Cop Recruiter states; "If they [recruits] have some shady stuff in their background, they can call me,"

"Not everyone is cut out to be a corrections officer."

Peace be with you.

I don't know what else could be said about this Eureka Reporter photo and quote then "bullshit." Look at that "corrections officer!" He hasn't seen his toes for years. College of the Redwoods' contribution to the police state seems to be lowering it's standards dramatically.

That photo makes me certain that CR's standards are pretty damn low. If they will fudge weight standards by a couple hundred pounds, did they fudge mental stability standards when they trained ALL those Eureka Police Officers who gunned down Eureka residents?

I wonder how many children ask their school guidance councilor for information on a job where they could capture, at gun point, those they disliked and keep them captive in cages? I think I would worry about that child - just like I worry about those who would seek this kind of employment.

love eternal
tad

Who the Fuck is Rebecca Kimbel

Hold me up into the light
Fix the cracks and fix them right
Keep the pieces in the drawer
Keep them there forever more
May come in use for someday
Recycle this shit in someway
And all that I have to say
Don't let them throw me away

Korn

Peace be with you.

About once a week a “toastmaster,” Rebecca Kimbel, writes a column for the Eureka Times-standard’s “my word” space. This blond-haired, blue-eyed, speaker for hire hates poor people and wants them fought (we all know how the EPD interprets this).

She advocates spying on your neighbors, keeping logs of their activities, judging them and their friends, and other general unAmerican behavior. This extra-white woman, with just a touch of brown prominently displayed on the end of her nose, believes the spying, keeping secret logs, and making false allocations against your neighbor will improve her quality of life.

She falsely threatens the people of Humboldt county with “lawsuits,” legal responsibility for others actions, and death and mayhem if you don’t get in goose step with her and her butt-buddy Garr “Pop-‘em’-to-death” Nielsen.

She advocates against those with poor credit, poor maintenance habits, and poor public records. Poor is the operative word here. Oppression of the poor is her aim. Preventing the poor from renting housing in her exclusive city is her main point week after week after week.

She gives questionable legal advice that was given her by Pop-‘em. Remember this is the police chief who swore meth would be found in police murder victim Martin Cotton. It is obvious that neither Pop-‘em nor his Reichish quisling Kimbel have a fucking clue as to what they are talking about.

I pray that Miss Kimbel and all those stupid enough to follow her advice get the shit sued out of them. It would do Miss Kimbel a world of good to have to live like those she so obviously despises.

So as you stoke the flames of hate and fascism please remember Miss Kimbel what you do to the least of my brethern you do to me, and may JAH the most high reward you in kind.

love eternal
tad

What I want for Christmas

Peace be with you.

I want love to be the law of the land.
I want the hungry fed.
I want the unsheltered sheltered.
I want the working poor to live comfortably, without fears and want.
I want the jailed released.
I want the broking healed.
I want the trees to grow tall.
I want the rivers to run clean.
I want the birds to sing loud.
I want the animals to be bountiful.
I want the fish to swim thick.
I want the air to be fresh.
I want the soldier to be bored.
I want the peacemakers to keep the peace.
I want the lonely to feel loved.
I want the weak to feel strong.
I want the courage, wisdom and love to confront war with peace.
I want love to clear the fog from everyone’s eyes.

. . . and I want to drink this organic chocolate beer, eat these organic, fair-trade, dark chocolate chips, and reflect upon how I’m the “luckiest” mother-fucker in the world. May you be blessed as you have blessed me.

love eternal
tad

Who killed Cheri Lyn Moore?

“No escape from the mass mind rape
Play it again and then rewind the tape
And then play it again and again and again
Until ya mind is locked in
Believin’ all the lies that they’re tellin’ ya
Buyin’ all the products that they’re sellin’ ya
They say jump and ya say how high
ya brain dead
ya gotta a fuckin’ bullet in ya head”

Rage Against the Machine

Peace be with you.

