Police Slash Tents of Homeless People

[Twist_U_Up]

St. Petersburg, Florida - Police officers with box cutters showed up where St. Pete's tent city residents had moved to and set up. They slashed their tents to the ground as residents watched in shock.

http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/79382/Police_Slash_Tents_of_Homeless_People.html

another link
Mayor: Tent raid was not my plan
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/23/Southpinellas/Mayor__Tent_raid_was_.shtml

[ThomCat]

1. That is totally heartless.

x(

I also hope it's illegal. That department needs to get sued.

[Wizard777]

2. That destruction of property. Arrest the officers. n/t

[EFerrari]

3. That's just sick. Sick, sick, sick.

:nuke:

[judaspriestess]

4. why don't they just shoot and kill the homeless

since many police have itchy trigger finger.:eyes: Where are the homeless supposed to go?

[me b zola]

5. Police do this shit because the homeless have no resources to fight back

I hope that an attorney will work pro-bono on this and sue the shit out of the police for destroying those people's personal property.

:grr:

[EFerrari]

6. Cowards in uniform. I'm sorry, but this is beyond the pale. n/t

[Fovea]

7. What was that phrase about the least among you again?

Pretty sure their messiah said that to them.

[lpbk2713]

8. That would be called malicious mischief

if it hadn't been done by people wearing uniforms and badges.

O, the hypocrisy.

[Rex]

9. Ah yes...Florida!

As a Texan, I love the fact that states like Florida exist! Takes some of the heat off my state. About the police, whatever happened to 'to protect and serve'? Just lip service now eh?

[Greyhound]

11. "To serve and to protect" was the slogan originally adopted by the LAPD , they just left

off the subtext. The whole thing goes, "To serve the wealthy, and protect the status quo."

[Wizard777]

12. That slogan actually refers to the US Constitution . Not the citizens.

They actually have no duty to protect you and cannot be held liable for failing to do so.

[Ellipsis]

36. "Presence and Persuasion" is the mantra now. n/t

[Greyhound]

10. Florida and Texas, what is the problem with these places?

They seem to attract, or maybe breed, and accept, a much larger number of fascists and criminals than other states.

[Joanne98]

19. White collar criminals can't have their houses seized in either state.

[girl gone mad]

21. Oh, please.

On Aug. 26, homeless people living next to a freeway in Fresno returned to their tents after breakfast at a nearby shelter to find their little community surrounded by police and city workers, accompanied by a bulldozer and garbage truck. The city was there to build a fence around this narrow strip of land, and the dozens of people who had been living there - in some cases for months - had just minutes to gather up everything they owned and leave.

The residents hurried to strike their tents and pack their belongings under the watchful eyes of the police. Soon, however, the police were done waiting. Starting at one end of the strip, they began ordering the residents away. City workers and the bulldozer then began scooping up everything that was left and dropping it the waiting garbage truck, where it was immediately crushed.

http://www.aclunc.org/news/opinions/court_steps_up_to_protect_property_of_homeless.shtml

At 6:00 a.m. on October 27, more than 70 law enforcement officers from a wide variety of City, County, State and Special District police departments swarmed 24 homeless encampments along the Iron Horse Trail through Concord, Pleasant Hill, Pacheco, and unincorporated areas in Contra Costa County.

This unprecedented police sweep was the single most horrendous act against homeless people in Contra Costa County in all of my 25-plus years as an activist and advocate.

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2005/Homeless-Contra-Costa-Co1nov05.htm

About 20 San Francisco police officers will be suspended because of their alleged involvement in what the mayor and police chief describe as videos that mock minorities and treat women as sex objects, the officials said Wednesday night.

One video shows a homeless black woman railing against white people after apparently being hit by a patrol car, followed by an officer grumbling about having to deal with her. "They get us involved with their business,'' the officer said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/08/MNGQIG4PLD1.DTL

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani declared yesterday that the homeless had no right to sleep on the streets and his police commissioner added that they could be arrested if they refused shelter. Their remarks came three days after an office worker in Midtown Manhattan was critically injured in a random attack by a man the police say may have been homeless.

''Streets do not exist in civilized societies for the purpose of people sleeping there,'' the mayor said yesterday during his weekly radio call-in show. ''Bedrooms are for sleeping.'' He added that the right to sleep on the streets ''doesn't exist anywhere. The founding fathers never put that in the Constitution.''

