southern Nevada Water Authority

http://www.snwa.com/html/drought_watering_summer.html

Letter: Government should be ashamed of itself, Las Vegas Sun

Letter: Government should be ashamed of itself

The Las Vegas City Council, Mayor Oscar Goodman and the city attorney have completed their heartless actions against the homeless by denying them the basics of life, food and shelter.

If only they had kept their word in September 2001 when at the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition / U.S. Housing and Urban Development summit, they announced a regional effort to address chronic homelessness.

It didn't take too long before regional cooperation gave way to punitive action, by Mayor Goodman and the Las Vegas City Council. Police sweeps, selective enforcement of laws against the homeless, attacks against service providers and now the ultimate denial of food by those the mayor calls enablers.

Where is the outcry from those in the religious community, who are not fulfilling the basic tenet of all religions: care for the weakest among us. Where is the outrage from the veterans organizations in behalf of homeless veterans? Where is the outrage from the average citizen for all of the homeless? Do Americans only respond with generosity, compassion and charity when foreigners are in need?

If only instead of punitive actions five years ago, services had been given money, lives would have been saved.

All regional governments share in the shame and disgrace of homelessness in the richest valley in the country.

Frank Perna, Las Vegas

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/debate/2006/jun/18/566691417.html

Gary Reese says Crime Rate is UP

Last Monday we had a press conference announcing the federal lawsuit against the City of Las Vegas. The media showed up and a couple of news stations aired the event. I only watched the early news and didn't really pay too much attention to it.

However, IF I caught the news right, Mayor Pro Tem Gary Reese stated that crime was UP in the neighborhood near Huntridge Circle Park. He also stated something to the effect that after the homeless ate they "went" into the neighborhood. I can't remember the exact word that he used. Drifted? And unfortunately, the video of the news is no longer available on the internet. But I'm curious. How does one get from Circle Park to Circle K without walking through the neighborhood of Circle Park?

Edited: June 25, 2006 The exact word that Reese used was = "dwindled". This is the word I thought he used. But I just didn't think that he would actually use it!

KLAS TV article and video can be seen here:

http://www.klastv.com/Global/story.asp?s=5021064


But, to the point. Coincidently (?) I have been printing out the statistics of the crime in the Circle Park area since November 2005. The statistics come from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department Crime View Community website. The website DOES have a disclaimer which states that this information that they are making available to the public could be inaccurate. Hmmmm. And, you can only do a search for a period of one to 60 days.

What Reese stated and the statistics that I have printed out do not coincide. According to the printouts, crime has NOT gone up in the area of Circle Park. And even if it did go up, filling someone's belly with food does not psych them up to go out and commit crimes. When YOU are finished eating dinner, are you stimulated to go out and steal a car or break into someone's home? In reality, most homeless take a nap after they have satisfied their hunger. Why? Because it's safer to sleep during the day than it is to sleep during the night.

Continuing... after hearing Reese's comments about the crime rate going up, my son called Metro to ask if he could receive the statistics for crime in that area for the past year. (We live in Ward 3 and near Circle Park.) The woman said, yes, she would get that information for him. When my son spoke with her again, she qualified that the charge for the search would be $52.00 per hour.

My son asked, if this is public information could he come and do the research himself. No, you cannot.

So, we have public information that is only available to the public if you pay $52.00 per hour for a city employee to do the search. We have printouts from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department website that may be inaccurate. And we have a politician telling us something that cannot be verified without paying an outrageous fee.

Interesting. Interesting indeed.

One last point. The highest incidents in the area of Circle Park are "Other" Disturbances, Traffic Accidents and Family Disturbances.

Assault and Battery, Burglary, Fight, Narcotics, and Stolen Motor Vehicle incidents are extremely low compared to other areas of town. And, they are NOT up according to the printouts.

Recap of lawsuit:

On Monday, June 12, 2006 homeless advocates and the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada held a press conference at Huntridge Circle Park. The press conference was held to announce the federal lawsuit against the City of Las Vegas.

The lawsuit is an attempt to protect EVERYONE'S constitutional rights. This IS what the ACLU does.

The lawsuit will challenge:

1. the requirement for a permit of 25 or more people

2. the practice of marshals "86ing" people from parks without due process of law

3. the city's practice of designating public spaces as "children's parks," where only those with children can enter

"...City ordinances deprive homeless of several rights, ACLU lawsuit alleges

[The lawsuit will challenge] the constitutionality of ordinances they said target people living on the street.

...The federal lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, alleges that city ordinances and practices violate rights including freedom of speech and free exercise of religion.

The homeless are also denied equal protection and due process, the lawsuit said."

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jun-13-Tue-2006/news/7928453.html

Editorial and Letter of Support

Mom's Comment: I want to thank everyone who has supported us in our efforts to do the right thing.

I have received many phone calls and e-mails of encouragement. I deeply appreciate your support.

Las Vegas Sun

Editorial: How mean can we get?

