Street Spirit Volume 20, No. 7 July 2014 Donation: $1.00 A publication of the American Friends Service Committee JUSTICE NEWS & HOMELESS BLUES IN THE B AY A REA The Long March from Selma to San Bruno by Terry Messman onsidering how many times the organizers and activists of the Freedom Movement were jailed Call across the nation during the hard-fought struggle for civil rights, San Bruno County Jail seems a fitting place to celebrate a renewal of Martin Luther King’s vision of nonviolent social change. As our small delegation entered the jail to hold a graduation ceremony for nine pris- oners who had completed intensive train- ings in Kingian Nonviolence, I felt a pro- found sense of history on the move. For as we walked down the long corridors of the jail, we were led by Bernard LaFayette, a close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr. and an internationally respected authority on Kingian Nonviolence. LaFayette’s personal march through history has taken him from organizing the A graduation in nonviolence for men in San Bruno jail. At right (in suits) are Gus Newport, Bernard LaFayette and Kazu Haga. disenfranchised black residents of Selma, Alabama, prevented from voting by a bru- LaFayette is present at San Bruno jail to ting up peace studies in universities and brilliant strategies and costly sacrifices it tal system of racism, to his present-day honor King’s very last words to him. teaching nonviolence inside jail cells. took to win voting rights on the bloody trainings in Kingian Nonviolence with On King’s last morning on earth, he As we entered a large complex of jail streets of Selma, Alabama. disenfranchised prisoners in jails. told LaFayette: “Now, Bernard, the next cells that houses about 50 prisoners, I When several young prisoners realized LaFayette was chosen by Martin movement we’re going to have is to insti- noticed that Theresa Guy Moran, an attor- that LaFayette was, in truth, the same man Luther King to be the national coordinator tutionalize and internationalize nonvio- ney trained in Kingian Nonviolence, was standing next to Dr. King in the book’s of the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968. lence.” During the decades since King’s carrying a book with a cover photo of a cover photo, they immediately expressed And he was with Dr. King in the Lorraine murder, LaFayette has spent his life trying young Bernard LaFayette standing side by deep respect and gratitude to LaFayette Motel in Memphis on the morning of to carry the message of Kingian side with Martin Luther King. The book, for his work for civil rights in Selma. April 4, 1968, the day King was murdered Nonviolence to the world, training social- In Peace and Freedom, My Journey in in Memphis. In a very real sense, change activists in far-flung nations, set- Selma, is an illuminating case study of the See A Long March from Selma page 8 His Heart Is with the People on the Street “Michael is such an inspiration to every person who wants to be a community organizer because his heart is always with the people.” — Janny Castillo by Lydia Gans er at St. Mary’s Center who used to work or close to 30 years, Michael at BOSS for many years. She told me, “I Diehl has walked through the worked with Michael Diehl for 12 years streets and parks of Berkeley, and he is such an inspiration to every per- connecting with people, talking, son who wants to be a community orga- F nizer because his heart is always with the listening, and just being present. Many of the people he reaches out to are homeless people. There is not a moment when their or inadequately housed. They may be sit- priorities and their needs don’t come first. ting alone and sometimes have unexpect- It has been my pleasure to work along ed outbursts of anger and violence. beside him. He has been my mentor and They are people who need help but role model for a very long time.” have given up asking or expecting help. The recently retired executive director Or they may be people who are deeply of BOSS, boona chema, said, “I have been concerned about political or social justice a student of the wisdom that Michael issues and are looking to engage with oth- holds about mental illness and trauma — ers in community action. my dear friend who taught me fearless- I often see Michael Diehl in Peoples ness and kept me honest in my work with Park and downtown Berkeley, talking people less resourced.” with the street people, the young and the I’ve watched Michael calmly dealing old, and it is clear that they respect and with troubled people and defusing stress- trust him. He works for BOSS (Building ful situations. I wanted to get to know this Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency) as a man with the bushy beard and ready community organizer. People who have smile. I felt I could learn a lot from him. worked with him and know him well His job title is community organizer, but speak of him with great admiration. he says, “It seems to be more peer out- Janny Castillo is a community organiz- See His Heart Is with the People page 11 Michael Diehl has been active on the streets of Berkeley for 30 years. Lydia Gans photo 2 S TREET S PIRIT July 2014 Homeless Advocates Targeted by Fresno Police

Fresno officials demolished every encampment and destroyed tons of homeless people’s belongings. The Fresno Police Department will not allow any homeless encampments to re-emerge.

Story and photos by Mike Rhodes resno Police Sergeant Robert Dewey has produced a power point presentation that identifies FPastor Chris Breedlove of the College Community Congregational Church as a leader in a resistance move- ment to stop the demolition of the Grain Silo homeless encampment in Fresno. The presentation, shown to several community groups, identifies the Brown Berets as the “muscle” behind the struggle to stop Fresno officials from destroying this homeless encampment. Breedlove says he felt concerned by the tone of the presentation. In a slide entitled “The Final Line in the Sand!” the Fresno Police Department (FPD) claimed that there were “12-15 advocates on hand, Fresno Police Department Sergeant Robert Dewey (left) orders American Civil Liberties Union organizer and Community intermixed with members of the Brown Alliance board member Pam Whalen to move back, as she documents the demolition of the Grain Silo homeless encampment. Berets for ‘muscle.’” The slide goes on to say that the group being of my family. What if we needed an was “led by Pastor Chris Breedlove of the emergency response by the FPD? Is there College Community Congregational a bias among the FPD against progres- Church.” Breedlove said he was “out- sives such as myself? Is there a specific raged, intimidated, and concerned that a FPD bias toward my ministry?” citizen not charged of any crime, and not Mario Manganiello, who is associated under any investigation, could be named with, but not a member of the Brown and listed in a public document by the Berets, was at the Grain Silo homeless Fresno Police Department in what is tan- encampment during the demolition men- tamount to a smear campaign or being tioned in the FPD power point presenta- proscribed.” tion. Manganiello said that the Brown Novella Coleman, an American Civil Berets did not organize a presence there Liberties Union (ACLU) staff attorney in that day and is upset that the FPD is por- Fresno, would not comment about traying them as some kind of violent whether the characterization of Breedlove gang. amounted to defamation, but did say that “They are saying that we were the “the City has an unfortunate history of ‘muscle’ and pushing for violence and violating the rights of homeless persons that is absolutely not true,” Manganiello by confiscating and destroying their prop- said. “My concern is that, with that word- erty. So it is troubling that the City may ing, they are trying to say we are trying to be targeting local advocates who seek to promote violence or encourage other peo- hold the City accountable during these so- ple to be violent towards the FPD.” Pastor Chris Breedlove spoke out against Fresno Mayor Swearengin and City called cleanups.” “But, our stance has always been Manager Rudd when police began destroying every homeless encampment in town. According to Breedlove, it is intimidat- peaceful at rallies and marches and we are ing to be targeted by the police as the not a violent organization. We are for leader of a lawless group. He said, “I nonviolent peaceful protests.” Pastor Chris Breedlove said he was “outraged, intimidat- worry about how my future efforts, issues, Ralphy Avita, a member of the Fresno ed, and concerned that a citizen not charged of any crime” and ministries will be adversely impacted Brown Berets, said, “I am afraid that the by my congregation and myself being FPD will do as was done in the ‘60s and could be subjected to “what is tantamount to a smear cam- negatively branded by the FPD in such a paign” by the Fresno Police Department. public way. I also worry about the well- See Fresno Advocates Targeted page 3 Sleep Moratorium Gains Support in Santa Cruz by Linda Ellen Lemaster Rough sleepers and activists believe former Occupy members spoke during the the camping ban is a bad law because it chapter’s public comment time. ACLU SANTA CRUZ he Santa Cruz County Chapter criminalizes public nighttime sleeping, a Housing NOW Santa Cruz believes of the American Civil Liberties STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLE necessity to survive. Outdoor sleeping is that a time-limited moratorium on the “The Santa Cruz County Chapter of Union voted to adopt a banned everywhere in Santa Cruz. sleeping ban ordinance would put these Statement of Principle at its the American Civil Liberties Union sup- T Housing NOW Santa Cruz believes assumptions to the test. ports in principle a limited time morato- most recent board meeting, in support of a that because such bans are part of a sys- Because such patterns of enforcement rium on enforcement of camping ban proposed time-limited camping ban mora- tem used to criminalize homelessness, and impacts of criminalization are finally torium in the City of Santa Cruz. laws and ordinances within the City and intentional or not, it is unconstitutional, making their way into higher courts in this County of Santa Cruz on the grounds The camping ban moratorium repre- and too easily used to selectively enforce, nation, support from our ACLU for that such laws and ordinances selective- sents a step across the chasm between in the same way a loitering ticket is. addressing the sleeping and camping ban ly criminalize the homeless community. people experiencing homelessness and the Many local residents claim that with- couldn’t come at a better time. “While the chapter is mindful that neighbors and governmental systems that out such an ordinance our police would be Other chapters are also examining such a moratorium raises practical prob- rail against their very presence. unable to regulate the growing numbers of local problems regarding the criminaliza- lems within the community at large, we “Our ACLU chapter is moving toward travelers and homeless people who are tion of homelessness, and the regional believe that the benefits of such an a more progressive agenda,” said Steve forced to sleep outdoors in the absence of ACLU conference in Sacramento in April approach in terms of the opportunity for Pleich, vice chair, who has been advocat- sufficient shelter options. included a workshop on California’s his- civic leaders, policy makers and stake- ing for a closer examination of the sleep- The ACLU voted for this moratorium tory of criminalizing homelessness. holders to reassess the efficacy of these ing/camping ban ordinance, at least since after a groundswell of support. Homeless For further information about the work of laws and ordinances outweighs any tem- the Occupy Movement began its local people, several activists from Homeless the ACLU on this issue, please contact Steve porary adverse impact.” growing pains. United for Friendship and Freedom, and Pleich at [email protected]. July 2014 S TREET S PIRIT 3 Fresno Advocates Targeted by Police from page 2

