Story Archives 2001

by Charles Atkins ( Post Newspaper Group)

It was sad to see former UC Berkeley teacher, Ken Moshesh, facing his second charge after being arrested by a UC Berkeley officer for an October 27th “lodging” warrant. ( i.e., a warrant for sleeping or “lodging” outside)

Moshesh called the POST to attend his hearing this week after he had been charged with sleeping outside the stairless porch of an abandoned boarded up structure on January 18th owned by the First Presbyterian Church.

Moshesh was told that he had to appear on January 14th to see if charges had been filed, from the original incident, from which he was placed on probation, with the judge telling him that if he went back there again, the probation would restored.

In an interview outside the Berkeley Municipal court house, Moshesh said, “ If I don’t sleep outside there, I’ll be sleeping outside somewhere else. Then the same scenario will continue to occur until I’m back in jail. Why should I have to continue to justify my freedom simply because I sleep outside,” said Moshesh, “I am being criminalized for my homelessness when there is no where inside to go, decent or not. Perhaps it is also because I am outspoken in words, action and went to the media about this paradoxical situation in this land of promise and plenty. Moshesh continued, “did my homelessness also strip me of my freedom of expression along with my civil rights?”

This week Moshesh, who is also a staff writer for PoorNewsnetwork, was back in court with attorney Osha Neumann of Community Defense Inc, POOR Magazine editorial staff, and representatives from B.O.S.S., asking for permission to file a demurrer to the petition to revoke his probation. The case has once again been given another date, with the Public Defender saying that he doubts Moshesh will be sent to jail. Moshesh and his attorney would like to have the #647 statute defined so human beings are not criminalized for being homeless, on the grounds that it is a violation of human rights to penalize people for being poor. Neumann said Moshesh is one of the rare individuals who clearly understands the predicament of the homeless, and is willing to fight to get the state statute changed.

In a workshop last December, Berkeley Police Chief Dashchel Butler, while addressing the relationship between police and homeless people said “homelessness is a societal problem that cannot and should not be dealt with by police. He further said that police should be of aid to the homeless population by providing referrals to social services.

Although Berkeley police are considered much more humane than most in the Bay Area, reality is that they too have shown what some say is an appalling disregard for human life and dignity, as well as what some say is abuse of human rights of the home- less people.

As a Participant Observer and Staff writer at POOR Magazine, Ken Moshesh, Community Defense Inc. and POOR staff in coalition with several other civil rights and economic justice organizations such as BOSS, Street Spirit, Coalition on Homelessness, Women’s Economic Agenda Project, and Copwatch are attempting to overturn the existent “lodging” laws, i.e., the laws that facilitate the criminalization of poverty and homelessness in the U.S. based on their unconstitutionality. For more on this story, read Ken’s stories; Arrested Artistry and Arrested Artistry II; The Set-up Continues on www.poornewsnetwork.org/index

If you are interested in getting involved in this effort, please contact POOR at ( 415) 863-6306. or email poormag@sirius.com
The next court date of this precedent setting case is April 12 at Berkeley Municipal Court dept. 201

by Homeless People's Network)

Seventy percent of homeless people in Tokyo lost their jobs
through restructuring, and 80 percent want to find employment,
according to a white paper released Friday.

The report by the Tokyo metropolitan government is the first
ever published in Japan on the homeless.

Tokyo government officials in March last year surveyed 1,000
homeless people who were living in temporary housing, parks or
alongside rivers.

The number of homeless in Tokyo is 5,700, which is 1.7 times
higher than five years ago and accounts for 30 percent of Japan's
total homeless population, according to the report.

Fifty percent of Tokyo's homeless are in their 50s, while 90
percent of the homeless people in the capital are in their 40s,
50s or 60s, the report said. Ninety-eight percent of the homeless
are males.

Two-thirds of the homeless had held stable positions either
as company employees or as operators of their own businesses.
Ten percent of these people were white collar workers in management
or clerical positions, the report said.

The major reasons cited for being jobless were: resignation
(30 percent); lack of day labor (25 percent); dismissal (13 percent);
and sickness or injury (9 percent).

The Tokyo government concluded that 70 percent of the homeless
had been dismissed from their jobs.

The government next fiscal year will pump more resources into
providing support for the homeless, including increasing self-reliance
support centers.