Citing someone for feeding the homeless in parks would be an act of pure discrimination

...The city should be spending its time providing services to the homeless, rather than trying to make criminals out of those trying to fill the void.


http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/editorials/2006/jun/13/566657300.html

Letter: Let's help, not hinder, homeless advocate

...Why not embrace a citizen's willingness to help...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/debate/2006/jun/14/566618664.html

Parks and plight of the homeless plight, Las Vegas Sun

Parks and plight of the homeless plight
By Dan Kulin, Las Vegas Sun

Las Vegas is looking to add legal ammunition to its efforts to shoo the homeless from local parks with a new law that would make it illegal to feed the homeless in any city park.

But representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, who have opposed the city's past efforts on this front, said they also will battle the proposed law, expected to go to the council later this month.

"They are seeking to exclude people who don't fit their definition of community members," Lee Rowland, a local ACLU public advocate, said. "It's a sad day when good Samaritans' efforts like feeding the homeless become the target of criminal charges."

Dan Kulin can be reached at 259-8826 or at dan@lasvegassun.com

To read the full article:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2006/jun/11/566678359.html?homeless

Activists take Las Vegas to court

Mom's Comments: We have 600-700 beds for the homeless in Las Vegas with an estimated 13,000 homeless which includes approximately 3500 children.

No matter what Goodman and Reese have to say about there being resources out there for the homeless, they are kidding NO one!

Las Vegas does NOT have adequate social services.

Activists take Las Vegas to court

City ordinances deprive homeless of several rights,
ACLU lawsuit alleges

By DAVID McGRATH SCHWARTZ, REVIEW-JOURNAL

..."This is not a proper location for a soup kitchen," said Mayor Pro Tem Gary Reese, who represents the area. "There are more than one group of people's rights here."

He said that shelters and other services are available around the city.

"I've worked hard to make money available for homeless issues," he said. "I feel the lawsuit is a slap in the face of the city after all we've tried to do. Services are available; people need to take advantage of that."

...Mayor Oscar Goodman, who has come under fire recently for wanting to force mentally ill homeless to get treatment, said, "There are adequate services."

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jun-13-Tue-2006/news/7928453.html

Mastectomy Bill in Congress, PLEASE!! Sign the petition

Mastectomy Bill in Congress

PLEASE!! Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below.

You need not give more than your name and zip code number.

Mastectomy Hospital Bill in Congress

If you know anyone who has had a mastectomy, you may know that there is a lot of discomfort and pain afterwards. Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let's give women the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery.

It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important...please take the time and do it really quick!

Breast Cancer Hospitalization Bill - Important legislation for all women.

Please send this to everyone in your address book. If there was ever a time when our voices and choices should be heard, this is one of those times. If you're receiving this, it's because I think you will take the 30 seconds to go to vote on this issue and send it on to others you know who will do the same.

There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the "drive-through mastectomy" where women are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House signed on.

PLEASE!! Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below.

You need not give more than your name and zip code number.

http://www.lifetimetv.com/health/breast_mastectomy_pledge.html

This takes about 2 seconds. PLEASE PASS THIS ON to your friends and family, and on behalf of all women, THANKS.

Official Press Release: ACLU to take Homeless Advocacy case to Federal Court

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 9, 2006

CONTACT: Gail Sacco
702-355-2764

Official Press Release: ACLU to take Homeless Advocacy
case to Federal Court


LAS VEGAS, NV - The American Civil Liberties Union [and several plaintiff groups have] scheduled a press conference for Monday, June 12, 2006 at 11 AM to be held at Huntridge Circle Park, 1251 S. Maryland Parkway between E. Charleston and
E. Saint Louis.

On February 19, 2006 local homeless rights advocates Gail Sacco and Lyla Bartholomae were given citations for feeding the homeless (a gathering over 25 people) without a permit. The women were sharing food at Huntridge Circle Park where there have been daily picnics since August 2005. They were also told by park marshals they were "86'd" from the park for 6 months- and they would be arrested on sight if they returned.

Representatives from the ACLU will announce and explain the upcoming lawsuit challenging the Las Vegas ordinance in federal court.

The plaintiffs include Gail Sacco, Lyla Bartholomae, Food Not Bombs, Joe Sacco, John Brown, Southern NV Advocates for Homeless People (SNAHP) and the Catholic Worker. Several plaintiffs will speak which will be followed by questions from reporters.

No interviews will be held before the press conference.

For more information, please call Gary Peck at 702-262-5613
or Gail Sacco at 702-355-2764.



###

Close Torture School, SOA

Subject: Call Congress TODAY:
Debate Iraq Policy, Close Torture School

============================================
ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE

http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545

To subscribe, visit

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email
============================================

Please forward widely!

United for Peace and Justice urges you to call your Congressional
Representative TODAY about two pressing items:

1) As we explained in a message on Monday, momentum is growing to force a full, open debate in the House of Representatives about U.S. policy toward Iraq through a measure called a "discharge petition." Click here for background:

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3287.

We only need 96 more members of Congress to sign this petition. We hope you will join today's National Call-In day to urge your representative to sign on if he/she has not already done so.