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9805E2D9153CF933A15752C1A96F958260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fS%2fSafir%2c%20Howard

Want more?

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/crimreport/allcities.html

The homeless are treated badly EVERYWHERE in this country. Go on and pretend that your liberal bastion is only inhabited by morally impeccable individuals and the problem is Florida and Texas.

[Greyhound]

25. I never said they weren't, nor do I "pretend that (my) liberal bastion is only inhabited by...

..morally impeccable individuals". The facts are that Florida and Texas, unlike the rest of the country, are havens for corporate criminals and reich-wing extremists, that have and accept legal sanction of, what amounts to, fraud and extortion.

No place is perfect, just some places are even less so. Apparently some places breed especially thin-skinned people too.

BTW, I moved to this "liberal bastion" from another reich-wing hell-hole, primarily because it is.

[Downtown Hound]

30. Very true.

This problem is hardly confined to two states.

[DarkTirade]

35. Well, both have had a Bush for governor.

I wonder which is the cause of the other... :)

[Jcrowley]

13. Disgusting

Thugs

[Cleita]

14. Another example of the bullying tactics of the elites. They are picking on people

who have next to nothing and making sure that they have nothing. I am so proud of our democracy. :sarcasm:

[northofdenali]

15. Email them. I did.

[e-mail]

Chief: Charles Harmon

Assistant Chiefs: Dave DeKay, Cedric Gordon, Luke Williams

This is a disgrace to police officers everywhere, and I think we should let the SPPD know it! :mad:

[EFerrari]

17. Thanks for the email address. I will.

Muthas. :mad:

[Downtown Hound]

16. I fucking hate cops

I'm sorry but I do. Bunch of fucking yellow gut cowards running around in uniform. Don't even bother with any responses about how not all cops are bad and they really just want to protect us and blah blah blah. Cops in this country are out of control. That was totally uncalled for and sheer bullying.

[Rex]

18. They are following along with the totalitarian program the BFEE is using.

They are becoming 'enforcers' and not 'peacekeepers'.


I think this picture says it all.

[Mortos]

20. As a former police officer

and the friend of police officers and the son in law of police officer, I find your comment incredibly ignorant and stereotyping. There are a lot of good men and women who don the uniform and deal with crap daily that most people will never see in their lives and do it well and professionally.

Anyone who makes a blanket statement that paints an entire group of people of a particular race, religion, nationality or even occupation as all the same is ignorant.

Everyone hates the cops until someone is breaking into their house at 3 a.m. or their spouse is beating the shit out of them, or someone steals their car. Then attitudes change.

Get a grip and grow up a little.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Blue-Jay]

27. Cop-bashing is idiotic.

My step-dad is a retired cop, and he's a wonderful man and a good Democrat. He is the best, most sincere, & most caring man that you could ever know.

I have an idea: Why don't you come over and paint my fucking house, since you're so good with the broad brush?

[Downtown Hound]

28. No thanks, you can do that just fine on your own.

Oh and on edit: You know what's really idiotic? Destroying the only meager home of people that have no where else to go just because they're easy to pick on. I find that really stupid, sorry if hurt your feelings regarding daddy about that.

[Mortos]

31. You obviously don't know me or any other cops

When cops act like assholes and break the law, I criticize them and hope for their imminent departure from the job. When cops break the law, I am the first to condemn them and support their prosecution.

There are bad cops but to generalize like you have done over and over and to use your limited experiences as justification for 'hating all fucking cops" is, again, ignorant.

I am not going to waste anymore time with you. Good luck with your hate.

