ACLU sues city over Anchorage homeless camp clearing

HOMELESS: ACLU says property seizures violate human rights.

City police have wrongly seized and destroyed the property of homeless people who make their camps in Anchorage woods, parks and greenbelts, a new lawsuit contends. The suit calls the city's approach a violation of homeless individuals' constitutional rights....

The lawsuit filed in Anchorage Superior Court protests "the pattern, practice and official policy of the municipality of Anchorage to confiscate and destroy the property of Anchorage's homeless residents."

"Taking the sleeping bags and tents from homeless campers, who often have nowhere else to go, deprives the poorest among us of the few possessions they have -- possessions vital to survival in Anchorage's climate," the ACLU lawsuit said...


The suit is filed on behalf of Dale Engle, 52, an Army veteran who says he's been homeless off and on since 1979. The ACLU hopes to have it certified as a class-action on behalf of all homeless campers whose property is subject to being seized.

In the spring of 2009, Engle was living in Muldoon woods when his sleeping bag, tent and other personal items were disposed of by police or their agents, the suit says. At some point, his military ribbons also were confiscated and destroyed, the suit contends.

Engle told reporters at a news conference called by the ACLU that he lost everything, even the checkerboard his father handcrafted from spruce.

"They were personal items of my own that I carried up through childhood. It's all gone. It's just a memory now."

After so many homeless people died last year, the mayor created a homeless task force to determine there was a problem and the solution was to kick them out of what little they had of a home right before winter, and throw out all of their stuff.

Some of the people were at their day job when this was going on. Many people have a job, but are homeless. Something is very wrong with this picture and it isn't the suffering homeless people trying to get by camping out all winter.

I don't see any other explanation. Five more people have died this Spring so it's working.

don't sieze and destroy homeless people's tents and sleeping bags in Alaska.

And I'm almost positive he never displayed the attitude so commonly held by 'Christians'- I got mine, screw you.

:applause: :applause:

:hi:

collective will and perspective on OUR homeless people. I know there are many who have compassion, concern and even do their best to help, but we are in a growing crises and there is far too much rhetoric that deflects the problem by making generalized, personal attacks on people who are in that situation.

Sure, there are some cold-hearted, ruthless folks who ridicule, despise and even abuse the homeless, but I don't think that's the major factor here. It could very well be that keeping the recognition of the plight of homeless Americans at bay is a tactic of fear, denial and ignorance.

The fear is that deep down, many of us realize that it could happen to anybody, even ourselves, if the right conditions occur; unless you are wealthy, there is nothing that can stop a bad serious of unfortunate events sometimes. The denial is simply a way to keep it out there, away from one's own experience. Denial is a prophylactic that keeps harsh realities from spoiling one's false sense of security and tenuous place in the Simulation's bubble of modern life. Ignorance is reserved for those who are far enough removed from the experience of homelessness so far, (that is only exacerbated by the collective abandonment of our fellows in distress) that they cannot begin to imagine how frightening and devastating losing everything and having no permanent shelter can be. Add to that the often extreme difficulty of extracting one's self from what is often a downward spiral, who want's to deal with it when it is simply somebody else's problem?

Then, we can consider the fact that vast numbers of children are now literally growing up homeless and living on the street, in cars, in shelters, tents, etc. The tragedy is with us and grows each day. While it is preaching to the choir here, while we can deal with our individual response to this underplayed crises, we know that it is about collective will. What we see is vast amounts of public funds going towards military expenditures and bailing out financial behemoths, while more and more people fall into a Stygian journey of misery and want that is becoming a bold, underscored and emphasized signature of shame for America and its people. How can one have pride in this gross negligence and tolerate waves of destitution rolling like crimson waves of pain from sea to oily sea?

I have noticed the Anchorage Daily seems to be encouraging personal attacks on the people who need help the most.

I won't post the story about a homeless man dying recently because it was riddled with 'his fault' 'his choice'.

I'll give the city credit for going ahead with plans for a new hotel turned homeless shelter, but it is for alcoholics to have a safe place(which is wonderful) where they do not have to choose between drinking and warmth.

The problem is, this feeds the attacks on homeless as just being drunks and why are we helping them drink?

Meanwhile, homeless people who are not alcoholics will not feel safe there and still have no support system to help them get back on their feet. It's a start but...

eliminating help to food kitchens and shutting down housing centers. Like Andre Bauer's telling attitude, they believe that if you stop feeding them or giving them a place to stay, work training, that they will just 'disappear.'

:puke:

is a good place to start. http://www.adn.com/2010/01/29/1116962/red-roof-inn-plans-prove-divisive.html I know the people of Fairview aren't too thrilled with the idea, but would they rather continue the current system where the homeless people have no safe place to stay?

We just had another homeless death yesterday. http://www.adn.com/2010/05/06/1266753/man-found-dead-in-homeless-camp.html

Nice idea, but what about the people that have just fallen on difficult times and are not alcoholics...