2) Sometime in the next two days, Congress will vote on an amendment to close the notorious School of the Americas/ WHINSEC. The School of the Americas (SOA), in 2001 renamed the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia, and funded by our tax dollars.

*******************************************************************************

Call the Capitol Hill Switchboard TODAY at 202-224-3121 or toll-free at 888-355-3588.

Ask to speak with your Representative's foreign affairs legislative assistant and urge your Representative to:

* Sign on to the "discharge" petition calling for an open Congressional debate on Iraq, if he/she hasn't already done so

http://www.openiraqdebate.com/inner/roll-call.html;

* Cast a YES vote on the amendment to close the School of the Americas/WHINSEC.

You can also send an email and free fax about the School of the Americas by clicking here.

*******************************************************************************

Over the last 60 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 soldiers from many Latin American nations in torture, psychological warfare and war against civilian populations. This school has graduated the worst human rights abusers in Latin American history, and many of the shocking tactics used at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay were pioneered at the SOA to be used on civilians and those working for justice in Latin America.

Any day now, Rep. McGovern (MA) will introduce an amendment to the Foreign Operations appropriations bill to cut funding for the SOA/WHINSEC and stand up against the legacy of torture as a part of U.S. foreign policy.

UFPJ member group SOA Watch has been working for years to close the School of the Americas and says this moment is critical. They expect a close vote and need as many people as possible flooding the offices of the House of Representatives with calls,
e-mails and faxes in support of a YES vote on the amendment everyday through June 8th.

For background on the issue and a suggested message, visit SOA Watch's website:

http://www.soaw.org/legislative.

============================================

Help us continue to do this critical work: Make a donation to UFPJ today -- http://www.unitedforpeace.org/donate

ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545

To subscribe, visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email

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 ++

Appeals court ruling on homeless sparks local debate

Mom's Comment: The only problem with this is "we"
do not FOLLOW the ordinance as it pertains to the homeless.


Appeals court ruling on homeless sparks local debate

By Matt Pordum

Las Vegas Sun, April 18, 2006

While a federal appeals court's decision last week makes it clear that there's no crime in being homeless, the court's notice of a Las Vegas ordinance is only going to ignite the debate locally.

City officials and defense attorneys disagree over the meaning of a ruling Friday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on arrests of homeless people. The court cited a Las Vegas ordinance as an example of finding "ways to avoid criminalizing the status of homelessness."

"I think if you read the 9th Circuit opinion, the court has gone out of its way to approve the ordinance we follow in Las Vegas as it pertains to the homeless," Las Vegas City Attorney Brad Jerbic said.

To read the full article:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2006/apr/18/566688430.html?homeless

Stop Divine Strake, International Day of Action

* International Indian Treaty Council * Western Shoshone Defense Project *Indigenous Environmental Network * Shundahai Network * Nevada Desert Experience
* Citizen Alert * Western Shoshone National Council

The “Stop Divine Strake Coalition”
Calls for an International Day of Action


The U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) plans to detonate a 700-ton ammonium nitrate and fuel oil explosive on June 2, 2006 at the Nevada Test Site(NTS), a federal facility 65 miles north of Las Vegas. They are calling this test “Divine Strake.”

While this test is not nuclear in composition, its purpose, according to DTRA documents, is to “simulate a low-yield nuclear weapon.” Given that previous nuclear tests have occurred only a few miles away from where Divine Strake will occur, this test raises the specter of kicking up previous radioactive contamination and sending it downwind. We have been told too many half-truths and outright lies to believe in the “safety” of this test. Furthermore, no full environmental impact statement has been done to verify that there is no radioactive contamination at the particular site.

It must be stressed that the presence of the United States military on Western Shoshone land is uninvited. In fact, the Western Shoshone have been fighting for sovereignty over their ancestral and treaty-recognized lands, and to shut down the NTS for years. Most recently, their efforts brought them to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) which found the United States in violation of recognized fundamental human rights standards and international law, and ordered the United States to “freeze”, “desist” and “stop” their activities on Western Shoshone land. All this while the DTRA was preparing for the “Divine Strake” test

As tensions increase with Iran, speculation has increased in the media and elsewhere that this test, in conjunction with other military projects, is building up to an imminent attack on the peoples of Iran, possibly in the form of nuclear bombardment. This test is seemingly a “war game” to initiate a U.S. led invasion of Iran. Many media articles about Divine Strake and its possible role in the escalation of tension with Iran may be found on

www.shundahai.org/divine_strake. tm and

www.disarmamentactivist.org

Because our goal is to stop the test, and to not expose anyone to undue health risks from the actual blast, our focus will be an International Day of Action on Sunday May 28, 2006 (Memorial Day Weekend) at the Nevada Test Site Peace Camp, located across Highway 95 from the Test Site. We are looking for allied organizations to join our coalition, and either join us at the Nevada Test Site on the 28th, or stage actions in their own communities throughout the following week.