By now most people in Humboldt County know that the District Attorney has filed charges against ex-Eureka police chief Dave Douglas and Swat boss Toni Zanotti for criminally negligent homicide, also known as involuntary manslaughter. I believe that negligent homicide is a good second or third charge to tack on to other charges which seem more apropos. The other charge should be “obstruction of justice,” “lying to investigators,” “destroying evidence,” and other charges stemming from the fact that every member of Eureka's police department that was at the Moore scene is involved in the very questionable death of Cheri Moore.

After being sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, EPD swat team member Mike Johnson testified in the Cheri Moore Coroner’s Inquest. During his testimony Johnson, the supposed only .223 rifle shooter at the scene that day, was asked, “So, the first time you fired she was facing you? To which Johnson replied “she was facing me.”

Next he was again asked, “Her body was turned in your direction?” He replied “yes.”

The next question was “you actually saw the, ah sight picture of her body prior to firing?” and he answered “yes I did.”

The confliction in this story arises from the fact that his victim had a bullet hole in the back of her head. How can this be explained? Though the prosecutor at the inquest clearly established by all the witnesses testimony that Cheri was facing the supposed shooters the whole time (Wilcox even had to pull the body forwards to handcuff it), the connection between that fact and the two bullet holes in the back of Cheri, still to this day, has never been explained.

Further, testimony from Johnson shows he believed he fired his gun between 3 and 5 times. Investigators found 4 rifle bullet shells, and the landlord Hauer turned in 1 more he found later. That’s 5 shells and agrees with Johnson’s testimony. The problem is, there were 5 rifle bullet holes in Cheri with no exit wounds, and two additional rifle holes in the wall. That is both two more than shells found and what Johnson remembered firing.

We will probably never know what happened that day, but I believe that both the “inquest” and this “involuntary womanslaughter” charge are designed to cover up a murder. There are five more killings by the EPD, whose version of the stories must be viewed in light of their less than forthcoming past. How can we ever trust a police department that treats a killing by officers like it is none of our business?

Remember what my Original American brothers and sisters have been saying for 300 years: “never trust the white man in the dark blue uniform.”

love eternal
tad

neo-chief leaves Eureka defenseless to protect ex-chief

Peace be with you.

I tried to go to the arraignment of David Douglas and Toni Zanotti, but the Humboldt County Court Clerk’s office either lied to me or the DA’s office failed to make the public arraignment public. On Monday, December 10, 2007, I went to the clerk’s office a little after 10:00 am and asked if “David Douglas” was scheduled to be arraigned that day. The clerk claimed she checked her computer and “no charges had yet been filed.” She told me that the cutoff for the 1:30 arraignment calendar was at 11 am. At 11:30 am I again went to the court clerk and again asked if a “David or Dave Douglas” was scheduled to be arraigned she again seemed to type something into her computer and again she said no. She then told me that the next arraignment court is at 4:00 pm and that it’s cutoff time was 3:00 pm. We all know that by 3:00 pm the two accused of criminally negligent homicide were granted a continuance on their arraignment until February 21, 2008 during the 1:30 arraignment calendar by Judge Feeney. Now I don’t want to make too big of a deal about my rights being trampled on, but my rights were fucking trampled on!

Let’s see who did get to learn of the PUBLIC arraignment before the fact. In today’s you-can-hold-it-in-your-hand edition of the times standard (12/11/07) there is a front page picture of the court hallway. The picture is full of people who were able to find out what time the arraignment was to be. So get out your magnifying glass and let’s play count the cops.

Starting at the back and to the right of the column in the middle of the hallway there are three Bailiffs. Bailiffs don’t count because they are always there. There is one additional bailiff behind the gentleman with his hands in his pockets left and towards the back.

Walking up the hallway on the left rear is an EPD officer on duty (I would assume, unless they now wear there uniforms to social events). I can’t tell who is behind the cop in the rear – probably some poor person who just happened to be getting arraigned on some stupid class-crime on that of all days, but I don’t know.

From in front of bailiffs to somewhere behind the photographer on the right I can identify 17 uniformed cops and a bunch that know are cops but I can’t tell for sure if they are suited up as enforcers. One can only assume the entire eureka police department was ordered to report to the court house, under the color of law, and at tax-payer expense, to pack the gallery of Douglas’ secret public appearance.