[Downtown Hound]

33. Well, since you're not going to waste any more time with me

you're probably not going to answer this question, but I'm going to ask it nevertheless. How do you feel about what you saw in this video? Since when is it okay for cops to just go and destroy somebody's home without a warrant or court order or any due process of law? You do realize that was somebody's private property don't you? Is it common practice for cops to just destroy somebody's property? Or are you in fact required to seize evidence and deal with it in due process of law? You do realize that if I was to go and do something like that, I would be arrested, and rightly so? But I guess it's okay for cops to break the law, but whatever you do, don't get mad at them! Because if you do, you're just an ignorant, hateful bastard. Are you going to tell me that they would have done that to anybody else that wasn't homeless? Because if you are, I'm going to call you a liar. They know homeless people have no resources to fight back, and that society as a whole doesn't give a shit about them. You say you're quick to condemn the lawless actions of police officers, and yet here you are, witness to a video of cops doing just that, and all you can do is get mad at me for being mad at you. Thank you for proving my point about how cops always protect their own no matter what. This, my friend, is why I hate cops. You say you're quick to condemn the lawless actions of fellow police officers, but I sure as hell don't see it.

You can call me a hateful person, but all I really am is angry at that kind of injustice. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I and many others that hate cops have good reason? Has it ever occurred that anger is a perfectly acceptable human emotion when it comes to injustice? I am not an irrational human being, no matter how much you'd like to think so. In fact, I'm a very compassionate person. Those people were just trying to live in the meager circumstances they had available to them, and some cops had to swarm in and destroy what little they had. I hope you're proud of the uniform you wear when you see that, because I know I sure as hell wouldn't be.

[Mortos]

37. I will bite one more time

A. I haven't seen the video.
B. There are posts here saying the tents were destroyed because they posed a risk to the occupants of fire and that they were replaced with fire resistant tents. Have you checked out that possibility?
C. You didn't say you hate these cops or you hate the, apparently, many cops who have abused you over your life. You stated you "hate all fucking cops" and then proceeded to portray every police officer in this country as criminals and abusive. That is where I take exception with you and your comments. It wouldn't matter if you were talking about cops, politicians, doctors, or Eskimos. Your statement uses incredible broad strokes to paint an entire group as abusive, lying, violators of human rights. That is where you are wrong and ignorant.

I will watch the video and research the story further and then, and only then, will I make a judgement on these officers particular actions.

Before watching though, I wonder if you think these officers took it on themselves to just randomly destroy these tents. Do you think a group of them got together at the donut shop in between taking bribes and keeping people down and said, "Hey, lets go fuck with those homeless people"? Or do you think there may be more to the story?

Just wondering.

I will post again after I review the video and story.

'Til then.

[Mortos]

38. Okay then.

After reviewing the videos and researching the story I have come to the following conclusions:

The homeless people involved were the last remaining group who had been camping in various locations in the city and had been moved a number of times before arriving at the bridge location. The ones who left voluntarily were given, free of charge, vouchers for rent, tickets to return to family members or other areas that they wanted to go to, and other accommodations or necessities to be able to live off the street. The ones who stayed refused all such help. The previous night, they were asked to remove their tents and to stop cooking and smoking in them due to the risk of fire. Some tents were taken down but were put up again as soon as officials left. The next morning at a meeting of the deputy mayor, fire chief and police chief, it was decided that the tents were to be removed or destroyed to prevent the possibility of fire, vehicle accidents and the illegal camping on city property.

The police officers, from several different agencies, were told to remove the tents or destroy them and to avoid confrontations with the homeless tenants. One police officer asked a tenant if he was okay during the process. The officers I saw were not joyously rampaging through the tents and slashing them like Jack the Ripper. They were doing what they had been told to do and, in one report I read, they were doing this even though some of them personally disagreed with the decision.

The issue had been brought to a head because of several occurrences including; complaints from drivers in the area after nearly hitting the homeless when crossing the busy street, the murder of two of the residents in the recent weeks, an increase in drug trafficking in the area, and the aforementioned fire hazard from the residents smoking and cooking with open fire in their tents.

The damaged tents were replaced within hours and fire extinguishers were distributed throughout the camp to provide better fire safety.

The cops did what they were ordered to do. They did not beat up or mock the people that were involved. The responsibility falls to the mayor, police chief and fire chief who made the decision to take the actions that resulted in the tents being destroyed.

It is very easy to sit back and criticize but I wonder how many homeless people you would invite into your home. Not many who sit back and support the homeless with words would ever stop to do more than throw a handful of change out the window. There are systems set up to provide care and housing for the homeless in every major city in this country, including St. Petersburg. Many, for whatever reason, choose not to take part in the charitable care offered.

The government can obviously do more to help.