Some of our anticipated activities will be:

¨ Delivering eviction/deportation notices to the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Energy as illegal, non-respecting immigrants to indigenous lands.

¨ A rally with speakers from indigenous, immigrant, nuclear abolition, and peace and justice communities.

¨ Non-violent direct action training

¨ Peacekeeper training

¨ Workshops on the history of the test site and radiation compensation, indigenous sovereignty, and the escalation with Iran.

¨ Spiritual ceremonies to remember those who have suffered or died as a result of war and nuclear weapons testing.

¨ Brainstorming workshops on what common actions folks can do later in the week in their respective cities

¨ Vigil activities at U.S. Federal Buildings and Bechtel Corporation offices on June 1 and June 2, if the test has not been canceled.



Some of our anticipated needs are:

¨ Getting the word out to sympathetic communities

¨ Development of fliers and other outreach materials

¨ Optimizing media participation both before, during and after the event

¨ Providing shelter, food and water to participants

¨ Organizing workshops

¨ Providing “peacekeepers” to keep the event on message and free of violence.

Ongoing activities - Please keep the phone calls, letters coming!

The test detonation can be cancelled. We call for the United States Government to do so immediately. Concerned citizens can call or write to express their opinions to their Congressional Representatives and:

President George W. Bush comments@whitehouse.gov 202-456-1111

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld http://www.dod.gov/faq/comment.html

Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000

James Tegnelia dtra.publicaffairs@dtra.mil (800) 701-5096

Defense Threat Reduction Aagency
Attn: James Tegnelia
8725 John J Kingman RD Stop 6201
Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6201

Please contact us if you would like to join our coalition. We will then proceed with detailed plans based on the coalition’s collective abilities.

www.treatycouncil.org

jimbosimmons@treatycouncil.org

andrea@treatycouncil.org

www.wsdp.org wsdp@igc.org

www.ienearth.org

rshimek@ienearth.org

ien@igc.org

www.shundahai.org

eileen_mccabe_olsen@yahoo.com

pete@shundahai.org

www.nevadadesertexperience.org

amy@nevadadesertexperience.org

www.citizenalert.org

pmj1@citizenalert.org

tonyg@citizenalert.org



1 Preliminary approval, pending formal consensus approval at the next WSNC regular meeting.

PROTEST - PROTEST - PROTEST

PROTEST - PROTEST - PROTEST



...The Republican Madness!!!




President Bush is coming to town on
Monday, April 24 to raise cash
for his go-to man in Nevada, Rep. Jon Porter.

LETS TELL BUSH

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

What: Lets "welcome" Bush and his buddy Porter

Where: Right behind the Venetian, along Koval Lane, where the President will arrive. We'll be on the public sidewalk along the Imperial Palace Employee Lot. Park at the
nearby garages or side streets.

Who: The April 24th Committee consists of groups from the peace, labor, immigrant rights, environmental, anti-yucca, and other communities.

When: Monday, April 24. Start assembling
between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m.

What to Bring: We will provide signs, but feel free to make your own. We're following a street sign theme. Ideas include:

"STOP the Republican Madness"

"Bush and Porter YIELD to Special Interests"

"Porter + Bush = WRONG WAY for the country"

"Porter votes ONE WAY with Bush"

"WRONG TURN on Medicare"

"NO OUTLET from Iraq"

"Republicans DEAD END on education"

For more information, please contact Kirsten at (702) 737-8683 or Tony at 702-265-8082

Increasingly Vicious Laws Push Out Homeless

Increasingly Vicious Laws Push Out Homeless

The NewStandard

by Catherine Komp

Communities nationwide appear intent on testing the lengths they can go to suppress or expel their homeless populations -- anything to avoid having to see, let alone help, the least fortunate.

Richmond, Va.; Apr. 5 –

In the face of rising homelessness, cities across the country are increasingly trying to push desperate people out of sight and out of mind. In addition to anti-panhandling, anti-camping and anti-loitering ordinances, some are targeting the few remaining public spaces where homeless people can go during the day – including parks and libraries.

On a recent sunny Sunday afternoon in Richmond’s Monroe Park, about 50 people gathered with plates of seasoned tofu and zucchini, squash and potatoes, fruit salad, sweets and coffee. The meal was organized by the local chapter of Food Not Bombs, a global network of anti-war, anti-poverty volunteers that provide free, vegetarian meals in hundreds of city parks.

"We like the park because it’s a public space, it’s a place where everybody can come," said volunteer Maria Medas.

But volunteers say the group’s weekly food distribution efforts and similar programs face a looming threat of being pushed out of the park, long an anchor of nourishment and community for the city’s homeless.

Next to the Food Not Bombs tables, several homeless people help Sam Bowser distribute the Sunday meal provided by the local chapter of HOPE Ministries Worldwide. "I’ve been serving homeless people for 20 years," Bowser said, "and the questions always asked is, ‘Do the people need it?’ Yes they do. I find the people depend on me to be here and anyone else who comes out here to feed the homeless people."

