indymedia.us
Arizona • Arkansas • Atlanta • Austin • Baltimore • Big Muddy • Binghamton • Boston • Charlottesville • Chicago • Cleveland • DC • Hawaii • Houston • Hudson Mohawk • LA • Las Vegas • Madison • Maine • Miami • Michigan • Minneapolis/St. Paul • New Hampshire • New Mexico • New Orleans • North Carolina • North Texas • NYC • Oklahoma • Philadelphia • Pittsburgh • Portland • Richmond • Rochester • Rogue Valley • Saint Louis • San Diego • San Francisco • San Francisco Bay Area • Santa Cruz
local and national features
|
Apr 29 2010
|
Sisters Of The Road Calls for Solidarity TOMORROW, 04.29, to Oppose New Sit-Lie Law!! |
Thursday, April 29 at Noon meet at Sisters for a quick rally and then parade through Old Town spreading the message that SIDEWALKS ARE FOR EVERYONE and celebrating our community! At 1:30 pm, we sign up to testify against the Sidewalk management Ordinance at City Hall and then pack the council chambers at 2 pm!
|
Mar 20 2010
|
Homeless Couple Victorious Against Contempt Charges in Santa Cruz |
Homeless musicians Anna Richardson and Miguel de Leon faced jail for allegedly defying laws against sleeping in Santa Cruz. The city had tried to argue that the pair were in contempt of court as they had been seen by police with blankets and all their possessions. The pair had an injunction preventing them from camping. At a court hearing on March 19th, Judge Timothy Volkman disagreed that the reports showed the pair were intending to camp. For homeless, people taking a nap with your belongings during the afternoon is not the same as camping.
|
Dec 26 2009
|
Food Not Bombs Opens in Camden |
Food Not Bombs now has a Camden chapter. They did their first food service on November 22, and Life-Net Radio was there. LISTEN
"Food Not Bombs is one of the fastest growing revolutionary movements and is gaining momentum throughout the world. There are hundreds of autonomous chapters sharing free vegetarian food with hungry people and protesting war and poverty[...] throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia." More Info: foodnotbombs.net | New Jersey Chapters
Related: Mantua Food Not Bombs (video)
|
Dec 26 2009
|
Eighty-seven Souls: Reflections on Tough Times and Tight Choices in 2009 |
On Monday, December 21st people across the city remembered the eight-seven souls that died in this last year either living on the streets or in shelters. Eight-seven people! This is a dramatic rise from the previous year and it is shameful.
|
Dec 25 2009
|
Christmas at the Day Worker Center in Mountain View |
Christmas is bittersweet for Maria Marroquin this year. Only fifteen percent of the workers who show up have been matched with jobs on any given day. Gifts from the community supplement the meager incomes earned by those who come to the Center every morning...and wait. As Executive Director of the Day Worker Center of Mountain View, she looks back at the financially bleak 2009 with high hopes for the promise 2010 holds.Related: Amarga Navidad: Homenaje a los víctimas de la masacre de Acteal, Chiapas
|
Dec 19 2009
|
VIDEO: Undeclared Emergency - Homelessness & Rape in Portland |
I filmed a 5 minute interview about the "PDX Undeclared Emergency" regarding women being safe on the streets when they are houseless. The Right 2 Survive campaign informed me on some recent bad news regarding homeless women being raped in the Portland area. Lately there have been some rapes in the homeless community in and around NE Portland. The Right 2 Survive is concerned and is activly doing something about it.
The activists have been organizing foot patrols and handing out whistles to women who are sleeping outside to use in the event that they are being abused or attacked. If you hear a whistle blowing go towards it and see / help / etc.... The Right 2 Survive group is asking for community solidarity in offering protection to folks (women) who are without any source of security to be free from rape and abuse while they just try to get through the night. The Right 2 Survive activists are not only seeking protection and organizing whistle handouts and networking on the street level, they are also asking and demanding the city takes a responsible role as well. They are showing up in city offices and working for real changes. They need the greater PDX community's support and their solidarity.
VIDEO Filmed at the recent Portland WTO D5 protest.
right2survive.blogspot.com
|
Oct 17 2009
|
VIDEOS: Homeless Protest at City Hall |
I stopped by the "NO Camping Law" Protest, at Portland City Hall, and not expecting to see anyone I find about 20 people who are "protest/camping" around the building to demand changes regarding sleeping in a safe place without arrest at night in Portland. The protest and some of the problems are discussed in the four short vidoes. The restroom issue was something I feel needs better attention by the city especially now that they closed the city hall rest room and there seems to be not much available from what I hear. The protest seems respectable yet poignant in its demands. With winter quickly approaching and with others being criminalized for sleeping outside the city is being pressured to step things up. Read More & Videos | Related: Human Rights Commission October Meeting
|
Sep 04 2009
|
Safe Haven Member Jesse Masengale Back in City Court |
On Wednesday, September 2, Jesse Masengale returned to city court for two tickets given to him by Champaign police this summer. A member of the Safe Haven community, Jesse was present when Champaign police showed up on June 8 to videotape the “tent city” that had been set up on the property of the Catholic Worker House. He was subsequently given two tickets for obstructing and assaulting a police officer.A Champaign city attorney has offered Jesse a plea bargain, a tacit acknowledgement that at least half of these charges are bogus. The assault charge will be dropped if he pleads guilty to the obstructing charge and agrees to three months of court supervision and 100 hours of community service.