**In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.**

by Joseph Bolden

p>I’m in my mom’s Fairfield apartment complex where I dutifully buy groceries, give money or borrow some, always paying her back soon as possible.

Yeah, I can hear both guys and women saying, "He’s a mama’s boy!" Not true. I’m a mama’s man. I believe most women like to know how men treat their mothers, sisters, their female friends, or if they have real platonic friendships, as guides to see how they themselves will be treated.

Ladies, full bodied, red blooded women... I LOVE MY MAMA, MOM, MOTHER and the MADONNA/WHORE COMPLEX is no problem of mine.

I wonder how many women love their father as I do my mom.

I FORGAVE MINE and hope he can do the same for me.

Back to Attorney General Ashcroft.
As I ate my chicken potpie, sipped a cool French vanilla-applejuice milkshake through a plastic straw, I saw our newly appointed Attorney General talking.

The redlined mute is on, but I have to hear what he is saying out of curiosity, not journalist objectivity.
"Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall and all the king's horses and the king's men could put Humpty Dumpty together again."

I blink twice, turning up the volume. "Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee," or words to the effect. I’m paraphrasing Mr. Ashcrofs words.

My three pop-culture references were:a world war I ambulance driver; big game hunter, E. Hemmingway; Broderick Crawford’s corrupt politicians In All The King’s Men, a book, 1949 movie, and also a play.

As for the eggy fairy tale, it also sounds like faith based B.S. alluding to Government's helping less and increasing its right wing agenda more. I don’t know if Ashcroft’s a right wing God Squad cheering fanatic or a sincere politician honest in his views.

I am sure The Eternal would not like the God on or our side rhetoric that’s been spewed about of late.
That early morning political news can ruin one's appetite.

That’s my two day bit-o-freedom from work when I can get it, and it feels bountiful. Oh, to have five or more weeks of that bliss... But first get my life, work, words, to enable myself to... breathe.

Here’s the pitch. If you like any news items, columns, of Poor Magazine beside mine-Please do for them what Poor has done for me.

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by Vlad Pogorelov and Harry Jones, PoorNewsNetwork

Harry Jones lies in his old, rugged sleeping bag on the concrete hill under the 280 freeway. It’s been raining for the last two weeks and though he’s tried to keep warm and dry by wrapping himself in newspapers under his clothes, after so many days of rain, it’s been of little help. Harry has been shivering for the last two days. He was feverish and was thinking of going to the emergency room at San Francisco General Hospital but is too infirm to walk. There is a big puddle of water next to him and rusty water from the leaky ceiling is dripping on Harry’s sleeping bag, but he is too weak to seek other shelter.

In addition to this sickness the longtime health problem of his injured back has been exacerbated. It has been hurting so much that even at night he has not been able sleep. He remembered how he recuperated from his back injury which he received while working at the warehouse in San Francisco Port. Back then, a physician who recommended him for disability told him, “Harry, remember if you don’t want your back to get worse, don’t do any heavy lifting or expose yourself to cold or humidity.” That was ten years ago.

Recently, at the age of 53, Harry was evicted from his apartment in the gentrified Mission District of San Francisco. Unable to find a place that he could afford on his S.S.I. income, he is resigned to living on the street. He has been living on the street for the last 9 months and his situation has been getting progressively worse. At first he tried collecting recyclables to supplement his income, but his injured back worsened and soon prevented him from doing this.

Harry tried sleeping on community park benches, but was cited by the local police on numerous occasions for 647(j)PC (illegal lodging).
Unable to continue sleeping on benches, he decided to seek cover under the bridges and freeways. There, he found a large number of homeless people as well as comradery. During the last month Harry found shelter underneath the 101 freeway. There were about fifty homeless people who were there with him. Harry had his little corner space separated from others by cardboard boxes. In his 4’x6’ “flat”, he kept all of his possessions—a cooking pot, a mattress, two blankets, a propane lantern, the Bible and a novel by Upton Sinclair, “The Jungle”. After a few weeks of living there, Harry started to relax. Even his back wasn’t hurting as much as it had been. When it did hurt, Harry was able to go to San Francisco General’s emergency room, since it was nearby. It was the rest that he needed so much.

But suddenly Harry’s relative peace of mind came to an abrupt end. One night a dozen police cars surrounded Harry and his homeless neighbors. One of the policemen in charge introduced himself as Sargeant Steve Balma—a notorious founder of H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M., which is responsible for citing, arresting and displacing homeless residents of San Francisco. Everyone was given a citation for illegal lodging. All of their carts and belongings were confiscated and a number of people were arrested and booked in county jail. Harry went to the local shelters but there was no slace for him. After a few days of sleeping on the sidewalk his health problems became severe.