‘70s with the more left-wing radical groups such as the Black Panther Party and classify us as the ‘bad civil rights groups’ and thus discredit us. I am hope- ful that in this age of the Internet we can fight back against such a characterization. “Our youth are better equipped to fight with a smart phone than with a gun, as ‘Anonymous’ has demonstrated. So unless we allow them to manipulate our image we still have a chance to win the public’s trust.” Speaking about the role of the Brown Berets in the community, Avita said it is “to organize, educate and serve the com- munities who are oppressed. Unlike past beret organizations, we are not nationalis- tic, homophobic, sexist, or conforming to institutions who would oppress others. Also, unlike most groups, we do support The City of Fresno destroyed tons of homeless people’s belongings at this and several other encampments in the downtown the people’s right to self defense and thus area. The new policy, enforced by the Fresno Police Department, is to allow no homeless encampments to re-emerge. will not consider ourselves nonviolent.” Responding to a California Public Records Act request, the Fresno Police Department provided the Community Alliance with a version of the power point presentation that did not include the infor- mation that offended Breedlove and the Brown Berets. Sergeant Dewey, who pro- duced the presentation, “An Overview of our Mission, Accomplishments and Goals,” says he changed the references to Breedlove and the Brown Berets, some photos, and other minor details. Dewey said he had reason to believe that Breedlove was the leader of the homeless advocate group, because he had previously held a press conference on the issue and had negotiated with the attorney representing the City of Fresno about the Grain Silo homeless encampment. He added that the information has been removed from the power point presenta- tion and if Breedlove is upset he will apologize to him. “I would apologize to Pastor Breedlove, to say that if that is not what was going on, if that was an assumption I made that was wrong, I apologize,” Sergeant Dewey said. “I did take it out. I had been told by one or two other people that maybe it should be a little more Homeless advocates in Fresno were willing to risk arrest to stop the City of Fresno from taking homeless people's property. generic. That is why I decided to go ahead Their banner declares: “How to deal with the homeless problem. TRY THE GOLDEN RULE.” Pictured from left to right: and change it.” Bev Fitzpatrick, Mario Manganiello, Dixie Salazar, and Nancy Waidtlow. The Brown Berets did not have an organized presence at the Grain Silo During the demolition of the Grain Silo “We very quickly evolved from, ‘OK, need to be engaged. Communities of faith homeless encampment on the day of the homeless encampment on October 23, let’s move these people along and keep need to be involved. But, elected officials demolition, but they also caught the atten- 2013, Breedlove took video footage, the streets clean.’ That was easy! I truly cannot abdicate their elected responsibili- tion of Dewey and the FPD. including a scene where he asked an on- think that was the easy part. That is what ty on this issue as well. There needs to be Dewey said, “As far as the muscle, we duty police officer for his name and badge we do, we are cops, right? The hard part a multifaceted approach for such a prob- did recognize people that we had seen in number. The officer ignored the request. was, but what do we do now? What do we lem of immense complexity.” the past that were wearing obvious brown ACLU attorney Coleman, citing do after the dust is settled? We quickly “Housing First initiatives are one handkerchiefs and brown berets. I have California Penal Code § 830.10, said that transitioned into social work and that is a approach, but that alone will not be a total done some dignitary protection in the past “any uniformed peace officer shall wear a very difficult hat for us to wear.” remedy. Advocates have detailed what an and I know what it looks like when one badge, nameplate, or other device which There is a recognition by Dewey and organized, safe and secure campsite person is protecting others. That is what it bears clearly on its face the identification other members of the FPD Homeless Task would involve; but such sincere offers of appeared to us as.” number or name of the officer.” Force that they will not succeed by tradi- collaboration have been ignored by all Manganiello said the purpose of the Dewey says that Police Officer tional police methods alone. They do cite city council members and county board of group he was with on that day was to give Nicholas El-Helou was on duty and statistics like the 1,333 shopping carts supervisor’s members to date. the homeless enough time to move their should have identified himself, but didn’t they have removed, 125 felony arrests, “Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin and property. “We were able to stall them (the because he was in plain clothes and told and 266 new homeless encampments they City Manager Bruce Rudd only exacer- City of Fresno) for a long enough time so not to “engage” unless there were prob- have cleared, but they get more excited bate the lives of homeless people by the homeless could put their belongings lems. Dewey said he is confident that this talking about the one-on-one encounters demolishing their communities. Some into storage, so that was the ultimate out- problem will not be repeated. that have led to homeless people getting within the religious fabric of Fresno come,” Manganiello said. Dewey shows the power point presen- the help they need to get off the streets. believe that homeless advocates should Sergeant Dewey saw the situation differ- tation to community groups in an effort to Members of the FPD Homeless Task collaborate with the city toward solutions. ently. “As a law enforcement officer, I can’t explain the dynamics taking place at the Force have no professional training as I’m of the mindset that it’s difficult to col- allow that. I can’t allow somebody else to FPD as part of the City of Fresno’s work social workers. Their “tough love” laborate with an administration that sends control the tempo on a scene that I’m sup- to end homelessness. He says that he ini- approach to ending homelessness has seri- bulldozers and intimidating task forces posed to be in control of. The fact of the tially saw the role of the FPD Homeless ous limitations, and the sometimes awk- barreling down on a person that you’re matter is that we had a trespassing issue.” Task Force as eliminating the encamp- ward encounters with homeless advocates trying to help. The City of Fresno first About the characterization of the ments and then stopping them from re- makes them a less than ideal group to be needs to halt harmful and costly policies Brown Berets as being the muscle, Dewey emerging. on the front line in the City of Fresno’s toward the homeless.” said, “If they are upset about this, I apolo- “We can’t just ignore the underlying approach to ending homelessness. gize. I will apologize to their face if they issue of the fact that we still have this Pastor Breedlove said, “It is truly a Mike Rhodes is a writer and photograph- er for the Fresno Community Alliance news- want me to speak to them. I’ve got no huge homeless population that has complex and devastating human rights paper. Contact [email protected] problem with that.” nowhere to go,” Dewey said. problem of suffering. Individual citizens 4 S TREET S PIRIT July 2014 A Constitution-Free Zone on the U.S. Border by David Bacon nder the Fourth Amendment, the people of the United States are not supposed to be subject Uto random and arbitrary stops and searches. But within 100 miles of a U.S. border, these rules don’t apply. Last July, a worker phoned Alejandro Valenzuela, a young staff member at the Southside Workers Center in Tucson, Arizona. The police were at his home, the worker said, and were detaining him for deportation. Valenzuela and a friend drove over to observe and “to make sure his rights were being respected.” Over the next half hour the police grew increasingly hostile, demanding identifi- cation from Valenzuela, despite the fact that he was not driving the car, which was parked at the curb. They then detained Valenzuela and the worker. Police then drove the two to Border Patrol headquarters. Neither was ever arrested or accused of a crime. Valenzuela was detained and intensively questioned for five hours, and finally released only when he could show he qualified for Deferred Action, which allows undocumented young people “End Deportations Now!” Immigrants, union members, and people of faith call for an end to deportations. David Bacon photo (DREAMers) to apply for deferred depor- tation and work authorization. The worker was eventually deported. In Arizona, the ACLU documented “unprovoked assaults and verbal abuse, the unwarrant- “On the street we get stopped and ed use of handcuffs and shackles, extended and recurring detention, invasive searches, questioned because of the way we look,” property destruction and confiscation, and denial of food, water and legal representation.” Valenzuela charges. “It’s racial profiling.” THE ACLU FILES SUIT titious document or a Social Security ment clearly exceeds this standard. should not have to fear that they could be On his behalf, the American Civil number belonging to another person. stopped and questioned without reason Liberties Union filed the first challenge to THREATENED AND MANHANDLED any time they drive or are passengers in section 2B of Arizona’s infamous SB 1070 RAMPANT POLICE MISCONDUCT In May, Clarisa Christiansen was cars,” said Sarah Dunne, legal director of — the “Show me your papers” law, which The Project has documented other stopped by the Border Patrol in the desert the ACLU-WA. went into effect in September 2012, and instances of immigration-related police west of Tucson, 40 miles north of the bor- authorizes police to enforce immigration misconduct beyond the 100-mile zone. der, while driving her five- and seven- THE HEAVY PRICE OF IMMIGRATION law. The ACLU argues it “unconstitutional- They include an elderly Latino citizen year-old children home from school. All ENFORCEMENT ly authorizes and encourages illegal police jailed by Mesa police after picking a bottle are citizens, yet she was threatened with a In testimony to September’s practices ... the South Tucson police offi- from a trashcan, a passenger in a car Taser and knife, forced from her vehicle, Congressional ad-hoc hearing on border cers’ actions amounted to false arrest, vio- stopped for a broken taillight taken to interrogated, and left beside the road with security, the ACLU detailed other areas in lated Alex’s right to equal protection of the immigration authorities by Casa Grande a slashed tire. which the Border Patrol violates constitu- law and trampled his right to be free from police, a woman interrogated about immi- In April, a Native American woman tional rights. In Arizona ports of entry, a unreasonable seizures.” gration status after calling Tucson police was tailgated by a Border Patrol vehicle, May ACLU complaint documented 11 Tucson is 60 miles from the Mexican about domestic violence, and a legal resi- dragged from her pickup, threatened and cases involving “unprovoked assaults and border, within a 100-mile zone where dent questioned about his status by Phoenix manhandled, interrogated and ridiculed, verbal abuse, the unwarranted use of hand- immigration authorities say important due police while picking up his impounded car. and detained for over an hour on the cuffs and shackles, extended and recurring process rights can be suspended. ACLU attorney Christine Sun calls the Tohono O’odham reservation. detention, invasive searches, property “SB 1070 interacts with this 100-mile cases “representative of policing problems In March, a tourist from Oregon was destruction and confiscation, and denial of area to enable these rights violations,” throughout Arizona.” Lyall testified threatened, detained and falsely accused of food, water and legal representation.” explains James Lyall, ACLU staff attor- before the Tucson City Council, noting drug possession after hiking at the Fort At the state’s 11 CBP checkpoints, bor- ney in Tucson. “It’s easy for police to stop that in May, Federal District Court Judge Bowie Historical Site. A drug-sniffing dog der residents report numerous unlawful people on a pretext, detain them longer Murray Snow ruled that Maricopa