Witnesses say that Jesse had tossed his cell phone to a friend to take pictures when the police began to detain him. This was interpreted by police as an attempt to hit officer Gregory Manzana in the head―assault with a cell phone. The second charge of obstructing justice was for Jesse’s insistence that police stop their videotaping. REad More
Previous Coverage: Safe Haven Tent Community Goes To Court | Safe Haven Under Attack | CU Tent Community
|
Aug 27 2009
|
Growing Poverty and Despair in America |
[Research and Analysis by Stephen Lendman] - In 1962, Michael Harrington's "The Other America" exposed the nation's dark underside enough for John Kennedy to ask his Council of Economic Advisor chairman, Walter Heller, to look into the problem and for Lyndon Johnson to say (on January 8, 1964) that his administration "today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America."
In fact, it was little more than a skirmish that fell way short of addressing the real problem in the world's richest nation. Today it's even greater and increasing exponentially under a president who, unlike Johnson, declared war on the poor and disadvantaged to favor privilege over growing needs and essential social change.
Full article: Growing Poverty and Despair in America by Stephen Lendman
|
Jul 20 2009
|
"Viva Palestina" Convoy Enters Gaza |
Youngbloods, Elders and Friends: Cynthia McKinney, Charles Barron and 200 other Americans broke the Israeli blockade of Gaza today when the first American "'Viva Palestina" convoy entered Gaza with 50 trucks and cars filled with relief supplies for the 1.5 million Palestinians who have been blockaded and bombarded by Israel for over two years. Several weeks ago McKinney and 20 other activists were illegally seized in international waters and held in an Israeli prison when they tried to bring relief supplies to Gaza by boat. Upon her release from prison Cynthia joined Charles Barron and the other Viva Palestina activists who were being refused entry into Gaza by Egyptian authorities.
|
Jul 10 2009
|
Action Alert: Safe Haven Under Attack |
The national housing crisis has led to thousands of families losing their homes. The rise in homelessness has contributed to the increase in tent communities across the United States as a grassroots solution to the problem.
|
Jul 07 2009
|
Sit/Lie Unconstitutional! Cause for Celebration? Well...Not Really... |
A judge has ruled the Sit/Lie unconstitutional but Police Chief Rosie Sizer released a memo stating that all the judge ruled was that Portland should just use disorderly conduct instead of Sit/Lie. That is not what the judge ruled and her vague memo creates NO meaningful distinction between the Sit/Lie and disorderly conduct. This is not how the city should react to the loss of the constitutional legitimacy of the Sit/Lie. Two many good people have worked to hard on this issue for the Police Chief to take such a step without analysis and public input....
|
Jun 26 2009
|
Sit/Lie Protests in Portland |
As Portland's Sit/Lie ordinance is deemed as unconstitutional, there is evidence all over Portland of underground actions protesting the law. (Some popped up all over the city before the circuit court decision).
The signs the figures are holding have some of the following statements on them:
* "This city wide ordinance has been deemed unconstitutional by circuit court. Sit/Lie in unity to the supreme court. FREEDOM FOR ALL."
* "SIT LIE LAW IS A GVNMENT CURSE - Homeless Front"
Some that I spotted before the circuit court decision simply stated, "SIT LIE" and appeared to be attached with metal to what they were sitting on.
The signs the figures are holding have some of the following statements on them:
* "This city wide ordinance has been deemed unconstitutional by circuit court. Sit/Lie in unity to the supreme court. FREEDOM FOR ALL."
* "SIT LIE LAW IS A GVNMENT CURSE - Homeless Front"
Some that I spotted before the circuit court decision simply stated, "SIT LIE" and appeared to be attached with metal to what they were sitting on.
|
Jun 10 2009
|
Punishing the Victim |
The Fresno police department has finally identified the officers who were captured on videotape in the February beating of a homeless man. But the department has been slow in proceeding with its promised investigation of the police beating. Glen Beaty, meantime, remains in jail on charges of violating parole.
|
May 31 2009
|
Anti-poor parking measure leads to hate crime in Venice |
Advocates of the poor and homeless community of Venice Beach have been fighting against Overnight Permit Parking Districts, which are used to criminalize people who park RVs on city streets. Negative press coverage may be contributing to persecution of the homeless, to whom California offers no protection from the rising wave of hate crimes... Report with photos: LA Times Misses Mark - By a Mile - About RVs in Venice by Peggy Lee Kennedy