** Anonymous please help the Homeless in Fresno ***
It is heartbreaking the abuse and destruction of those who are homeless in Fresno.
This was the 6th and last homeless encampment.
The City and County of Fresno continue to destroy the only shelter these people who are homeless have, and also take their property. Winter is coming and just like when other encampments were destroyed. There were people who were homeless died on the street. One woman died while sleeping on the sidewalk along one of the over full shelters in Fresno.
There aren't enough Shelters, there aren't enough housing for the Homeless. But the City of Fresno passes more and more laws against them. They destroy what little shelter they can put together, what little community they can develop.
The small group of progressives try to give them a voice, to provide basic things like water, porta potties, toliet paper, wood for warmth. at times, tents, food, sleeping bags... all that the City takes away.
Even though some homeless have bought shopping carts for their property, the city is passing a law that it will be illegal to have a shopping cart.
yesterday Mike and other activist tried to stop the lastest destruction by the City of Fresno, and
Today the City of Fresno annoucned they had enough extra tax money to hire 15 more police officers
Fresno's police department is going on a hiring spree, Mayor Ashley Swearengin announced Wednesday.
The department in the next few months will add 15 police recruits, 30 cadets and four dispatchers in an effort to begin restoring service levels hammered by the Great Recession.
The department's roster of sworn officers also will be boosted by the return of 11 cops who had been assigned to security duty with the city's airports department.
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/10/23/3568829/fresno-police-to-go-on-hiring.html#storylink=cpy
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The homeless and their advocates have appealed to the CA Attorney General, and they have appealed to the US Attorney General.
they have appealed to the houses of faith, both locally and nationally.
And the destruction and abuse continues.
Mike Rhodes has been documenting the abuse and destruction..and I have tried to post in DU... hoping someone who reads these story will have the power to put a stop to the abuse and help start getting the homeless off the street.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/10/23/18745312.php
The City of Fresno destroyed the last remaining homeless encampment in the downtown area today. The assault on the Grain Silo/Canal Bank homeless encampment started at dawn and continued throughout the day. By 7:30 a.m. homeless advocates had blocked the two main roads into the encampment, preventing bulldozers and other city vehicles from entering.
The city work crews shifted their strategy to focus on a handful of tents and other structures in a field on the other side of the railroad tracks. Bulldozers, garbage trucks, police and other support vehicles came down a dirt road on a canal bank to start the demolition. The handful of homeless people at that location were told to remove their property or it would be stored. The destruction of the structures at that location took several hours, while the homeless advocates maintained their vigil at the main encampment.
Eventually the city focused their attention on the much larger encampment and tried to bring in their bulldozers on a road that ran parallel to the railroad tracks on the south side of the camp. They were met by 10 - 15 homeless advocates who refused to allow the city vehicles to pass. After negotiations with Jim Betts, an attorney working for the City of Fresno, an agreement was reached to allow a U-Haul truck in to move some of the property.
As the homeless and their allies were loading the U-Haul a second bulldozer came down a road at the north end of the camp. One of the protesters jumped on the bulldozers claw and the city soon withdrew that vehicle.
The protesters, having gained time to help move the homeless, stepped back and two bulldozers and a garbage truck entered the encampment and started destroying what was left on the south end. It appeared that all of the homeless had moved out of that area and the property remaining had been stored.
I had to leave by mid afternoon, but it appeared that the city would have the entire encampment leveled by the end of the day. Several City of Fresno representatives told me that a fence would be put up on Thursday to keep anyone from re-establishing an encampment at that location.
Meanwhile, in other parts of town, homeless people are having their property confiscated if it is left unattended. I was also shown a citation one homeless person received yesterday that charged them with an infraction for leaving “debris in the road” which was, they say, their property. To see an earlier story about this new police tactic in Fresno, see: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/10/09/18744608.php
To see what groups working in support of the homeless will do next, see: http://www.helpfresnoshomeless.org/
http://fresnoalliance.com/wordpress/?p=1313
The City of Fresno continued their attacks on the homeless today by destroying the last encampment in the downtown area. The photo below shows one protester stopping a bulldozer as it tried to enter the encampment.
Protesters Arrived at Dawn
Protesters Hold Their Ground
Destruction of the encampment
Loading property onto the U-Haul
Some people moved their property across the RR tracks (How is a homeless person suppose to move their stuff, and put it where?)
Cinnamon, one of the homeless residents, Called out for Help
"Nancy looking on. The Grain Silo community was the only place she felt safe and was her home for the past 8 months."