County did hundreds of dollars of damage to his searches, detentions, threats and abuse. The than permitted, and turn them over to the Sheriff Joe Arpaio, using policies like car, but when his insurance company vast majority of detentions are for petty Border Patrol.” those in Tucson, was guilty of systematic sought reimbursement, the CBP claimed crimes, not immigration, and federal The Valenzuela suit was one of the and unconstitutional racial profiling. the Federal Tort Claims Act “bars recovery authorities dump those cases on local first actions taken by the ACLU Border The ACLU of Arizona made 20 recom- for property damaged by CBP employees courts. Says Santa Cruz County Sheriff Litigation Project, launched to document mendations for changes in Tucson’s police while the property is under detention.” Tony Estrada. “They tell us, ‘If you don’t and litigate civil and human rights cases practices. The most basic were to prohibit In May, a Latino citizen farmer was take them, we’re going to take your [feder- on the U.S. Mexico border. Outside of police “from questioning crime victims and followed and detained on his property by al law enforcement] funding away.’” communities like Tucson, the existence of witnesses about their immigration status,” Border Patrol agents holding automatic Abuse in CBP custody is rampant. A a 100-mile “Constitution-free zone” is not from “extending any stop or detention sole- weapons. Agents trespass frequently, the recent University of Arizona report well known. “There, the longstanding ly to await a U.S. Customs and Border family complains. revealed that 11 percent of deportees view [established in court rulings] is that Protection (CBP) or ICE response,” requir- Two years ago, Suzanne Aldridge was reported physical abuse by U.S. authori- the normal rules do not apply,” according ing officers to contact their supervisors stopped just outside of Bisbee, Arizona, 30 ties, 23 percent experienced verbal abuse, to the ACLU. “For example, the authori- before questioning people about immigra- miles from the border, dragged from her 45 percent received insufficient food, 39 ties do not need a warrant or probable tion status, and to document “the reasons car, handcuffed, and groped by a Border percent had their possessions confiscated cause to conduct a ‘routine search.’” such questioning is believed necessary.” Patrol agent. Ten vans of agents, police and 29 percent had their identification As of 2008, the zone potentially cov- According to Arizona Public Media, the and sheriffs searched her car with a drug- documents taken and not returned. ered a staggering 197.4 million people — council unanimously approved council sniffing dog without her consent. She tried The worst abuse is deadly. Since 2010, two-thirds of the U.S. population, includ- member Regina Romero’s motion to ask to file a complaint, but was given the 20 people have died as a result of CBP ing nine of the country’s 10 largest cities. police to put public safety above checking runaround by CBP representatives. use of force. Sixteen-year-old Jose In Arizona, the impact is magnified by immigration status. In September, the ACLU of Antonio Elena Rodriguez — standing on federal enforcement and state legislation. In October, the ACLU demanded an Washington and the Northwest Immigrant Mexico soil — was shot seven times in Isabel Garcia, legal defender for Pima investigation of the Border Patrol, citing Rights Project settled a lawsuit challeng- the back in 2012 by an agent firing across County (which includes Tucson), explains, five examples of unlawful stops by roving ing CBP’s roving patrols on the Olympic the border at Nogales, Arizona. “In Arizona we’ve become a laboratory for patrols within the 100-mile zone. peninsula, which lies within the 100-mile Nineteen-year-old Carlos LaMadrid was every kind of anti-immigrant, anti-human Although U.S. Customs and Border zone. As in Arizona, the Border Patrol shot four times in the back while running [rights] piece of legislation.” Protection (CBP) claims broad authority conducted arbitrary vehicle stops, pro- toward Mexico at Douglas. Ramses Barron She points to Proposition 100 that to conduct searches here, the ACLU com- longed detentions and other forms of mis- Torres was shot while simply standing in amended the state constitution in plaint responds that “the Fourth treatment. Fourth Amendment protections Mexico. The Department of Justice would November 2006 to permit the detention Amendment’s protection against unrea- still apply, the settlement says. not prosecute agents in the LaMadrid and without bail of any undocumented immi- sonable searches and seizures extends to “Border Patrol officially agreed to fol- Barron killings, and is still investigating the grant accused of a felony. Under state leg- protect against unlawful investigatory low the Constitution and not racially pro- death of Elena Rodriguez. islation, a felony now includes using a fic- stops.” Some of the documented mistreat- file Latinos and other minorities ... People See Constitution-Free Zone page 5 July 2014 S TREET S PIRIT 5 U.S. Court Strikes Down Law Prohibiting People from Living in Vehicles in Los Angeles by Lynda Carson The brave people who fought back against the insidious law argued that n insidious law used by the Section 85.02 is unconstitutionally vague cops in Los Angeles to harass on its face because it provides insufficient and criminalize homeless peo- notice of the conduct it penalizes and pro- Aple for sleeping in their vehi- motes arbitrary and discriminatory cles, and using their vehicles as “living enforcement. The court agreed with them. quarters,” was struck down on June 19 by The court ruled that Section 85.02 pro- the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth vides inadequate notice of the unlawful Circuit Court. conduct it proscribes, and opens the door In the case Desertrain v. City of Los to discriminatory enforcement against the Angeles, the court sent a strong message homeless and the poor. Accordingly, the all across the nation that cities cannot law violates the due process clause of the attempt to make homelessness illegal with Fourteenth Amendment as an unconstitu- egregious city laws that essentially make tionally vague statute. it impossible for homeless people to sur- The court further believes that for vive by staying in their vehicles. many homeless people, their automobile For years, it has been a common prac- may be their last major possession — the tice for homeless people to use their vehi- means by which they can look for work cles as a form of shelter when necessary. and seek social services. The City of Los Whether it is due to a lack of money, or Angeles has many options at its disposal dire circumstances that leave them little to alleviate the plight and suffering of its choice but to sleep in their vehicles when homeless citizens. Selectively preventing the city they reside in does not offer them the homeless and the poor from using any other decent options, living out of a their vehicles for activities many other cit- vehicle is an alternative to staying in over- izens also conduct in their cars should not crowded and unsafe homeless shelters, or be one of those options. sleeping on the sidewalks, or under the The criminalization of the poor and the bushes, or on the brutal streets. homeless in cities across the United States In 1983, the City of Los Angeles enact- is cruel and inhumane. Other attacks on ed Municipal Code Section 85.02 to the poor and the homeless include the attack its homeless population, making it notorious sit/lie laws in San Francisco and illegal for people to use their vehicles as the attempt to create such vicious laws in “living quarters” either overnight, day-by- the City of Berkeley. day, or otherwise while the vehicle was Sleeping bans exist in Santa Cruz, San parked on city streets, or in City-owned Diego, and St. Petersburg, Florida, under parking lots, and parking lots owned or the guise of “no camping laws.” Some under the control of the Los Angeles Art by Christa Ochiogrosso cities prohibit sharing food with homeless County of Beaches and Harbors. people unless you have a permit, and During the week of September 23, 2010, Across California, entire families have been forced to use their vehicles as a form many cities refuse to grant permits to feed Los Angeles officials created the Venice of shelter because their cities do not offer enough decent housing options. poor and homeless people in their com- Homelessness Task Force, with 21 cops munities. In Orlando, Florida, people struck down the law that made it illegal who had orders to use Section 85.02 to cite his own legal temp business company that from Food Not Bombs have been arrested for homeless people to use their vehicles and arrest homeless people for using their he had for almost ten years, and also lost and sent to jail for feeding the poor and as “living quarters” in the City and automobiles as “living quarters.” The cops his home during bad economic times. hungry, and Food Not Bombs volunteers County of Los Angeles. were also supposed to hand out information Some of those arrested were found to have been harassed and arrested in San Many gravely ill and disabled home- to people about providers of shelters and have food in their vehicles. The cops used Francisco and other cities in past years. less people have been arrested in Los other social services. the presence of food as a pretext to accuse Laws against panhandling are another Angeles for using their vehicles as “living A number of brave souls, including them of living in their vehicles, and then attack on the poor in many cities, and quarters” and had their vehicles impound- Cheyenne Desertrain, Steve Jacobs- arrested them and impounded their cars. homeless people are being subjected to ed. Those arrested under this law included Elstein, Bradford Echhart, Patricia The police were instructed to look for several other forms of cruel and inhumane one person who had congestive heart fail- Warivonchik, Leroy Butler, William vehicles containing possessions normally treatment in many cities across the nation. Cagle, and Chris Taylor, fought back ure, and another that had epilepsy. found in a home, such as food, bedding, against the discriminatory anti-homeless Another was an individual suffering from clothing, medicine, and basic necessities Lynda Carson may be reached at ten- laws of Los Angeles. As a result, the court severe anxiety and depression after he lost people need to survive. [email protected]