A child of Sargeant Steve Balma and Captain Sylvia Harper of Southern Police Station, H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M. was created in May, 2000. The acronym H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M. stands for “Helping Offenders Maintain the Environment Thorough Enforcement, Accountability, and Management”. According to a memorandum of the San Francisco Police Department, the objective of this unit was to address “quality of life complaints involving people sleeping in doorways, encampments, and peddlers obstructing sidewalks, public drunkenness, drug activity, human waste and needles often left by quality of life code violators”. An excuse for creating this special unit was that “complaints received by members of Southern Station regarding quality of life issues has increased to intolerable proportions”, as was stated by Sergeant Steve Balma in his letter to Commanding Officer of Southern Police Station, Captain Sylvia Harper.

The officers assigned to H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M. are paid overtime for performing this work. According to an SFPD internal memorandum “hours of overtime per day of operation would be 8 hours at sergeant’s pay and 24 hours at patrol officer’s pay.

The H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M. concentrates on such areas as Stevenson, Jessie, and Minna Streets, between 4th and 8th Streets, Market Street at Jones Street, 7th Street, Duboce Street and Valencia Street. It also patrols Brannan Street between 8th and 10th, Beale Street between Howard and Bryant and areas adjacent to freeway on-ramps, off-ramps and overpasses.

Though created with an understanding that “this program was not designed to criminalize homelessness”, the statistics of H.O.M.E. T.E.A.M. convey just the opposite. During their first 15 days of operation they cleared 300 encampments, issued 44 citations and booked 10 individuals in jail. As they stepped up their campaign against homeless individuals, the officers of this notorious unit cited 391 individuals and booked 47 people in jail, as of February 2nd, 2001. The number of admonishments for 647(j) PC (illegal lodging) was 781. Their statistics also state that several subjects have been cited more than once on the same charge, 647(j)PC (illegal lodging), with many of them receiving two citations per week.

The median cost of operating this unit by paying officers overtime is over $7,000 per month. The team only operated 2 times per week for a period of 4 hours. It has cost taxpayers over $70,000 since the campaign of harassment of San Francisco homeless residents of San Francisco by Southern Station began. In the meantime, dozens of homeless have died due to exposure to the elements, lack of shelter space, hunger and insufficient health care.

On one rainy night, feeling very sick, Harry crawled through the hole in the fence surrounding the space underneath 280 freeway. He has been there for the last five days. There has been no one to help him. He has had no food or water, nor has he had any medications for his fever or back pain. At times, Harry has been loosing his consciousness, becoming delirious because of his high fever. He has been coughing and has had difficulties breathing most of the time. “If only I could get up on my feet, then I would walk to the hospital and ask for help,” he whispered through his cracked lips. At times, when he can think clearly, Harry has been thinking of death. He has tried to chase the thoughts about this subject away but his condition has only reminded him of how bad his health is.

Harry has been hoping that it would stop raining and after his clothes and sleeping bag dried he might be able to get up on his feet and seek help. While having this thought and staring at the rusty, leaky concrete above him Harry, heard two male voices talking to each other and a police radio, “I’ve had a complaint from our source in the neighborhood about criminal activity underneath the freeway. I am going to look for a suspect and you stay here and back me up.” In a few seconds a cop, who was a member of the H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M., was flashing a light into Harry’s face. Harry was ordered to get up and was searched, but nothing illegal was found on him. He was cited for illegal lodging. Harry tried to explain that he had nowhere to go but police threatened to arrest him if he didn’t leave. Harry was so weak that he had difficulties speaking for himself. The tears were running down his bearded face, but the policemen were merciless.

Harry crawled back out into the rain. Going to the emergency room was out of the question, since he could barely move. He remembered that there was a homeless shelter a few blocks away, although the last time he’d tried to check in it was full. But Harry knew that if he didn’t find a place inside he would not survive this night. The rain was starting to resemble Niagra Falls. Harry fell into the mud a few times on his way to a shelter. Somewhere along the way he lost his sleeping bag and his wallet. It took him 2 hours under the pouring rain to reach a homeless shelter.