Whether it’s public parks or private shelters, homeless people have fewer and fewer places to go.But compassionate work by the likes of Medas and Bowser has met resistance from a group of neighborhood residents who argue the park is "languishing under an identity crisis." Pressure has also come from nearby Virginia Commonwealth University, where officials have also used their clout to pressure the city to privatize the park. The University has developed its own strategic plan to "address [the] need for more green space" for its students.

Medas said there has been an increased police presence at Food Not Bombs meals, and the group recently received a parking ticket for unloading in a spot it has used for years without any problems.

Donna Mills, a homeless woman helping Bowser serve HOPE Ministries’ Sunday meal, sees the treatment of the community’s poor as part of a long history of economic injustice. "[They] always run folks off of everything they want; they’ve been doing that ever since the beginning of time," Mills told TNS. "There’s enough for everybody, but you just got one or two group of people [that] just want the whole dang gone thing – don’t want to share nothing; want to keep you down and keep their self up; keep their self separated."

Battle in Downtown America

Whether it’s public parks or private shelters, homeless people have fewer and fewer places to go. According to a survey of 24 cities by the US Conference of Mayors, requests for emergency shelter assistance in 2005 increased by 6 percent. The survey also found the number of homeless families seeking shelter increased by about 5 percent, with about one in three reporting unmet needs due to a lack of existing shelter resources.

Stoops believes the increase in the homeless population is feeding the rise in city ordinances and polices that target those populations.Without enough temporary shelter for the needy, homelessness becomes more visible, leading to what homeless-rights advocate Michael Stoops described to The NewStandard as "a big battle in downtown American between the interests of low-income people and the interests of the business community."

Richmond’s libraries have also become a front in that battle. In February, the city enacted new codes of conduct allowing library staff to banish people who bring in more than two book bags, bags over 18 inches in length, plastic bags, bed rolls or luggage. People whose "personal hygiene is offensive so as to constitute a nuisance to other persons" or who change their clothes in the bathroom can also be removed from the library. The revised codes further state that failure to comply with the library’s rules may result in arrest.

In explaining the city’s new policies at a recent press conference, Richmond Mayor Douglas L. Wilder said, "The purpose of the libraries is to satisfy the needs of society that wants to enrich its cultural involvement relative to reading, writing, to youngsters, for older [people], for anyone else that wants to come there to learn."

The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) has been tracking anti-homeless initiatives for more than a decade, and has published several comprehensive reports on criminalization of the homeless. Using information, surveys, and interviews from 224 cities, the 2005 report designates the top 20 "meanest" cities for the homeless.

Since the last survey in 2002, the NCH found a 12 percent increase in laws prohibiting begging; an 18 percent increase in aggressive panhandling laws; and a 14 percent increase in laws prohibiting sitting and lying in public places.

Stoops believes the increase in the homeless population is feeding the rise in city ordinances and polices that target those populations.

"I think some Americans are tired of the issue, and they simply want the homeless to go away," said Stoops, acting executive director of NCH. "Business people put pressure on the mayor and the police and that’s why we see sweeps and the passage and enforcement of what we call ‘anti-homeless’ laws."

A Punitive Response

A number of cities, including Richmond, Houston and San Francisco have decided that the homeless use of libraries has become such a problem that it merits stronger regulations for behavior and enforcement.

Public library access has become such an issue that the American Library Association (ALA) has created a subcommittee on library services to poor and homeless people. ALA president Lesley Burger said that libraries, like any public institution, have certain rules for conduct, for example prohibiting food and beverages, cell phones and profane language.

But on the issue of targeting the homeless, Burger said, "I think we need to be very cautious about mass stereotypes or using stereotypes to paint a broad brush about a whole group of people who may be innocent." Moreover, she said, libraries can serve as a valuable source of information on jobs and social programs for people trying to get back on their feet.

Mayor Wilder has also suggested rerouting bus routes off of the main downtown thoroughfare that passes by an upscale hotel, the Library of Virginia, the new courthouse, and VCU’s medical school. "We can't have all those people lying around outside the Library of Virginia, that beautiful building that I insisted be on Broad Street when I was governor," Wilder told the Richmond Times Dispatch.

Darrick, an artist and homeless Richmonder who preferred not to give his last name, said he experienced first-hand the city’s crackdown on homelessness when police hassled him for lying in the park and working on a drawing. The officer, he said, accused him of "camping out."

"He said, ‘You got that bag, doesn’t that have your clothes and stuff in it?’ I said, ‘No, it has my art supplies in it,’" Darrick told TNS. "They harass you."

Both Darrick and NCH President Stoops emphasize that one of the key problems for homeless people is that there is nowhere to go during the day. But instead of funding accessible "day centers" – facilities with indoor seating, showers, laundry, and referral services -- many places try to sweep the homeless to less visible areas. In Richmond, city officials are trying to move homeless services away from downtown to a blighted industrial area near the parole office and city jail.