were taken to detention. Constitution-Free Zone on U.S. Border Alejandro Valenzuela says, “We’re Street Spirit from page 4 authorities’ involvement in immigration tired of being arrested for no reason. Street Spirit is published by American enforcement, abolishing the Operation These were people we knew. We wanted Friends Service Committee. The ven- Streamline court, and reducing CBP’s to prevent them from being taken from dor program is run by J.C. Orton. One other product of the Constitution- “zone of authority” from 100 miles to 25 their community and family.” Editor, Layout: Terry Messman free zone is the Operation Streamline miles from the border. Three days later, in further civil dis- Web designer: Jesse Clarke courtroom, where every day 70 young In October, community anger in obedience, demonstrators blocked busses people are brought before a Federal Tucson finally boiled over when police taking detainees into the Federal court- Contributors: David Bacon, Mona District Court judge, chained at their stopped a car in front of the Southside house, chaining themselves to their Caron, Bruce Davidson, Kazu Haga and wrists, waists and ankles, and pressured Worker Center. The ACLU and other wheels. The day’s session of the the East Point Peace Academy, Lydia into pleading guilty to criminal charges of organizations charge that, especially since Operation Streamline court was cancelled, Gans, Linda Ellen Lemaster, David illegal entry or reentry. “These proceed- passage of SB 1070, police often find pre- and 17 demonstrators were arrested. Solnit Similar acts of civil disobedience, block- ings offend fundamental principles of due texts to stop vehicles they believe are car- All works copyrighted by the authors. process,” the ACLU testified. rying undocumented people, and then ing buses carrying people for deportation, “We just closed our post office in hold them for deportation. have taken place in Phoenix, San Francisco, Contact: Terry Messman Tucson because it cost $14 million a year In this case, police called the Border Chicago, San Diego and Austin. They Street Spirit, 65 Ninth Street, to run, and lost 400 jobs,” charges Garcia. Patrol after detaining the car’s occupants, respond to the fact that in the last five years, San Francisco, CA 94103 “We closed eleven schools because the who then put them into a CBP truck. A two million people have been deported E-mail: [email protected] Tucson district had a shortfall of $17 mil- local migrant family organization, from the United States. Web: http://www.thestreetspirit.org lion. Yet we pay Corrections Corporation Corazon de Tucson (Tucson’s Heart), In December, Tucson Congressman of America $11 million a month to house urged people to come protest. In an act of Raul Grijalva was one of 27 signing a letter these migrants.” civil disobedience, some 60 people sur- to President Obama opposing mass deporta- The ACLU testimony made seven rec- rounded the vehicle carrying the two tions. “Criminalizing American families or Contact Street Spirit ommendations for humane reform. They detained migrants. People from the nearby giving local law enforcement the responsi- Vendor Coordinator include increasing CBP oversight, pre- Presbyterian Church came out in support. bility to choose who stays and who goes is venting excessive use of force, reducing They peacefully held hands, chanting, not the right option,” they said. Whether in If you have questions about the ven- the high number of border crossing “Let them go!” as the Border Patrol and court, in Congress or in the streets, the dor program, please e-mail J.C. Orton at deaths, increasing detention standards and police responded by shoving people and denial of rights in Arizona is being chal- [email protected] or call his cell inspections, discouraging local and state using pepper spray. Eventually the two lenged and that challenge is growing. phone at (510) 684-1892. 6 S TREET S PIRIT July 2014 Creating Community on Skid Row in L.A. “We hang out here because we’re not allowed in the upskirts of downtown. Some of us aren’t permitted because of the way we look. People have a label on us. They see me as a person who eats out of a trashcan.” — Linda Harris, a cancer survivor who lives in Skid Row

Story and photos by David Bacon Park because water is expensive. But little patches of bright green lawn dot the side- ’m the people’s general,” says walk outside new market-rate residences, TC, explaining the nickname planted by the city to give the residents’ “Ihe’s been given on Fifth Street in pets a place to “do their business.” General TC, who calls himself “The People’s General,” lives on the sidewalk on the Skid Row area of Los Angeles. He Public bathrooms for people who actu- Skid Row. He is an activist with the Los Angeles Community Action Network. earned it by keeping the homeless resi- ally live on the street, however, are hard dents of Skid Row informed and educat- to find. To Skid Row’s poor, this is the ed, in part through the literature table he “dirty divide.” maintains next to the blue tarps of his tent. Ironically, Linda Harris isn’t homeless. Under the table are the donated clothes he She lives in an apartment and sings at collects, which anyone can take. Church of the Nazarene, as she’s done “I’m a soldier in the war on poverty,” since childhood. She helped bring the ‘General’ TC declares. “I’ve been living users of Gladys Park together a few years here on Skid Row for two years, and I ago to get the city to replace filthy water love it because I love the people — most fountains, and then found the resources to of ‘em, at least. I don’t like being home- build tables for dominoes and board less, and down here it can be hard. But games. Young men now face off in 3-on-3 sometimes it can be beautiful too, because basketball under new hoops. people are beautiful, no matter how down Another park further towards down- and out they may be.” town, Pershing Square, is much less user- Despite TC’s nickname, Skid Row friendly. With skyscrapers and Class A isn’t the scene of a military conflict, but it hotels just a block or two away, the square is contested terrain nonetheless. is covered in concrete. Cement benches “There are two communities on Skid line its rim, but metal dividers prevent Row — the haves and the have-nots,” anyone from lying down as they can at says Deborah Burton, who lives in subsi- Gladys Park, and security guards quickly A cop gives a ticket to a poor bike rider on Skid Row. Activists accuse the police dized housing nearby. “Working and liv- warn off anyone who tries. of harassing poor residents in order to force them out of the neighborhood. ing together makes a community. We’re Al Sabo arrived in the square in 2003, here and we’re not going anywhere.” pulling two roller bags carrying all his pos- And whether living on the sidewalk or sessions after he was discharged from the “I don’t like being homeless, and down here it can be hard. in single-room hotels, this sense of com- hospital. “I had great jobs all my life and But sometimes it can be beautiful too, because people are munity shared by Skid Row residents is a never thought I’d end up on the street,” he product of their efforts to keep living says. “I was terrified. I walked into the park beautiful, no matter how down and out they may be.” there. On Sixth Street, people gather every that day, figuring that if anyplace was safe, day at Gladys Park, sharing a couple of it would be Pershing Square.” vious owner decided to renovate, and began income Skid Row residents. Together, drinking fountains, a few patches of grass Sabo found the benches filled with evicting low-income residents. “I thought, they got Los Angeles to pass a hotel and several trees. drug addicts, but to his amazement, they if he moves me out of my room, what preservation ordinance that requires no “People here accept you for who you took care of him. “Most were really makes me think I’m going to get it back? If net loss of low-income housing, covering are,” Linda Harris says. She’s a cancer decent people,” he explains. “They knew I I didn’t fight I was going to lose my home.” 17-18,000 units citywide, including 7- survivor, which has given her bumps all looked out of place. They hustled me up Woods got a lawyer, filed a suit with 8000 downtown. over her skin. No one gives her a second food and found me a safe place to sleep several other residents, and eventually Diaz, who now works for LA CAN, look, though, other than to say hello. for the next couple of months while I was won an injunction protecting the hotel’s points out that at the Alexandria, all the “They don’t turn up their nose at you. on the street.” He eventually found a low-income status. In the process, rooms are covered by Section 8, the gov- Down here everyone is equal.” room in a cheap hotel, and the experience Alexandria tenants got to know each ernment’s low-income rent subsidy pro- That’s not her sense of the attitude she transformed him. other, and became a community within gram, and rents start at $56 a month. faces once she leaves the park, though. Chasing homeless people out of the hotel bent on staying put. “Now Skid “And it’s across the street from a convert- “We hang out here because we’re not Pershing Square, Sabo believes, was Row is Skid Dollar,” Woods laughs. “But ed office building where the starting rent allowed in the upskirts of downtown,” intended to make downtown more inviting why can’t I still be here?” is 90 times higher,” he says. Harris charges. “Some of us aren’t permit- to residents able to pay market-rate rents, At the Frontier Hotel, tenants won a Effectively, that makes Skid Row a ted because of the way we look. People and to help developers converting the old partial victory in a similar battle. Zuma community in which both low-income and have a label on us. They talk about ‘those hotels to house them. “But if you do away Corporation, a developer, was able to con- higher income people live together. homeless people.’ They never say ‘the with all the amenities, who’s going to go vert the top three floors to market-rate Stabilizing low-income housing affects people.’ They see me as a person who eats to the park?” he asks. “Would you bring residences, while floors three to nine people living on the street. Sidewalk- out of a trashcan.” your family where there’s no grass to lay remained low-income housing. dwellers and hotel-dwellers are not two Deborah Burton feels the same scorn at your blanket or picnic with your children The hotel owner, however, then reserved separate communities, but one larger one, Coles Restaurant on Sixth. “We used to go where there’s no table?” access to the main lobby, with its potted and people move from one status to there because it was affordable,” she Sabo began helping others resist efforts palms and marble floors, for top-floor another. Los Angeles had about 58,000 remembers from her youth. Then the eatery to convert buildings into market-rate renters paying $1100 to $3900 a month. homeless people in 2013, 8000 more than changed hands, and set up tables outside on housing. A former journalist, he started Poor tenants had to use a separate entrance two years before. the sidewalk to serve the new, more afflu- writing a column on displacement for around the corner, monitored by guards Both General TC and Sean Gregory ent people moving into downtown. Prices Community Connection, the local newslet- behind a metal gate and glass barrier. had rooms and lost them, pushing them went up. Well-heeled diners did their best ter of the Los Angeles Community Action Steve Diaz, whose family moved to the onto the street. Terri King was homeless to ignore the homeless people across the Network (LA CAN). Frontier after being evicted from their for three years, and then got a room at the street as police moved them on, telling Leonard Woods, living in the nearby apartment, remembers that poor residents Lyndon Hotel. “Since I got a place I’ve them the city’s “sit-lie” ordinance prohibit- Alexandria Hotel, became his ally. Like won a temporary injunction against the had my teeth done, my ears done, and I ed sitting on the pavement. Sabo, he’d lost a good job and gravitated to owner, who then closed the affluent-only have medical care,” she says. “What goes through their mind?” the low rents downtown. The Alexandria entry and gated off the elevator. Bill Fisher, a disabled ironworker, Burton wonders. “You cross the street, and was a luxury residence for Charlie Chaplin “Afterwards,” he said, “they required would have been homeless after leaving then you can’t see us? I tried going into and Rudolf Valentino in the 1920s. Woods that you show an ID and Social Security the hospital last December. Instead, he Coles one day to eat, and the maitre d’ even got the room occupied by Helen card or a room key to get in, and charged moved into the Star Apartments, a new asked me if I had any money before I even Ferguson, a silent film star. But by the us $15 to get the key. I was made to feel project of prefabricated modular units crossed the threshold. That’s why I say 1990s, it was pretty run down. like a criminal coming into my own erected by the Skid Row Housing Trust, there are two communities here.” “When I first moved in, I was house. The LAPD even ran background which manages 25 low-income develop- The distinction gets drawn by the city ashamed,” Woods recalls. “I knew what checks against everyone in the building.” ments throughout downtown. in other ways as well. The further east you I’d had, and what I’d come to. I didn’t let As Diaz, Sabo and other tenants orga- Fisher and his friend Thomas Ozeki go on Sixth Street, away from the new loft anyone know that I lived downtown nized similar committees in other hotels, now manage the Star Apartments commu- conversions, the fewer trash cans you because it was Skid Row.” they all began to develop a greater sense find. The grass is getting brown in Gladys He lost his shame when the hotel’s pre- of themselves as a community of low- See Community on Skid Row page 12 July 2014 S TREET S PIRIT 7 Activists Stage Jack London’s Radical Iron Heel “We are going to take your governments and your palaces...”