Harry is only one example of thousands of homeless residents in this city who have suffered at the hands of H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M. officers. In the second part of this report I will continue the story of Harry Jones—a 53 year-old former laborer with disabilities. In the meantime, there are thousands of homeless folks who struggle to survive on the streets, being criminalized by SFPD and the City. It is our civic and humanitarian duty to say “No” to the squandering of taxpayers’ money through supporting the operations of an inhuman unit H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M.. We should act fast, because for many homeless residents it may be too late.

Harry Jones was a staff writer through POOR Magazine’s writer facilitation program which aims to give voice to the insider expertise of low/no income Bay Area residents about issues of race and class oppression. Before his untimely death on the streets of San Francisco, Harry collaborated with POOR Magazine staff to create this story.

by Leroy Moore

Happy birthday to Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization, DAMO! DAMO turns four years old on March 30th, 2001. Party at St. Anthonys. 5-8pm. 121 Golden Gate in S.F.
For info please call: Leroy F. Moore Jr., Founder of Disability Advocates of Minorities Org.,
DAMO at (415)586-2047

by Jewnbug

mixed heritage

workin fo change

sellin mi food stamps

fustrated wit upperclass

who wanna save mi ass

sleepin in SRO

barely can relax

police harass

constant nightmares

peeling off dese lies

labeled

on mi back.

by Dee

On March 26, 2001, I telephoned the Public Utility Commission to complain about the rate hikes presented by the P.U.C. First I heard a matrix but, having a rotary phone, I waited to speak to a real human being. Instead, I was connected with a woman who claimed that P.U.C. has no fax machine, and then hung up.

I called again and asked for the woman's name. She refused to answer, and promptly hung up.

I called again, listened to the entire matrix for the third time, and when the woman answered I requested the name of her supervisor. She refused to reply, and hung up.

A fourth time I called, listened to the matrix, and again reached this same woman, who would only identify herself as the receptionist before hanging up.

I called again and said to the receptionist, “I want to make a complaint to the Public Utilities Commission."

She asked,“What Utility?”

I explained, “I want to complain about the person in charge of the rate increase for energy. I don’t want to complain about a utility problem."

“That means nothing to me,” she replied.

I said, “Let’s speak to your supervisor,” and once again she hung up on me.

I called a sixth time to again ask the receptionist, “Can I speak to your supervisor?” Without reply she hung up.

I called again, this time from a push-button phone. I pressed #2, hoping to at least leave a message, but the matrix transfered me to the same receptionist!

I asked, “Can I speak to your supervisor?” This time she accused me of harrassing her before she hung up.

I called an eighth time and hit another number in the matrix, hoping in vain to leave a message, but I was switched once more to the receptionist. This time I asked her for the fax number at P.U.C., and she gave it to me reluctantly. I asked her, “Who gets this fax? Will the head of the PUC get it?”

She answered,“I don’t know who will get it,” and hung up again!

So the following is my public comment to the P.U.C.:

1)You are trying to control the behavior of California citizens by raising our rates in order to force us to conserve. What a lousy excuse to raise rates. Isn’t it really because the rate raises affect blue chips, oil and utility stocks?

2) I demand to know the identity of this receptionist and, more importantly, that of her supervisor. This woman should not be the only contact available for public questions because she and the P.U.C. have made it almost impossible for California citizens to address complaints to you immediatly oe directly.

3)I expect this rude, abrasive, undersupervised woman to lie about our phone calls to her, and so I recorded our words- I repeat, OUR words, not her words. I informed her of this at least once.

4) I expect a letter or fax from you immediately in response to this situation.

5)Finally, as you do indeed have a fax machine, I will use this fax to tell you that I vehemently disagree with your irrational demands for Californians to pay higher electric or gas bills.

by Joseph Bolden

My Housing Authority appointment had upset me so much during the four days leading up to it that I suppressed my anxieties,
went about my work.

When the day came, the asthma I control through exercise attacked, full
blown and sudden.

A gentle Housing Authority employee, saw my obvious distress as my room is inspected, tells me it's "A-1, to keep it that way.

I lay on my bed with a clean rating suffering from asthma that had to stay with me for a day or two for
internalizing the problem so long.

The thing is, I didn’t realize how losing my Single Residency Occupancy would affect me.

I get out of bed, wheezing down the stairs, rather than using the elevator, so the other residents wouldn’t see my physical discomfort.