First of all, bullshit dog-and-pony shows just don’t get it. We already had that unrealistic, one-sided, fairy-tale. Remember it was called an inquest. Secondly, I don’t have any faith in our DA’s ability, or should I say desire, to prosecute this case. Paul Gallegos, the DA, didn’t bring charges against these two - a grand jury did. If Gallegos was going to prosecute this crime he would have done so. He didn’t! He either believed he couldn’t or he didn’t want to. During the Human Rights Commission’s police review forum on December 4, 2007, Gallegos said, “I am confident from my experience with law enforcement and from my discussions, that they have significant concerns about that process [police review]” - no shit! Daniel Mintz, the heroic reporter who left the Arcata Eye after its owner took a bribe to pursue a story, documented this in Southern Humboldt’s paper The Independent today under the title “DA Advises Against Police Review.” (Unfortunately I can’t find this paper on line.)

Having a DA who both by his words and his actions support the police in their “internal findings,” and the neo-police chief Garr Nielson who dispatches the entire Eureka police department to the court house, and the secret arraignment courts does little to dispel my belief that they are just covering up another murderer in our midst.

love eternal
tad

Humboldt Drug Task Farce mimics Operation FALCON

Peace be with you.

On Tuesday, December 4, 2007, the Times Standard printed a three inch story under “Briefly” which proclaimed the EPD, the CHP and the Humboldt County Drug Task Force did a “sweep,” arrested 21 people, and scored a record 2 grams of heroin and a quarter of an lb of pot.

Wednesday’s Eureka Reporter broke down the arrests as follows:

Only two of the arrestees could have any charges relating to the heroin. Suspect one accused of “heroin sales” and suspect four accused of “possession of controlled substance.”

Only suspect seven is accused of smoking herb and he was accused with the non-jailable possession of less than an oz of herb. They took a 52 year old man to jail for his head stash. Not one of the suspects was charged with slinging nugs, let alone to grade-schoolers.

We all know a QT is four ounces, so if suspect seven, the only "marijuana charge" had somewhere from a hit off a bowl to almost an OZ, then where did the other three plus ounces come from? Perhaps the three plus ounces was the reason two were arrested for parole violations. Smoking herb seems like a bullshit reason to send someone to prison.

Suspect 20 was drunk in public. Though I refuse to see “just drunk” as anything more than an elitist attack on poor people’s leisure time activities, I think a drug task force/edp/chp sweep is a bit of overkill and abuse of power for such a minor offense.

Suspect 17 was arrested for an open container municipal code violation – ARRESTED! ARRESTED BY THE DRUG TASK FORCE NO LESS!

13 suspects were arrested on undisclosed “warrants.” They made special effort to list one of the warrants as a felony, and knowing how the love to parade the exception that proves their rule around, I feel comfortable in predicting that is the only felony warrant arrest. We do however know poor suspect seven was arrested for an infraction warrant – a ticket!

The one suspect missing from the Reporter article, which I’ll call suspect twenty-one, is just that – missing. Maybe false arrest, or even something more sinister – who knows?

Some of the same questions raised after Eureka and Arcata participated in homeland security’s FALCON operations, must be raised here. If the EPD/CHP/Drug Task Force knew where these dangerous criminals lived, why did they wait until last Friday between 8 am and 6:30 pm to arrest them? Did they wish to put the community at risk inorder to stage a publicity stunt?

More likely than not this was a homeless sweep. I’ve personally seen these “Drug Task Force cops” targeting pot smokers on the Arcata plaza twice now. Large groups of sunglass wearing under-cover cops were begging hippies to sell them nickel nugs out of their stashes for highly inflated prices.

We spend millions of dollars in this county on “drug enforcers,” yet marijuana, the least harmful of any illegal and most legal drugs, is the target of the vast majority of this money. Tuesday, December 4, 2007, the Humboldt County board of Supervisors approved an 89,179 dollar “Marijuana Suppression Program” grant, a 130,000 dollar “Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression” grant, along with a 7,000 USDA Forest service grant.