Art, Puppetry, Theater and Music Bring Jack London’s The Iron Heel to Life. Larger-than-life puppets of anti-capitalist organizer Ernest confronting Mr. Wickson, leader of the 1%. Mona Caron photo by David Solnit o, he’s not just the dog story and survival-adventure writer of Call of the Wild and The NSea-Wolf. Jack London’s The Iron Heel is the strongest articulation of London’s emerging anti-capitalism and may have been the first dystopian-utopian science fiction novel. Written in 1907, the novel predicted the first World War (though with a differ- ent outcome), and the merger of corporate power with authoritarian government seen in fascist governments in the 1930s and 1940s and today in the escalating concen- tration of power and wealth in our current corporate capitalism. Much of it reads like it could be today, which is why a group of community artists, activists and organizers — the Iron Heel Theater Collective — have chosen to bring it to life using puppetry, painted pic- ture-story cantastoria banners, readers theater and live music. The first performance on May 18 The Iron Heel Theater Collective brought Jack London’s novel to life with puppets, painted cantastoria banners, and music. played to an enthusiastic full house at the Hillside Community Church in El Cerrito great-granddaughter and continues, as her and benefited TeamRichmond.net — the father did, London radical activism. progressive candidates for Richmond City Tarnel was invited to perform from her Council and Mayor (candidate Eduardo great grandpa’s The Iron Heel and her Martinez is the lead performer of the own writing on the Occupy movement at readers theater performers). the Ankara Theater Festival in 2012 and Richmond progressives and ordinary again this year, with Richmond artist folks are battling against Chevron, Wall Regina Gilligan. I assisted Tarnel and Street banks, the realty industry, building Regina this year, sharing puppetry and trades unions, and other parts of the local cantastoria-making skills, creating a “can- power establishment that are spending mil- tastoria” or picture-story-painted-banner lions and fighting hard to return Richmond series and slightly larger-than-life masks, — the most progressive city in the United which they took to Ankara, Turkey. States — to being a company town. “Cantastoria,” in the words of leading The next performance is scheduled for U.S. cantastoria maker-performer Clare the evening of October 31, 2014, as part Dolan, “is an Italian word for the ancient of the Jack London Society Biennial performance form of picture-story recita- Symposium to be held in Berkeley. tion, which involves sung narration I met Tarnel Abbott over the last accompanied by reference to painted ban- decade working on mobilizations against ners, scrolls, or placards. It is a tradition A worker confronts the wealthy 1% in a cantastoria from Iron Heel. Art by David Solnit the Chevron Richmond Refinery and with belonging to the underdog, to chronically the election campaigns of the Richmond itinerant people of low social status, yet Jack London described writing The Indeed, only when socialists in France Progressive Alliance, who put an end to also inextricably linked to the sacred. Iron Heel in a letter to a friend in 1908, went to war against their socialist brothers the 100-year rule of Chevron in its former “It is a practice very much alive today, calling it “a novel that is an attack upon in Germany, and when the rallying cry of company town, Richmond, Calif. Tarnel existing in a wide variety of incarnations the bourgeoisie and all that the bour- ‘international solidarity’ fell on deaf ears, is a straight-talking retired member of around the world, and fulfilling very geoisie stands for. It will not make me did The Iron Heel attract an international SEIU Local 1021 (used to be 790). diverse functions for different populations. any friends ... am having the time of my following. The rise of Hitler and The former Richmond librarian was Picture-story recitation in its earliest form life writing the story.” Mussolini solidified London’s reputation awarded by the California Library involved the display of representational Jonah Raskin, author of The Radical as a ‘sociological seer.’ In Trotsky’s eyes, Association’s Intellectual Freedom paintings accompanied by sung narration. Jack London, wrote: “It was not until the he was a genuine ‘revolutionary artist,’ Committee the 2006 Zoia Horn Intellectual Originating in 6th century India, this reli- coming of the First World War that it and far more perceptive than either Rosa Freedom Award for her tireless advocacy gious and then increasingly secular practice began to attract readers and to win Luxemburg, the early twentieth-century of free speech. She is also Jack London’s evolved as it spread both east and west.” London admiration for his prescience. See Activists Stage Iron Heel page 11 8 S TREET S PIRIT July 2014

A Long March from Selma to San Bruno from page 1

LaFayette had begun this long march through the nation’s jail cells 50 years ago, when he was first arrested in the Nashville Student Movement in 1960, then brutally beaten by a racist mob dur- ing the Freedom Rides in 1961, and then marked for assassination after becoming the leading SNCC organizer for the voting rights struggle in Selma in 1963. THE JAILHOUSE GRADUATION Our delegation entered a large cell- block and were warmly greeted by about 50 male prisoners attending the gradua- tion on April 22, 2014. Kazu Haga, direc- tor of the East Point Peace Academy in the Bay Area, has conducted trainings in Kingian Nonviolence all across the coun- try. Training people in jails has become an important focus of his work, and he has spent several months training men impris- oned in San Bruno County Jail. San Bruno jail authorities have given full cooperation to Bernard LaFayette and Bernard LaFayette, at right, describes to men in San Bruno County Jail how Kingian Nonviolence helps create social change. Kazu Haga to enable them to conduct ses- thousands and thousands of Kingian nonvi- sions in Kingian Nonviolence inside the olent warriors around the world, and joining jail. The prison guards and counselors a family and joining a movement — from greeted us warmly and told me they wel- rebel fighters in Nigeria, to high school stu- come the training program because it dents in Chicago, to educators in Nepal, to gives a renewed sense of purpose and peace activists in Japan, Sri Lanka and meaning in the lives of people serving jail Colombia. Dr. LaFayette has been going sentences in tough circumstances. around the world recruiting people into Along with Haga and LaFayette, other the world of Kingian nonviolence. speakers at the graduation included Gus “So you’re really joining a massive Newport, former mayor of Berkeley and movement of people who have committed currently a member of the National Council themselves to trying to create the beloved of Elders; Michael Nagler, founder of the community. So I hope you are proud of Peace and Conflict Studies Program at the yourselves because I am incredibly proud University of California; and Theresa of you and happy for you.” Moran of the East Point Peace Academy. Gus Newport, the former mayor of More than 60 prisoners cheered enthu- Berkeley and a member of the National siastically as Haga introduced the nine Council of Elders, told the prisoners, “I graduates and praised their dedication in just want to say congratulations. I know Bernard LaFayette and Kazu Haga honor a prisoner’s graduation in nonviolence. completing several months of sessions to how difficult it is. I remember coming out become certified as trainers in Kingian of the streets, the person that steered me Washington, D.C., right now.” not been very many people on this earth Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation. towards nonviolence was Malcolm X. When asked why he had gone so far out who have done more to keep that legacy “I always say that nonviolence is a des- Thank you for allowing us to be here. of his way to attend a nonviolence gradua- alive than Dr. Bernard LaFayette.” tination,” Haga told the prisoners in the Good luck and God bless you.” tion for a handful of prisoners in a remote LaFayette told the prisoners, “I’m large cellblock. “We never become nonvi- THE BOOMERANG EFFECT jail in San Bruno, Newport said, “We who thrilled to be here with you. I’ve been in jail olent because we’re human and imperfect. are about peace know that they don’t have before. I’ve been arrested 27 times. This In an interview after the ceremony, You’ll never get to a place where we’ll to look at the world through the eyes of whole idea of nonviolence is spreading Newport said it was remarkable to see Dr. never fail in being nonviolent because capitalism or violence or war or violation of around the world. I’m so proud of you. You King’s vision of nonviolence coming to we’re human beings, and each one of us, the environment. We are here because we are joining a global community of people life all over again in a jail in San Bruno so myself included, are all imperfect. So care about peace and human beings.” who have found there’s another way.” many years after his assassination. He we’re always going to fail, but it’s about LaFayette met with King at the Lorraine said that the civil rights movement had a WE CAN’T THROW PEOPLE AWAY how we get back up again. It’s about the Motel in Memphis on April 4, 1968, the “boomerang effect” on U.S. society. Theresa Guy Moran, an attorney work- study and the practice of nonviolence and morning of the assassination. King was Newport recalled the riots after King’s ing with the East Point Peace Academy, getting better and better at practicing this scheduled to travel with LaFayette to death when it seemed like everything had has taken 40 hours of training in Kingian philosophy every single day.” Washington, D.C., to announce to the press been lost, and the momentum of the move- Nonviolence. In an interview at the jail, The level of enthusiasm that greeted their plans for the Poor People’s Campaign. ment was gone. People at the time “didn’t she said that she finds it very “moving” to his comments was remarkable. The cell- But King had to stay in Memphis to work realize how deeply rooted the movement take the message of Kingian Nonviolence block echoed with praise and applause with striking sanitation workers so he sent had become,” he said. They couldn’t see at into the jail cells. and support for the graduates. LaFayette ahead, promising he would join the time that “with a little water and sun- “It’s a population that people generally Then Haga drew a direct parallel him in the nation’s capital. shine how things would go on blooming for discount, dismiss and throw away,” Moran between the nonviolence training sessions All that history was on LaFayette’s another 50 years.” said. “And I see great potential, and great attended today by young prisoners in San mind as he addressed inmates at the San “It’s the boomerang that can turn love and great caring here. I mean, I don’t Bruno jail and the formative trainings that Bruno jail. He gave one of the most mov- everything around,” Newport said. “At a romanticize this. People do a lot of things civil rights icons such as James Lawson, ing expressions of hope I have ever heard. certain moment, it just turns around in its that lead to jail, and then they do what is James Forman and Bernard LaFayette “When they tried to kill Martin Luther flight. These jail trainings are saying, appropriate to make amends. But we can’t held to prepare for sit-ins and marches in King, they missed,” LaFayette said. ‘Open up your mind, your spirit, your life, afford to throw anyone away. God doesn’t the deep South in the early 1960s. “Because Martin promised me something and understand what you are now capable make mistakes.” Haga said, “We have been practicing in Memphis when I was with him on April of in serving the greater society.’” Kazu Haga described to the gathering every single week for the last four and 4, 1968. He said, ‘You go on to Gandhi said that poverty is the worst his belief that the spirit of Kingian nonvi- one-half months, just like Dr. LaFayette Washington, D.C., to organize the Poor form of violence. Newport echoed that in olence is indestructible, and could not be and a lot of the leaders of the civil rights People’s Campaign and I’ll be along later.’ saying that extreme poverty is often the killed even by an assassin’s bullet. movement who trained for months and Then he was shot and killed that very day. underlying cause of the desperation that dri- “The assassin who fired the bullet into months on end before they engaged in the “But Martin Luther King was a man of ves people to crime. “Poverty is the grand- Martin Luther King on the morning of civil rights movement. They knew that his word. Almost 50 years later, he daddy of crime and war,” Newport said. April 4, 1968 – that assassin missed,” he change is not an easy thing. Whether it’s showed up in a huge, 30-foot memorial “We know that people who are serving said. “Because the assassins weren’t just trying to change something in your own statue on the National Mall in time often got in trouble because they trying to kill a person, they were trying to life or trying to change something in the Washington, D.C. — right where he said were victims of society. Let’s face it, kill a philosophy, a set of ideals, and a world, it doesn’t come easily. You have to he was coming. Can you imagine that? poverty is the granddaddy of crime and movement. Every time we come together be committed to that practice.” “Now they’re celebrating his birthday war. This country must begin to recognize to talk about Kingian nonviolence and Dr. The nine men graduating from this pro- and his life in countries all over the world that. These young people, given the King’s legacy, we are the evidence that gram then stepped forward and received — in places where Martin Luther King chance, and given some education and the assassin missed his target. So we are their certificates to the prolonged applause never went. Martin Luther King gave us training and exposure to a new life and a all joining that legacy.” of their fellow prisoners. what he had to offer. The question is: What job, will do more to help turn around this Then Haga introduced LaFayette to the Haga said, “As each of you receive these are we now going to give the world?” certificates, you’ll be joining an army of society than some of the people sitting in gathering, saying, “There have probably July 2014 S TREET S PIRIT 9 They Refused to Let Justice Be Crucified The Tri-State Conspiracy to murder Medgar Evers, Bernard LaFayette and Rev. Benjamin Cox. by Terry Messman n the same day that legendary civil rights leader Medgar Evers was assassinated in OJackson, Mississippi, two other civil rights leaders were targeted in coor- dinated assassination plots: Benjamin Cox, a leading organizer for CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) in New Orleans; and Bernard LaFayette, director of the Alabama Voter Registration Campaign for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). On the same evening that Evers was murdered by an assassin in his carport in Jackson, Mississippi, LaFayette returned home in his car and was confronted by white men who beat him nearly to death with a pistol butt and then aimed the gun point blank at his face, preparing to shoot and kill him. When a neighbor confronted them with a rifle, Lafayette asked him not to shoot his attackers, and the would-be Bernard LaFayette gets ready to board a bus on his Freedom Ride in May 1961. Photo credit: Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos assassins quickly drove off into the night. The coordinated murder plots are now their souls, one could hear victory. rights of millions of Americans.” known as the “tri-state conspiracy.” This “And victory it was, as this march, Yet, even though Bloody Sunday in little-known history is vividly recounted referred to as Bloody Sunday because of 1965 marked one of the most important in Bernard LaFayette’s book, In Peace the bloodshed, increased the awareness of turning points for the nation, blood had and Freedom, My Journey in Selma. the important issue. Part of our strategy started flowing on the streets of Selma After narrowly avoiding assassination, was to make the nation aware of the con- two years earlier, when LaFayette was LaFayette went on to spearhead the suc- ditions people were suffering when they beaten nearly to death on the same day cessful voter registration campaign in protested about their right to vote. When that Evers was killed. Selma that directly led to the passage of the national audience saw the horrors, the It later became known as the “tri-state the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He then national conscience was awakened.” conspiracy.” It was a coordinated plan to was chosen by Martin Luther King Jr. to A NATION IS GALVANIZED assassinate Bernard LaFayette in Selma on June 12, 1963; Benjamin Cox, a leader become the national coordinator of the Bloody Sunday was perhaps the blood- for CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) Poor People’s Campaign in 1968. iest encounter of the entire civil rights in New Orleans; and Medgar Evers, a In light of his irreplaceable work in the movement. It shocked and galvanized a courageous NAACP leader in Mississippi. civil rights movement, and in light of the nation. President Lyndon Johnson had This assassination plan was carried out immeasurable value of the countless train- already signed the Civil Rights Act of just hours after President John Kennedy ing sessions in Kingian Nonviolence that 1964, and before the Selma brutality, he had given a major speech on national tele- LaFayette has conducted all over the had said that he was not willing to spend vision in support of civil rights. world, it is sobering to realize how close any more political capital on pushing fed- the nation came to losing one of its most eral legislation to defend voting rights. TOO MANY MARTYRS The cover of Bernard LaFayette’s book dedicated practitioners of nonviolent So it is all the more remarkable that, as Medgar Evers is now rightly revered as shows him with Martin Luther King Jr. resistance on the same day that Medgar a direct result of Bloody Sunday, Lyndon a legendary hero of the Freedom Evers was murdered. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of Movement. As the Mississippi field secre- CORE activist Rev. Benjamin Cox just BLOODY SUNDAY IN SELMA 1965, which ensured voting rights for tary for the NAACP, Evers had defied sev- happened to have traveled out of New Selma, Alabama, was one of the most black citizens and banned racial discrimi- eral assassination threats and kept working Orleans that fateful night. “That chance significant battlegrounds in the struggle to nation at the polls. Many analysts and his- fearlessly for civil rights, until he was shot trip saved his life,” LaFayette writes. win civil rights and voting rights and torians consider the Voting Rights Act to in the back at his home in Jackson on June Rev. Cox had been arrested many overcome a systematic form of racist dis- be the most significant and powerful leg- 12, 1963, by a rifle-bearing member of the times for organizing sit-ins that succeeded crimination that prevented nearly all black islation for civil rights. White Citizens’ Council and the Ku Klux in integrating several restaurants, includ- citizens from being allowed to vote. Certainly, the price was paid in full, Klan, Byron De La Beckwith. ing McDonald’s. In May 1961, Cox and On March 7, 1965, more than 600 non- and not only by those beaten nearly to In the years since his death, Medgar 12 other activists became the original violent marchers were viciously assaulted death by Alabama police. Martyrs paid a Evers has been honored in movies and Freedom Riders, riding the bus from when Alabama state and local police more permanent price. Jimmie Lee books and songs; his memory and legacy Washington, D.C., to New Orleans. attacked the first attempt to march from Jackson, age 26, a nonviolent protester have been celebrated at Arlington After the FBI told Cox and LaFayette Selma to Montgomery in support of vot- who marched for voting rights along with National Cemetery; and a memorial statue that they had been targeted in the tri-state ing rights. Troops on horseback chased his grandfather, mother and sister, was of the slain civil rights icon was erected in conspiracy that claimed Evers’ life, the two the peaceful marchers, and many were shot to death by Alabama state police in Jackson, Mississippi, in June 2013. men realized they had escaped death by the brutally beaten by mounted police savage- February 1965. This shocking murder of Bob Dylan honored Evers in the song, narrowest of margins. With a grim sense of ly swinging whips and batons, while an innocent, unarmed, young man sparked “Only a Pawn in their Game.” Dylan gallows humor, LaFayette wrote: “We’ve many others were trampled by horses. the famous Selma to Montgomery March. sang, “Today, Medgar Evers was buried been friends for many years and some- “Bloody Sunday” is now an iconic Immediately after Bloody Sunday, from the bullet he caught. They lowered times Cox sends me a ‘death-day’ card moment in the legacy of the Freedom Viola Liuzzo was shot to death and Rev. him down as a king.” instead of a birthday card!” Movement. Hundreds suffered bloody James Reeb was beaten to death by white The folksinger Phil Ochs, deeply com- LaFayette was only 22 years old when beatings and some were clubbed nearly to racists and Ku Klux Klan members. mitted to the cause of civil rights as a musi- he began directing the Alabama Voter death as police used billy clubs and tear The deaths ignited a nation. On March cian and an activist, wrote an anthem, “Too Registration Campaign for SNCC in gas to disrupt the march. Amelia Boynton, 15, 1965, only eight days after Bloody Many Martyrs,” with an unforgettable January 1963. Yet he already was a sea- Lafayette’s closest personal ally and one Sunday, President Johnson delivered a description of Evers’ murder. soned activist after being arrested two years of the most courageous supporters of the Special Message asking Congress to pass “He slowly squeezed the trigger, earlier during the restaurant sit-ins with the voting rights campaign in Selma, was the Voting Rights Act. Johnson called the bullet left his side, Nashville Student Movement in 1960. severely beaten, knocked down to the Selma “a turning point” in humanity’s It struck the heart of every man Only a year later, LaFayette became a asphalt and hospitalized. search for freedom. Johnson said, “There, when Evers fell and died.” Freedom Rider. He gives a harrowing Yet, LaFayette concludes his account of long-suffering men and women peacefully Even though the cold-blooded murder account of being brutally beaten by a mob Bloody Sunday with a remarkable passage protested the denial of their rights as of Evers is now remembered as a highly of white racists who attacked the Freedom about how nonviolence can succeed at the Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. significant moment in the history of the Riders at the Montgomery bus station in very moment when it seems brutalized and One good man, a man of God, was killed. civil rights struggle, the story of the two May 1961. Yet LaFayette is always the beaten down. He wrote: “An objective There is no cause for pride in what has other intended victims who were shad- indefatigable teacher of nonviolence. analysis would conclude that the protesters happened in Selma. There is no cause for owed by murder plots as part of this tri- Instead of focusing in his book on the were defeated. However, from the songs in self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal state conspiracy is almost unknown. See A Refusal to Let Justice page 10 10 S TREET S PIRIT July 2014

A Refusal to Let Justice Be Crucified They found the courage to march on despite the beatings and bombings and bloodshed and murders. They refused to let truth be crushed and justice buried. from page 9 great risk to his own life, LaFayette stood between the two armed men with his arms horrific violence the Freedom Riders were outstretched. The attackers jumped into subjected to, his real message is to teach their car and sped off, and LaFayette was how nonviolent activists can face physical taken to the hospital. violence and still keep their spirits intact During the brutal assault, LaFayette and their movement alive. felt a sense of “spiritual empowerment “In the Montgomery bus station a rant- that allowed me to feel an extraordinary ing mob viciously attacked us. Several of sense of internal strength instead of fear.” us were severely beaten. However, we Even though he was face to face with defied all expectations. We didn’t run, we death, he wrote, “I felt an intense force didn’t fight back. We got back up when that seemed to lift me up emotionally, slammed to the ground, and looked our even though I didn’t know what would Bernard LaFayette’s mugshot, taken on May 24, 1961, after his arrest with other attackers directly in the eyes, fighting vio- happen next. It was a surrendering of life, Freedom Riders in Jackson, Mississippi. lence with nonviolence. In spite of our in a sense, and I was prepared.” injuries, with many of us bleeding and He realized that this “surreal feeling” nated on November 22, 1963. versus Alabama officials — from Gov. battered, we got back on the bus and con- had happened only twice in his life, both LaFayette wrote, “The people in Selma George Wallace on down to Sheriff Jim tinued our ride toward Jackson.” [In times when he was under physical attack. had been hopeful with Kennedy, and they Clark — who had illegally prevented black Peace and Freedom, p. 11.] “I view it as a form of resistance, with were now filled with a profound sorrow citizens from voting for decades. THE MOST HOSTILE CITY support from a power beyond myself,” he and grief, having lost an influential sup- On March 21, the third March to porter of the civil rights movement.” Montgomery began in Selma and five Far from being deterred by these vio- wrote. [In Peace and Freedom, p. 75.] The twin tragedies threatened to tear days later, a large group of marchers lent attacks, the young activist was more The nearly lethal violence directed the heart out of the movement. “Many of reached Montgomery and held a massive determined than ever to put the nonviolent against LaFayette after he had only us felt that if the most powerful leaders in rally of 25,000 people on the steps of the teachings of Martin Luther King and worked for a few months in Selma the world could not be protected, then the Alabama State Capitol. James Lawson into practice in one of the seemed to confirm the initial decision by common person, particularly black per- most hostile and intolerant of southern the SNCC leadership to entirely avoid any ‘HOW LONG, NOT LONG’ sons, certainly had no protection at all,” cities — Selma, Alabama. campaign for civil rights in Selma. A less- Martin Luther King delivered the his- [In Peace and Freedom, p. 104.] Selma was considered so dangerous and er man — and a lesser movement — toric “How Long, Not Long” speech. implacably racist that the SNCC leadership would have abandoned the entire organiz- THE MAGNIFICENT MOVEMENT King asked, “How long will justice be had totally written it off as an impossible ing effort in Selma right then and there. And that is when the movement rose crucified and truth bear it? I come to say area to organize. When LaFayette asked Instead, the assassination attempt up and magnificently met the challenge. to you this afternoon, however difficult James Forman, the executive secretary of boomeranged on them. The black commu- People persevered in spite of the deaths of the moment, however frustrating the hour, SNCC, to appoint him as director of the nity had been oppressed for so long by innocent young girls in church. They per- it will not be long because truth crushed Voter Registration Campaign in Selma, he threats of terrible reprisals — fearing severed in the face of the assassination of to earth will rise again. learned that SNCC had just removed Selma everything from the loss of jobs to the Medgar Evers and President Kennedy. In “How long? Not long, because no lie from the list of possible organizing sites loss of their lives — that they were intimi- the face of death threats and bombings can live forever... “How long? Not long after two groups of SNCC workers had dated into being silent, afraid to speak out and the savage brutality of Selma Sheriff because the arc of the moral universe is returned from scouting the city and report- publicly even for their right to vote. Jim Clark, the movement defied all expec- long, but it bends towards justice.” ed, “The white folks are too mean and the A TURNING POINT IN SELMA tations and grew stronger in commitment. The Selma campaign was the best of black folks are too afraid.” The assassination plot seemingly con- Nonviolent resistance has been defined times, and the worst of times. It was the Yet LaFayette remained dedicated to firmed all their worst fears, yet it became a as “relentless perseverance.” LaFayette best of times because as a direct result of putting the teachings of nonviolence to turning point in the struggle toward free- watched as that spirit of perseverance the Selma campaign and the march to work in a city where they would meet the dom. LaFayette explained: “The feelings of emerged in Selma. “We considered our- Montgomery, President Johnson and the toughest test imaginable. Forman finally blacks in Selma toward me changed after selves soldiers in a nonviolent army and Congress passed the Voting Rights Act relented and appointed him director of the that night because they realized I was pre- would continue to fight against violent and ripped up many of the Jim Crow laws voter registration campaign in Selma. pared to give my life for a cause that would acts with nonviolence. Violence was that prevented black citizens from voting. His book, In Peace and Freedom, is a serve them. There was a different climate, a never a deterrent for us. We believed that It was the worst of times because Viola highly insightful case study in community new attitude. People not only sympathized; if we sustained the movement in spite of Liuzzo, a civil rights activist and mother of organizing whose lessons remain just as they offered genuine support.” the violence, we would succeed and bring five, was shot to death by a carload of Ku valuable today. As soon as he arrived in He now found that many more people about the changes we sought.” Klux Klan members as she was ferrying Selma in January 1963, he began bringing were committed to attending the mass It all built up to an historic showdown marchers between Montgomery and Selma together an embryonic organization of meetings and voter registration classes, and during the three marches from Selma to after the rally. LaFayette knew Viola Selma residents to carry out a systematic long lines of people began bravely standing Montgomery. The first march on March 7, Liuzzo as a selfless activist for justice. voter registration campaign that, only two up for their rights at the voter registration 1965, was“Bloody Sunday” when hun- He wrote, “There’s not a time that I years later, would literally transform the office, where they willingly risked arrests dreds of marchers were brutalized by drive past the monument that marks the face of a nation, when it catalyzed the pas- and beatings by the notoriously brutal police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. area where she was killed that I don’t sage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Sheriff Jim Clark and his deputies. The second march was held only two reflect on that tragic night and say a silent Yet his central role in this momentous Sheriff Clark and other Selma officials days later on March 9. Hundreds of prayer for her and for the family she left struggle was almost erased at the begin- wore buttons proclaiming “NEVER!” to marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus behind.” [In Peace and Freedom, p. 141.] ning of his Selma sojourn. Just as Medgar show that they would never tolerate any Bridge and the entire crowd knelt down in LaFayette says he has “mixed emotions” Evers was assassinated in the evening attempts at integration and voter registra- prayer with Martin Luther King and whenever he thinks about Liuzzo and all when he pulled into his carport after a tion. They drove their segregationist mes- Ralph David Abernathy in what they those who gave their lives so selflessly for meeting with NAACP lawyers, LaFayette sage home by violently attacking and called a “Confrontation of Prayer.” the cause of justice, yet he always remem- was attacked that same evening when he arresting Selma citizens as they peacefully Many were very critical that the bers “how she sacrificed her life to that oth- pulled into his driveway after a voter-reg- attempted to register to vote. Yet hundreds marchers turned around and walked back ers might live and enjoy freedom and istration meeting in Selma. of people from all walks of life found the across the bridge instead of continuing on democracy in their own nation.” As he got out of his car, two white men courage to challenge Sheriff Clark and the and provoking a mass arrest. In LaFayette’s Those words are a testament as to how in a nearby parked car asked him to give brutal apparatus of segregation. analysis, these critics didn’t understand we should remember and honor those who their stalled vehicle a push. As LaFayette This is the boomerang effect of nonvi- what the real purpose of that march was. gave their lives to win one of the most got out of his car to help him, they sav- olence that Gus Newport had described to The organizers were waiting in expecta- important struggles in our nation’s history. agely attacked him without warning, me at the San Bruno jail. This boomerang tion that the federal government was on the We must remember Medgar Evers, smashing his head with a crushing blow effect has made an unexpected appearance verge of lifting an injunction against the Jimmie Lee Jackson, Viola Liuzzo, Rev. that knocked him to the ground. When he in many seemingly hopeless nonviolent right to march. They held the second march James Reeb, Martin Luther King Jr. and rose up again and stood his ground, the campaigns when an oppressed people sud- to keep the heat and the media glare on the the four girls killed in Birmingham, Addie attackers pounded his head with a pistol denly discover the spirit of resistance ris- city of Selma, but they wanted to avoid an Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole butt, again knocking him to the ground. ing from within at the very moment when unwanted, unnecessary and irrelevant bat- Robertson and Cynthia Wesley. Each time the men struck him with these the authorities have attempted to destroy a tle with the federal government at a time I remember, now and always, how an crushing blows, LaFayette simply stood movement with violent repression. when they were pressuring federal officials oppressed and insulted people, a people up again, refused to run or defend himself, But then, just as people were finding to overturn Alabama’s local laws that pre- subjected to a nearly totalitarian system of and looked his assailant in the eye. new courage in Selma, the 16th Street vented black people from voting. racism enforced by overwhelming levels After the third blow, the would-be Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, The organizers had analyzed things cor- of state-sanctioned violence, found the assassins aimed a gun point blank at his was bombed on September 15, 1963, by rectly. The federal injunction was indeed courage to march on with all the odds face. At that moment, his neighbor Red the Ku Klux Klan, killing four young girls lifted only 10 days after the second march, against them, march on despite the beat- ran out, and pointed a rifle at them. attending Sunday School and injuring and the third and final march was scheduled ings and bombings and bloodshed, march LaFayette hollered, “Don’t shoot him, hundreds more. Two months later, for March 21, 1965. Now the battle lines on despite the murders. They refused to Red!” Adhering to nonviolence even at President John F. Kennedy was assassi- were clear. It was the Freedom Movement let truth be crushed, and justice crucified. July 2014 S TREET S PIRIT 11 Activists Stage Jack London’s Iron Heel from page 7 “Now, let me tell you about the revolu- tion. Such an army of revolution, millions German revolutionary, or V. I. Lenin, the strong, is a thing to make ruling classes leader of the Bolshevik Revolution of pause and consider. The cry of this army is: 1917, who admired London and seems to ‘No quarter.’ We will be content with noth- have borrowed the phrase ‘the aristocracy ing less than all that you possess. We want of labor’ from The Iron Heel to describe in our hands the reins of power and the that sector of the working class that had destiny of mankind. We are going to take lost its working-class consciousness and your governments and your palaces...and sided with capital. In the 1960s, The Iron then you shall work for your bread even as Heel experienced another resurgence. the peasant in the field. Here are our hands. Vietnamese as well as Americans read it They are strong hands! as a text on the evils of imperialism. It has “This is the revolution, my masters. never gone out of print, but London schol- Stop it if you can. You have criminally ars often ignore it.” and selfishly mismanaged. And on this Here is my favorite passage from our count you cannot answer me here to- theater adaptation of The Iron Heel where night!... You cannot answer.” anti-capitalist organizer Ernest directly WICKSON: “No answer is necessary! confronts Wickson, a leader of the 1% Believe me, the situation is serious. That capitalist elite: bear reached out his paws tonight to crush ERNEST: “With modern technology, us. He has said that it is their intention to five people can produce bread for a thou- take away from us our governments and sand. One person can produce cotton our palaces. A great change is coming in cloth for two hundred and fifty people, society; but, haply, it may not be the woolens for three hundred, and boots and change the bear anticipates. The bear has shoes for a thousand. If modern worker’s said that he will crush us. What if we producing power is a thousand times crush the bear? We are in power. Nobody Jack London while writing The Sea-Wolf at Wake Robin Lodge, Glen Ellen, Calif. greater than that of the cave-man, why will deny it. By virtue of that power we then, in the United States today, are there shall remain in power. and mine and those that come after us right, for justice, for humanity, can ever millions of people who are not properly “We will grind you revolutionists have the power. There is the word. It is touch you. Your hearts are hard as your sheltered and properly fed? The capitalist down under our heel, and we shall walk the king of words — Power. Pour it over heels with which you tread upon the faces class has mismanaged. You have made a upon your faces. The world is ours, we are your tongue till it tingles with it. Power.” of the poor. You cannot escape us. Power shambles of civilization. You have been its lords, and ours it shall remain. Labor ERNEST: “It is the only answer that will be the arbiter, as it always has been. blind and greedy. You are fat with power has been in the dirt since history began. could be given. Power. We know well by It is a struggle of classes.” and possession, drunken with success. And in the dirt it shall remain so long as I bitter experience, that no appeal for the