In the drug store on the corner I see a New York Magazine with something on Woody Allen at the top.
A tastefully done Rodan-like picture of a male nude sits on a rock looking at himself in a mirror gets me like a visceral gut punch.

I’m thinking "Here we go again," and I think of a Murphy Brown episode.

Besides the Vice Pres. Quail/Murphey Brown televised fiasco, on another episode she invades an Iron John, Male Bonding ritual disrupting it, she explains she felt some fear, left out, criticizing it.

It’s funny the way men beat drums, sang, danced, dressed, excluding females, like little boys od in their club houses.

The women’s movement in the 1970’s had their W.O. [women only] categories in gyms there are still W.O.s supper clubs, gay bars, or other venues, including corporate structures.

Yet as men begin changing minutely, most women see whiny, girlish, wimps. Isn’t it strange that we have real women boxers, but if they fight a man win or lose fairly who suffers? [The man loses]twice whether he beats the woman in a fair fight or loses to a woman of equal weight and strength he will always seen as bully or P-whipped wimp.

Equal Rights is suppose to work on both sides not just one.

The "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" metaphor works in an idealized or futuristic world. Back to physical fights with the opposite sex.

There is a stigma to hitting girls, yet if they hit us, beat us, it's all right.

The biggest laugh is a woman or girl grabs, punches, throws objects, or the time-honored kick'em-in the-balls,as seen on a Saturday Night Live skit recently.

After Mrs. Bobbitt's slicing off Mr. Bobbitt, castration can be funny too, except for the lost lives in race ‘n sex issues.

Men do change gradually, not in huge spurts as woman have en mass. Could this be why we seem so far behind to them?

Think of grade or high school kids: the jocks, nerds, cool girls and boys, the weird outsiders. Eventually it's the weird outsiders and nerds and intelligent jocks who change the world!

Women gained some economic and sexual freedoms. They may marry later or not at all, as being a single woman is no big deal anymore.

I could be wrong, but I believe women are still slightly jealous of men. We have begun to take care of ourselves physically, and beautify ourselves women see this as the "feminized male" and get angry.

I really will enjoy a future where just as women can ware body slimming-flattering clothes, fake hair, boobs,
or surgergically altered appearance beyond medically need.

Women could not tell who is natural or cosmetically enhansed and this includes penis leanth.

Women have wanted men to change since Adam.
Now that he is changing, she does not like it and wants stop our evolution to becing mature, independent men who may marry, remain single,or have platonic friendships with women, who can live safe and long lives without women’s help.

This secretly outrages many women because it's not about them as it once was, but now lots of men have moved beyond the "get the girl syndrome."

As everything is not about men, everything is also not about women.

If I had the money, knowing that looking and feeling better would make me healthier and help me enjoy more female company, here are some of the things I’d do for myself:Body Scrub, e-facials, an executive shave, a flotation bed, a gentlemen’s facial, a hot salt bath and a mud bath.

The problem is, after looking and feeling fresh, I could get addicted to this, ignoring my woman while concentrating on my new-found Adonis' face and body.

The new male is not "womanized" or "feminized." He’s changing because you wanted him to, but now he can change his mind too.

Men will feel the same pressure women have for centuries. Maybe after they’ve gone through this they’ll say, "Been there without women’s constant harping on what’s wrong, always avoiding what we’ve done right.

Let’s look to our own council with our own emotions and feelings.
Let's be as free to marry or not only when we chose. Let's get to know our own souls."

I really think women don’t want men to change too much. And though women still have the "gift of bringing life," men do have a choice in semi or permanent male control of fathering.

Ladies:men's changing is not the problem females enjoying the ups and down turns of their free staus also not a problem, but now that men are learning better grooming, taking better care healthwise maybe a few guys
gay, straight, or bi go over
-board dosen't mean"Fem-men"
Its new it'll get old fast.

Your wanting us to stop short of our own search as you continue exploring your freedom is unfair and wrong. Women, you cannot have it both ways anymore.

.You want men to change, yet when it happens you say stop! At last its [to use your term] "Our Turn." Evolution goes both ways.

Women have their ongoing revolution, and now men are having theirs, also. I say, in the words of a famous song, "Get Over It."
If women hold up half the sky, who’s holding the other half?

If I angered feminists or men, well, fine and dandy. Maybe it's time to end the sexwars between men and women and get to more pressing issues, like:

Why are middle class white children going ape and shooting up their schools?

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