In San Francisco, complaints about homeless people congregating in front of the library compelled the city to implement the "Homeward Bound" program, which has given nearly 1,000 homeless people one-way bus tickets out of town.

And in Atlanta – the fourth "meanest" city in the NCH’s study – local lawmakers banned panhandling in the downtown area and at bus stations, the airport and sports arenas. The ordinance also prohibits people from "requesting a donation of money" in business-district areas.

"It sounds like a Jim Crow law," said Stoops.

Anti-poverty and free-expression advocates raise constitutional concerns surrounding restrictions on begging and inhabiting public spaces. The NCH points out that courts have struck down laws that criminalize necessary activities for homeless people, like sleeping in public, citing the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

Beyond laws and ordinances, some city governments and businesses have used physical barriers to restrict not just the homeless, but people in general from taking up public space. Physical implements like seat-less bus stops, metal spikes on ledges, and metal barriers over subway grates have all cropped up to make urban spaces less accommodating.



President Bush’s $2.77 trillion 2007 budget proposal includes numerous cuts to programs for poor and homeless populations, including the Community Development and Social Services Block Grant programs, which fund low-income housing, childcare and child-welfare programs.

While the NCH notes that the budget proposal does boost funding for Homeless Assistance Grants and Housing for People with AIDS, the organization says it does so at the expense of other housing initiatives that could prevent or alleviate homelessness. Congress could vote on budget resolutions this week, before the Easter recess.

For the programs and communities that do receive federal funding for homeless and poverty programs, the NCH advocates requiring cities to opt for more supportive initiatives over criminalization of the homeless. The group states that any federal funding for homelessness and poverty should be "conditioned on local government agreement not to punish homeless persons for conduct related to their status."

"I think the American people have grown accustomed to seeing people living on our city sidewalks and streets," said Stoops. "And that’s why we don’t give it a second thought or stop or even say ‘hello’ when we see people in the streets. We just walk on by."

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Homeless can't simply shake addiction Las Vegas CityLife, April 13, 2006

Letter to the editor, Thursday, April 13, 2006

In reply to ["Homeless must help themselves," Letters, April 6].

Homeless can't simply shake addiction

...I have never drunk alcohol, never risk more than one pull on the Megabucks machine per paycheck, do NOT abuse over the counter medications and still am homeless. The definition of homelessness is much too strict: It is NOT just the person on the street corner begging.

To read the complete letter:

http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2006/04/13/letters/letters03.txt

Re: Homeless must help themselves, Las Vegas CityLife, April 06, 2006

Re: Homeless must help themselves

Letter to the editor, Thursday, April 06, 2006

The following link will take you to a letter to the editor in the Las Vegas CityLife.

Here is my reply.

CityLife may publish my comments if they wish.

Also here, I want to thank CityLife and the community for keeping the Las Vegas Valley's huge homeless problem in the media. We have multiple issues here including the AFFORDABLE HOUSING issue which is and will be affecting non-homeless as well as homeless folks.

http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2006/04/06/letters/letters02.txt

Ken: The death of Norman Bangs was tragic and needless, and both Gail Sacco and Westcare should be applauded for their efforts to help the homeless ["Death in Vegas," March 23]. But unfortunately, "more detox beds" are not the solution for homelessness in our city.

Mom: Thank you so much for your comments. Your comments help me and others see different view points. And also it gives us the opportunity to ponder the different insights to see if we are missing anything that would help us do better in our mission.

Ken: Don't kill the messenger, but the solution lies within the homeless themselves.

Mom: Yes, this is important "if and when" they can help themselves. Sometimes people need a helping hand to get to that point.

Ken: I was homeless when I arrived here, except for a beat-to-hell Volkswagen, but I didn't line up for Gail's free lunch. I was at Labor Express every day, doing whatever grunt work they'd offer for the $28 a day it paid. I was able to buy my own food and clothes, and kept looking for work, and I found it, and I made friends and networked, and presto, I wasn't homeless anymore.

Mom: Not knowing some of the facts relating to your particular situation, I will still try to comment. There are many different types of homeless and almost-homeless people. Having a "beat-to-hell" vehicle still gave you some sort of safe shelter. This gives a person an advantage to a better night's sleep (to be able to work the next day) than sleeping in an alley or behind a privately owned building.

I also don't know how long you were homeless. But for those who have been homeless for a short period of time, it is much easier to get off the streets than someone who has been on the streets for a longer period of time.

Also, depending on how long ago you were homeless makes a difference. Like the City Marshal who told me he was homeless 15 years ago and got himself off the streets all on his own. Fifteen years ago we had affordable housing...

It is estimated that forty percent of the homeless do work the day labor jobs. (And only two percent panhandle for a living.) But making up to $40 a day, maybe three days a week, is not enough money to buy your own food and clothes, soap, shaving gear, laundry detergent, laundry services, deodorant, sanitary napkins, etc. and save for a weekly motel or apartment.