His Heart Is with the Street People from page 1 ous on the streets. And a lot of people that have been victims of violence — they pro- reach.” The word “peer” is important, and ject it out. They’re on the edge.” he explains its meaning. “I mean somebody He admits that, “I had to do years of who has their own mental health issues, meditation to get rid of my anger.” He (has had) some recovery and is able to help puts it simply: “Hurt people hurt people.” somebody. I’ve been on the streets, suici- I asked what he does with people who dal, depressed, done just about every drug have been traumatized. His answer was a there is. I don’t do all this now. Sometimes lesson I have taken to heart: “Get them to I sleep out just to remember.” tell their story! That’s the most important We had a couple long conversations thing. That’s a lot of what I do.” sitting on a bench in Peoples Park while He described a Code Pink demonstra- Food Not Bombs was serving a meal to tion in front of the Marine Corps recruit- people in the park. Diehl’s job involves ing office in Berkeley that took place sev- connecting homeless and at-risk people eral years ago. A crowd of very angry with community services that will help men had gathered, and were threatening them get housed and stabilize their lives. violence against the peace protest. But the work is extremely frustrating, “It became very clear,” Michael said. he says, because there are not enough ser- “There was one guy with an American vices to help all those in need, and flag. He came from inland California and Michael Diehl and Grace Chen dance in Peoples Park music festival. Lydia Gans photo nowhere near enough housing for all the he was mad. He was a Vietnam vet.” people desperate to get off the streets. Diehl simply asked the man to explain more or less housed for many years. We need to continue,” Diehl said. “That’s the Consequently, there is a high burnout rate his feelings about the war and the demon- first met when he was living at the Albany essence of being a good organizer. You among workers in homeless services. stration. “I said, ‘Tell me why you think Bulb before the first eviction in 1999. want to avoid being the one doing it all.” “I don’t want to be another paper shuf- that.’ And he told his whole story about Hannibal told me of his first encounter He’s not all seriousness. He loves fler sending people to go here and there,” Vietnam. I just listened for 20 minutes with Michael Diehl at the Free Clinic music and dancing. If someone sets up Diehl said. “They get plenty of that and he said, ‘Thanks, that felt good.’ I where Michael was working. their drums in Peoples Park and starts already. If I’m to connect people to men- said, ‘I figured you wanted to come to “Some years later we actually met,” playing, Michael will break into an exu- tal health services or housing, there needs Berkeley and tell someone.’ And he took Hannibal said. “I started talking about berant dance. It doesn’t matter that to be some significant investment in that. his flag and he went off.” reviving the Berkeley Homeless Union. I nobody joins him. But he can make it part That’s why I’m not going to give up the Diehl is deeply concerned about the vio- asked Michael and we started the Berkeley of his activism. “It brings a whole new social justice thing.” lence in society. He quotes psychologist Homeless Union together.” He listed some dimension to it,” he said. He deals with many people on the street Abraham Maslow, who wrote that food, encampments they supported. “We moved At Occupy Oakland, when someone who act out, who yell and get violent or shelter and safety are basic human needs. on that together, along with the people.” brought some music, he started dancing and abusive. “A lot of people on the streets have “Safety, which is basically about violence That is a good description of Diehl’s soon it became a group activity. His con- mental health issues,” he said, adding that — that’s what trauma is about,” Diehl said. approach to community organizing. When nection with the street youth on Shattuck he is convinced that “there is a mental “It’s a violent society. We’re not totally he sees an interest developing around a Avenue in Berkeley is built on a shared health component to homelessness.” owning up to that. More than any society in particular issue or activity, he helps peo- appreciation of music. He will talk with Diehl objects to the biomedical model the world, we are an extremely violent soci- ple work together to make it happen. enthusiasm about all the different music of mental illness, what he calls the “bro- ety. And the fact that we’re not looking at The garden in Peoples Park is a recent scenes he’s been part of over the years. ken brain theory” promulgated by the psy- that is a problem.” example. Diehl says simply, “I helped get Economic and social conditions all chiatric establishment. “It’s more about Referring to the recent shooting of things going and then stepped back and let around us are worsening. More and more trauma,” he said. A large part of that trau- Gayla Moore, he pointed out that in a cri- other people do it.” But it was not easy. I people are being caught in a web of sick- ma stems from the destabilizing effects of sis situation the police are not adequately remember watching agonizing months of ness and deprivation. But at least here in poverty and the dangerous and nerve- trained to deal with it. What is needed is a conflicts and temper tantrums as well as Berkeley, someone is listening. racking experience of homelessness. Crisis Intervention Task Force, a proposal unabated pressure from the University of Someone cares enough to treat the peo- “People need to know there is a heavy that was considered some years ago but California. Diehl was with them through it ple who live on the streets as neighbors social price (of economic) inequality and I never implemented. Berkeley Mental all until they achieved peace and unity. and friends, not as outcasts. Perhaps there think that is one reason why this country Health has a mobile crisis unit but it is Now, with a dedicated crew of gardeners, is a lesson here about the importance of tol- has high rates of so-called mental illness,” grossly understaffed and underfunded. the place is flourishing with a lush assort- erance for others. A lesson about respect he said. “Homelessness is a major trauma I had been talking about community ment of corn and vegetable greens and and human dignity. A lesson about our because you’re not feeling safe. You aren’t organizing recently with Yukon Hannibal, some lovely flower beds. shared humanity, more important than ever safe. You’re in a danger zone. It is danger- a Peoples Park regular, who has been “Now it seems to be working so I don’t in a society where so many are hurting. 12 S TREET S PIRIT July 2014

In recent years, homeless, low-income residents and community groups have Leonard Woods lives in the Hotel Alexandria on Skid Row. He and a group of res- worked together to ensure that Skid Row in L.A. has affordable housing. idents kept developers from displacing all the poor people living in the hotel. Community on Skid Row from page 6 nity garden, which they see as an organiz- ing tool. “It helps create community,” Fisher points out. “In the middle of Skid Row, look how beautiful it is.” In addition, the community garden pro- vides a source of fresh vegetables — a rarity on Skid Row, which activists call a food desert. “I have to catch two busses to get to the closest grocery store,” Deborah Burton charges. Fisher says when they harvested their first zucchini, they discovered that some residents had never eaten the vegetable. Now the garden produces Japanese cucumbers, tomatoes, sunflowers, pota- toes, garlic and rosemary as well. “Every week we have a class,” Ozeki explains. “Right now, we’re planting seedlings, and people learn to prune, and then put fish meal into the watering cans. Urban gardens require a lot of care.” To help spread access to gardening A homeless man on Skid Row has attached a sign to his shopping cart alerting the police not to confiscate his belongings. resources, and therefore to fresh produce, LA CAN helped form the Skid Row Security at the Pershing Square market tried to push homeless and obviously poor people Garden Council. Organizations donate out on market days, and even forced a woman in her 80s, who’d been handing out free trees, seed and soil, which the council dis- tributes to buildings where residents set sandwiches for years, to stop her distribution of food to the poor. up a garden. Ozeki guides urban garden- ers in three other buildings belonging to to stop her distribution. “But we worked interviewed parents in Pershing Square, at it selectively against them, and the Safer the Housing Trust. “They have 19 build- with them, and they backed off,” he says. the Union Rescue Mission, and other Skid Cities Initiative targets police enforcement ings with gardens,” he says. LA CAN has also started its own food Row locations to determine if they were to Skid Row east of Main Street. According to LA CAN organizer Eric distribution program, a Pop-Up Market fit to remain with their children. In 2006, the 50 extra police it mandat- Ares, “Nutrition education is a big part of organized with Women Organizing In 2007, they took 15 children from ed for the area issued 12,000 citations. In our work. We want to grow our own food Resources. “We get food in Southern their parents. The policy caused great con- response, that year the 9th Circuit Court so that we don’t rely just on markets.” California and sell it, but not for profit,” troversy. Another supervisor, Yvonne of Appeals ordered the city to stop its At LA CAN’s own building, the Ares says. “We started in South LA, and Braithwaite Burke, told the Los Angeles overzealous approach. activist community set up a rooftop gar- now we’re bringing it downtown.” In its Times, “There should never be an assump- Nevertheless, citations have continued, den, growing tomatoes and other vegeta- first six months, the market distributed 3.8 tion that because you’re poor, you should and last year, two LA CAN members bles in containers of dirt hauled up several tons of organic produce. be taken from your parents and placed in handing out seedlings for gardens were flights of stairs. In their new office, set- Homeless people define Skid Row as a foster care.” even cited, and one officer warned hotel ting up the rooftop garden will be easier community in many ways. General TC The policy was eventually ended, but tenants they should “keep moving” once — it’s a one-story building. points out that most homeless men are today women and children make up less they walked out of their building. “Everything we grow is distributed veterans. Gregory says it’s the largest sin- than ten percent of Skid Row’s popula- Restaurants catering to higher income free or prepared in meals for our commu- gle community of people in recovery from tion. Class and race increasingly deter- clientele, however, are allowed to have nity,” Ares emphasizes. alcoholism and addiction in the country. mine who can have children downtown. people wait outside for tables and even The local farmers markets often see “There’s also a community of artists Toddlers in expensive strollers are a com- put tables on the sidewalk. downtown’s affluent residents as their who live here and I’m one of them,” mon sight outside market-rate lofts. “They complain about the homeless preferred clients, and LA CAN has nego- Gregory boasts. He’s acted in plays about “A community without children is a problem, but there’s one sure way to get tiated with many of them to get them to addiction and recovery put on by one of community without a future,” according hundreds off the street,” Gregory says, and accept Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) the area’s oldest theater groups, the Los to LA CAN co-director Becky Dennison. points to the Cecil Hotel on Main Street, cards from poor residents. In California, Angeles Poverty Department. Another “We have to improve the community, as where a deal fell through that would have public assistance and food stamp benefits local ensemble, Cornerstone Theater, opposed to push poor mothers or women rehabilitated hundreds of rooms for people are paid into accounts, and recipients then incorporates Skid Row residents and their of color out.” living on the sidewalk. “We are fighting for use the cards to buy food. ideas into its productions. Some measures that were felt as dis- a place that belongs to us.” “At the City Hall market, getting EBT Yet another group, the Women’s Action criminatory by homeless people and hotel “The Skid Row community is one of access was easy, but at the Grand Park Coalition, organizes an annual variety show residents have been successfully chal- the most vibrant communities in Los market the managers didn’t want to take to highlight local talent and raise money to lenged. A policy by some hotels to charge Angeles,” Dennison says. “Folks take care them at all,” Ares charges. In Pershing support women and families. a guest fee to family members staying of each other, know each other and live Square, managers say they’re setting up Skid Row’s population is overwhelm- overnight was overturned. A federal court very densely. Here, you either create com- their own, separate system. ingly male, in part due to county policy. forbade police from confiscating the munity or you get wiped off the map.” The Pershing Square market first tried to From 2005-2008, the Board of belongings of homeless people. use security to push homeless and obvious- Supervisors declared “zero tolerance” for Meanwhile, however, city code section All photos are by renowned photojour- ly poor people out on market days, and families living on Skid Row. Under pres- 41.18D still prohibits sitting and lying on nalist David Bacon. With thanks and appre- ciation to Equal Voice News. See more at: even forced a woman in her 80s, who’d sure from Supervisor Gloria Molina, the sidewalk between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. http://www.equalvoiceforfamilies.org/ been handing out free sandwiches for years, teams from Children and Family Services Poor residents accuse the police of using