{"id":8764,"date":"2013-02-13T03:55:28","date_gmt":"2013-02-13T10:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?p=8764"},"modified":"2013-02-15T15:34:32","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T22:34:32","slug":"conversations-wolys-homeless-2-8-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/conversations-wolys-homeless-2-8-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversations w\/Oly’s Homeless 2-8-13"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charity vs. Civil Rights?<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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Charity vs. Tax$<\/p><\/div>\n

The controversy surrounding the City of Olympia’s new ordinance making ‘camping’ (sleeping?) on any City owned public property a criminal offense along with the possession of ‘camping’ paraphernalia on the same (sleeping bags, tents, tarps? eating utensils? cups? canteens? sticks?) has been heated and the ordinance itself passionately denounced. Today, citizens are confronted with a municipal law virtually criminalizing the homeless, placing them in the same category as drug paraphernalia and guilty almost by definition. Yet almost all the discussion surrounding the City’s use of the homeless as pawns for political advantage in its internecine budget battles with adjacent sister municipalities and the County of Thurston, both public and private, is focused on the degree of largess to the homeless Olympia demonstrates rather than the legally fundamental question of their Civil Rights.<\/p>\n

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Big Brother’s pad<\/p><\/div>\n

The cynical use of the term ‘camping’ as an anti-poverty tool with which to discriminate against the poor has been competently rendered by the City’s attorney given the case law permitting regulations material to ‘camping’ along with public health & safety, though not ‘sleeping’, which would be a bit too much like legislating against breathing or eating since they’re part of the human condition necessary for life itself. Common sense dictates what we all know: the homeless do not sleep on the cold hard pavement for recreation. It’s uncomfortable, dangerous, and humiliating. They do it because, despite some naysayers, they have no choice!<\/p>\n

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Protest Preparations<\/p><\/div>\n

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Monkey Business<\/p><\/div>\n

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FREE Flowing Water<\/p><\/div>\n

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The In Crowd<\/p><\/div>\n

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5:00 O’Clock World<\/p><\/div>\n

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Mike Coday, et ux<\/p><\/div>\n

So how is it, with the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s within memory, so many progressives fail to see this ordinance as tantamount to the contemporary equivalent of the South’s notorious Jim Crow laws? Will “Homeless–keep off the grass!” signs begin popping up on City lawns? Will its fountains and the Artesian warn they’re for landed Gentry only? Will it’s public restrooms make their taciturn hostility to the homeless (locking them out during evening\/nighttime hours) more transparent by announcing, “No Homeless allowed”? Why do citizens allow the Mayor to wring his hands in angst proclaiming how generous he’s been while he shepherds the City’s version of the Nuremberg laws into passage? Yes, we’ve heard similar phrases in the past: “Some of my best friends are homeless\/porpoises, but would you want your daughter to marry one?” It’s as if the City wishes to be IN the world, but not OF the world when it uses the homeless as straw men to accumulate political capital. NIMBY politics ultimately make a community MORE dangerous rather than less by refusing to manage by something other than crisis–a tactic the Mayor virtually boasted of on 1-8-13 in the City Council chamber.<\/p>\n

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March on Oly City Hall<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Eagle Has Landed<\/p><\/div>\n

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Camaraderie, Solidarity<\/p><\/div>\n

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One Dog Night<\/p><\/div>\n

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Strategy Huddle<\/p><\/div>\n

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Guy Fawkes<\/p><\/div>\n

Make no mistake, Americans might be better served by immigrating to North Korea where oppression is served openly rather than alloyed with the base metal of hypocrisy in Olympia. Yesterday, it was busking, today it’s sleeping in all but name only. Tomorrow?–standing too close to City Hall or criticizing it? Why not simply acknowledge the bigotry within the Council Chambers by passing an ordinance, as one Florida municipality has, making homelessness, per se, illegal altogether within the city limits?<\/p>\n

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Mike Coday<\/p><\/div>\n

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He Hears His Master’s Voice<\/p><\/div>\n

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Do I Know You?<\/p><\/div>\n

Has the Statue of Liberty become an anachronism?…a bad joke? Have we transitioned from a nation conceived in liberty with justice for all into one straight out of ANIMAL FARM where we’re all equal under the law, but some are more equal than others? Does ‘camping’ come from the Monica Lewinsky dictionary where it all depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is? Citizens are not fools. This ordinance has little to do with camping and everything to do with the poor and the homeless. Its far reaching pernicious effects are not attenuated by charity or transfers of tax dollars to NGO’s because the fundamental underlying issue is NOT charity, but civil\/human RIGHTS! The Mayor’s apologists have given him a pass for bigotry due to his large purchases of Girls Scout cookies. Worse, most bigots don’t have the opportunity to pass discriminatory laws that undermine the civil rights on an entire class by virtually criminalizing their existence.<\/p>\n

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Homeless Buffet<\/p><\/div>\n

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He Was A Cat Guy Anyway<\/p><\/div>\n

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Are We There Yet?<\/p><\/div>\n

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4th Ave Miracle<\/p><\/div>\n

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Skateboarders Next?<\/p><\/div>\n

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Homeless Youth: Most Vulnerable<\/p><\/div>\n

It may not be a given, at least in law, that the homeless are entitled to charity or government largess. But they are entitled to one thing that’s not being discussed: The right to be left alone.<\/p>\n

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Shame City<\/p><\/div>\n

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Lock ’em Up, Move ’em Out!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Homeless Criminals On Parade<\/p><\/div>\n

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Oly’s Finest<\/p><\/div>\n

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Cavernous Vacant Bldg<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Afterlife<\/p><\/div>\n

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Irate Local Citizen<\/p><\/div>\n

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Civil Disobedience?<\/p><\/div>\n

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Street Corner Politics<\/p><\/div>\n

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Basic Education<\/p><\/div>\n

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Civil Disobedience<\/p><\/div>\n

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Urban Vegetable<\/p><\/div>\n

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Fundamentals<\/p><\/div>\n

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City Homeless<\/p><\/div>\n

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Criminality<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Party’s Over<\/p><\/div>\n

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The People’s Porch<\/p><\/div>\n

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Coday’s Band<\/p><\/div>\n

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Angel Of Mercy<\/p><\/div>\n

A measure of the City’s intemperance is as obvious as its efforts to reduce crime by locking public bathrooms, then complaining of the homeless relieving themselves in public. If there were a litmus test for folly, surely it would closely resemble this state of affairs.<\/p>\n

Conversations w\/Oly’s Homeless 1\/8 (Elena) 2-8-13<\/strong>
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