Now, getting back to that vehicle that you own (smile). Most homeless don't have the luxury of owning a vehicle where they can keep all those nice interview clothes from being stolen while you are at the day labor. And, not having that vehicle also puts you at risk of being arrested over and over and over again for trespassing (sleeping on private property) or "lodging" in the public park after hours. So then you are subject to jail time and fines. And then that fine apartment you had your eye on gets put on hold.

And without that vehicle (and sometimes even with a vehicle) you get arrested for sleeping on "private" property without permission, and you had just landed a good job. Now you are in jail for seven days and can't get to work. Do you think your new employer will understand?

Ken: Ask yourself when was the last time you saw a Mexican holding up a sign reading "Homeless, Hungry, God Bless You?" You probably haven't and you probably won't. Because our Mexican population works, and they work harder than any other race I've known. In Florida, I did the hiring for a construction site, and I was called "racist" because I only hired Mexicans. In point of fact, Mexicans were virtually the only applicants that passed my company's drug test.

Mom: He he, (not really funny but...) yes many Mexicans work very hard here (legally and illegally) because they've left their country for a better life for themselves and their families. But many Mexicans are still working slave labor here because they don't have identification, etc. so they cannot even work at the day labor jobs.

No matter what race, all homeless (white, black, hispanic, asian, turkish, native american, etc.) all have different and some of the same barriers. Each is an individual with individual barriers and problems. And each handles their situation differently. We can either play the game of survival of the fittest. Or, we can offer what we can to help them maximize their abilities and strengths- all people of ALL nationalities.

Ken: "Death In Vegas" opens with "Norman Bangs had finally had enough of the streets ... cold and dusty back lots ... police harassment ... newspaper beds ... lack of running water." I'm sorry, but how does "finally" fit in there? Was there some time frame in which Norman found that lifestyle appealing? Greg Malms said, "There are so many doors that are being closed in your face." Well, temporary labor offices have been open to me, all over the country. Las Vegas has several. The work they offer isn't like giving back rubs to supermodels, but damn it, it's work, and work pays off. So if you're homeless, don't put "Will Work For Food" on your pathetic cardboard sign. If you'll work for food, you'd already be at a labor office.

Mom: As I said here and in other posts of mine, there are many barriers that prevent some folks from getting a job. We have to help break down those barriers so they can get a job if that is what they want. For example, no identification, no job. No birth certificate, no social security card, no identification. No legitimate job.

http://www.nlchp.org/contents/pubs/ID%20Barrier%20Report.pdf

Ken: In closing, "Norman Bangs ... had enough of the drinking and drugs." No, he hadn't. He died from them. Somehow he could afford alcohol and drugs, but not food or shelter. People can choose to rise above drugs and alcohol without a "detox bed" on their own. It's not easy and it's not fun. But ultimately, they themselves have to do it. Because all the Gail Saccos and Westcares in the universe won't be able to help those who won't help themselves.

Mom: We'll have to agree to disagree here. I do not believe that ALL people can get free from alcohol and/or drugs on their own. Each individual needs different things at different times. Some can do it on their own and some can't - whether one is homeless or non-homeless.

If we care about our fellow human beings, we must be there for them (as individuals and as a community) when they are ready to help themselves. Some have lost hope. We must help them restore their hope and dignity so they can begin --again-- to help themselves.

Thank you for taking the time to write to Las Vegas CityLife. And I am so glad that you are not homeless anymore. No one deserves to be homeless or hungry even if they've made their mistakes. Everyone deserves another chance or a helping hand to get off the streets if that's what they want.

And remember, you don't have to drink or do drugs to become homeless. Any one missed paycheck, a health crisis, an eviction whether it is a legal or illegal eviction, loss of a job or benefits, mental health issues, physical or medical health problems, or an unpaid bill can virtually make any one of us homeless.

Harassment or are the marshals just doing their job?

Sunday, April 2, 2006

What a beautiful day today! Sun was shining. Purple bushes in bloom. Comfortable temperatures. No unusual problems with our homeless and needy friends.

Come about 3:00 pm, the marshal's car pulls up on the west side of the park. Everyone was scattered throughout this gorgeous, public park chatting and enjoying each other's company.

Marshal R. McMenamy walks over to the table and asks the lone gentleman at the table, "Did you serve this food today?" Before the gentleman had time to answer, the marshal spotted me sitting under a tree and said, "Oh, there is Ms. Sacco."

Reminder: Marshal R. McMenamy is the same marshal who told Joe, "No signs in the park. Take the sign out of the park." Thankfully he was reminded by his superior of Joe's free speech rights.

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

I got up and said, "Hello Marshal" and then he began with the questions: How many people did you feed today? Did you feed over 25 people? Have you personally tried to get a permit? Who did you speak with?

I explained to him that I did not count the people. Then someone told him we fed 19 people. I told him that a friend of mine tried to apply for a permit for me. I told him, "But as you well know, this park is non-reservable."

He said to me, "I don't want to have to go through the whole spiel again. You know the rules as we told them to you on the day you were cited."

Another gentleman asked the marshal, "Do you think it's unconstitutional what the city is doing here?" The marshal told him, paraphrased: "I don't want to talk with you. I want to finish talking with this woman."