But again, to hate these officers and to use their actions to justify your irrational hate of every one of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who are police officers in this country is ridiculous and simplistic. Your opinion also discourages good people from joining and staying with the police department.

I wonder if your attitude towards police may create a self fulfilling prophecy when dealing with them. In my experience, the people who are cooperative and decent to the police officers they deal with receive decent treatment in return.

There are some cops who are out of control and deserve to be, and usually are eventually, sued, fired, charged with crimes and put in prison as they should be.

Would you rather live in a word with no law enforcement?

[Downtown Hound]

39. I'm in the middle of finals right now

So I don't have time to post the rather long response that I have in mind for this, but I will PM you with a response if that's okay with you. I promise to try and be thoughtful and not angry. I'm actually enjoying this, you've earned my respect, and being the cop that you are that's not easy for me to admit. I'll work with you to try and find common ground, if you're open.

[Mythsaje]

34. I've known my share of people

who have very good reasons for disliking cops. One of them is a drug law a activist in Alaska, and considers the police to be the vanguard of a fascist state. We've had debates on their value a number of times and I've never been able to get him to budge an inch.

The other is an old friend who believes they're simply intelligence gatherers for a growing database on ALL civilians, and (often) unknowing servants of a government that's quickly getting out of our control.

I've also chatted with several on an on-line message board and found them pretty much like everyone else. They have their good and their bad, just like any profession. When I was a teenager, I caught the bad side more than the good, but since becoming an adult, I've been treated quite well in general, getting back whatever respect I myself gave.

On the other hand (and there's ALWAYS another hand) I do have issues with the "blue wall" and the notion that because WE are not out there dealing with the worst of the worst on a daily basis, we can't possibly understand what they go through and don't have the right to criticize...well, screw that. My wife was a C.O. some years before we met and left the profession after a couple of years because she said it tends to harden you towards other people, and restricts your viewpoint...she doesn't think either police work or corrections work is a good long-term career for anyone, unless you want to get to the point you don't give a shit about anyone who isn't more or less just like you.

The fact that they're the foot-soldiers in the War on (some) Drugs (particularly the ones not marketed by the Pharmaceutical Syndicate) and are gradually being conditioned to consider the rest of us at least POTENTIAL enemies, or suspects, is enough to give anyone with a lick of sense a bit of a pause when they stop to consider it.

I respect SOME of what they do, but also think of them as being in a way similar to the soldiers in Iraq, forced into a permanent war that they cannot win, a "war" that is being used to take aim at our civil liberties and, consequently, place millions of Americans behind bars and restrict their civil rights at the same time.

Unfortunately, I can see both sides of things. All too often.

[texanwitch]

23. Twice I had cops attack me for no reason.

Once when I was at the Halliburton protest in Houston, the cop tried to run me over with his horse when I was standing on the sidewalk. (the free speech zone)

The second time when I was walking my dogs in the open space near my house.

They were looking for a male, over 6 ft. with a shotgun, I don't look like a male over 6 ft. tall.

I was also the wrong color.

I was surrounded by cops with guns pointed at me, my poor dogs were trying to protect me.

They could have killed me and I think they would have, but one officer was female.

She stayed calm, but not one of them told me they were sorry afterwards.

No I don't llke cops.

[pitohui]

24. i thought these tents were already replaced

some one linked a story yesterday which claimed a group had already replaced the tents with fire resistant tents and had also supplied fire extinguishers

the reason for destroying the tents were so that people cooking in their tents would not burn up the whole tent city alive, which is probably not a terrible awful inhumane thing to do

it was botched but isn't it fixed now?

[VP505]

26. I have been on the receiving

end of some of that abuse from "good guy cops". Like it or not a very high percentage of police officers have no business in that job. It's an us against them attitude that apparently comes with having a badge, there is NO EXCUSE for what those officers did, and there is no excuse for being an apologists for it. It's nothing less than abuse of authority, picking on a class of people that are unable to defend themselves, a cowardly and disgusting display of inhumanity. It happens far to often in way too many police departments in a supposedly first world country that claims to be a democratic republic.

[Ilsa]

29. Man, the Jebbies are getting pissy, aren't they?

They are picking on homeless people or anyone who helps homeless, like that policeman who got into trouble for bringing along that woman's shopping cart.

[nam78_two]

32. K&R.nt