So I asked Marshal McMenamy, "Do you think that there is something wrong with sharing food with hungry people?" McMenamy replied, "It doesn't matter what I think." I said,
"Yes, it does matter what you think. If you think that the local laws are unjust and unconstitutional, and you are being ordered from up above to enforce these unjust laws, then that is a shame."

He replied, "Let me tell you that I enjoy my job and enjoy what I do. What is right is right. What is wrong is wrong." So I asked him, "So do you think that sharing food with hungry people is wrong?" He replied, again, "It doesn't matter what I think."

At that time, I felt someone coming up behind me. I turn around to see Deputy City Marshal Sergeant John Donohue. Gentleman as usual, he asked how everything was going. He said that there was a complaint by a neighbor because of the feeding.

I explained to him that today was an exceptional pleasant day. No fighting, no one was drunk, no noise, no litter. I couldn't imagine why any neighbor would be calling to complain.

I also explained to him that myself and fellow advocates were hoping to get together soon to discuss some proposals for the city. We are hoping that we can work together to come up with a plan to make everyone as happy as possible.

Shook hands with Sgt. Donohue and we all went on our merry way.

CityLife compared favorably to Bible, Las Vegas CityLife, March 23, 2006

First of all, I'm very pleased to see there are still writers who care to write stories like the one about the woman who feeds the homeless. In your Jan.19 issue, you published "Going in circles" by Emmily Bristol. Stories like that we can only read in the Bible.

To read the complete letter:

http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2006/03/23/letters/letters.txt

Death in Vegas, Las Vegas CityLife, March 23, 2006

Homeless man's apparent OD highlights the need for more detox beds



Norman Bangs waits in a food line at Circle Park. Bangs, 39, died March 11 behind an abandoned building across from the park.

Photo Credit: Bill Hughes, Photo Editor

BY MATT O'BRIEN

Norman Bangs had finally had enough of the streets. He'd had enough of the cold and dusty back lots, the police harassment, and the mocking teenagers. He'd had enough of the newspaper beds, the relentless sun and the lack of running water. He'd had enough of the drinking and the drugs.

He just wanted a little help. What he got was the cold shoulder and a one-way ticket
back to the streets, where he died earlier this month.

To read the complete article:

http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2006/03/23/local_news/news01.txt

Media Updates

No picnic this time - Woman cited for feeding too many homeless

By Timothy Pratt
Las Vegas Sun

An act of charity - feeding the homeless - has landed one local woman in court.

Gail Sacco must appear March 20 in Municipal Court to answer charges that she violated a Las Vegas ordinance by gathering more than 25 people in a city park without a permit.

To read the complete article:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2006/mar/07/566620162.html

Editorial: The worst ticket in town

Resident cited for feeding homeless people in a Las Vegas park discovers that even when charity begins at home it still needs a permit

It is a sad day when a city tickets those who feed homeless people.

According to a story in Tuesday's Las Vegas Sun, resident Gail Sacco is heading to Las Vegas Municipal Court on March 20 because her practice of feeding homeless people in Circle Park violates a Las Vegas ordinance that prohibits gatherings of more than 25 people without a permit.

To read the complete article:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2006/mar/08/566662547.html?homeless

Woman Cited For Feeding Too Many Homeless

(KVVU) -- A good deed has landed a valley woman in court.

Gail Sacco was cited and banned from downtown's Circle Park for six months for feeding too many homeless people.

According to park rules, it's against the law for a group of 25 people or more to gather without a permit.

To read the complete article:

http://www.kvvu.com/Global/story.asp?S=4602605

Letter: Woman sets an example for all of us

The Sun's story about the lovely lady that was feeding the homeless is very upsetting to me ("No picnic this time - woman cited for feeding too many homeless," March 7). She is doing what each of us should be doing each day.

To read the complete letter:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/debate/2006/mar/09/566644973.html

Law used to thwart homeless helpers targeted

By DAVID McGRATH SCHWARTZ
REVIEW-JOURNAL




Photo Credit: Ralph Fountain


The case against two women cited while feeding the homeless was delayed after an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union said he would challenge the Las Vegas ordinance in federal court.

City marshals cited Gail Sacco and Lyla Bartholomae on Feb. 19 for having a gathering of 25 people or more at Huntridge Circle Park without a permit. Sacco was told by a marshal that she could not return to the park for six months. If she did, he warned, she would be charged with trespassing.

The two were cited while serving hot food, as they usually do, to the homeless at the park on Maryland Parkway, just south of Charleston Boulevard.

Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel of the ACLU of Nevada, said that he would file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance within a few weeks.

The city's ordinance, he said, was unconstitutionally broad and vague. Under the ordinance, Lichtenstein said, a single protester at a park who attracted a crowd of hecklers could be cited if 25 or more people showed up.

He also said that the practice of banning people from parks goes around the right to due process.

To read the complete article:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Mar-21-Tue-2006/news/6472254.html