You will be hard pressed to convince someone that a ten and a half hour, multi-departmental, “drug” sweep that nets two junkies and a 52 year old pot smoker is a good use of our public safety dollars. What really bothers me though, is the fact that the tweak use in Humboldt County went up as the pot smokers went down.

love eternal
tad

who's crazy here anyway?

Peace be with you.

On November 17^th, an Eureka Reporter reporter reported: “Lollich (Humboldt County DHHS spokesperson Leslie Lollich) said Thursday that DHHS had not received Proposition 99 funding for three years.” On November 25,2007 the Eureka Reporter reporter reported: “For the past three fiscal years, Humboldt County has not spent a single dollar of the $1.3 million it receives from the 1998 tobacco settlement on tobacco education, prevention or cessation. Instead, the entire sum goes to pay for half the county’s $2.6 million cost for jail medical expenses.” Did we not get it or did we get it and squander it on something else? It seems that yet again Phillip Crandall is concealing the truth.

We already pointed out how Crandall inflated the number of homeless labeled “mentally ill” by 4000%, now it seems he wishes to “penetrate” 30,000 Humboldt County residents with his CalMAP drug program. The Eureka Reporter reporter reported May 18, 2007, “Even at the 15.38 percent penetration rate for adults aged 26-59 — compared to statewide penetration of 10.12 percent — that’s 85 percent not being served. Crandall calls the numbers ‘impressive, but not enough.’”

Who are these 30,000 Medi-Cal-eligible people in Humboldt County Crandall noted as not being penetrated by the Mental Health Department? The may 18th article stated, “Deichert (Kirsten Deichert, spokesperson for the California Department of Mental Health.) noted that in the most recently posted prevalence rates of mental illness, Humboldt County had 9.31 percent of its population at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level with penetration rates of 10.7 percent.” But 30,000 people represent 23.38% of our county’s population, not 9.31%. So If 11,945 people are "at or below 200% of the federal poverty level" who are other 18,055 Humboldt citizens Crandall is refering to? Is poverty or near poverty a mental illness now?

None of Crandall’s numbers add up. It is like he came up with an answer first and then added the equation. The excuse he gave me once at a meeting at the Wharfinger for how he came up with the ridiculously inflated MHSA CSS plan homeless mentally ill numbers was he just guessed. With him looking to “impress” his “penetration” to a quarter of Humboldt County residents I think what we really need to ask is “who's crazy here anyway?” Crandall seems the abnormal one here, even according to his numbers.

By now we’ve all heard of Dr. Theodore Utecht’s allegation “he has been asked to alter a diagnosis for coding purposes so that ‘(the county) can get paid.’” Utecht claims “‘hundreds of thousands of dollars billed this way’ over a period of four years.” Calling people crazy when their not is not only fraud, but when done to the individual can have two life scarring repercussions. The first is that once a “mental disorder” is placed on your record the best you can hope for ever again is to be a mental disorder in remission. The second is that if you are labeled mentally ill and a medi-cal recipient you are treated according to a flow chart of treatment, called CalMAP, that makes atypical-anti-psychotics the first line.

I followed a person through Sempervirens once so it comes as no surprise to me that, with Crandall’s fraudulent numbers of mentally ill, Crandall’s redirecting education funds to mental health, the sudden quitting of three mental health directors in a year, and the phenomenal budget growth in Humboldt County’s MH department, Sempervirens county nut house is trying to misdiagnose 30,000 of you. Bush has plans to mental health test every one in America and Crandall wants to dope a quarter of them.

love eternal
tad

Are you scared yet?

Peace be with you.

Work is now underway to put heightened security at our Humboldt county courthouse. The terrorists last attack was on the World Trade Organization (the world trade center) and the World Police headquarters (the pentagon), so surely if they attack again they will go after Humboldt Superior Courthouse. Though we have never had any serious problems at the courthouse, our supervisor’s claim that these intrusions into our life are over due and necessary. But if we were truthful we would see that terrorists are not the cause of this supervisory paranoia, oppression is.

Judges ignore the constitution and daily indoctrinate our citizens into the “legal justice system.” They know they are ruining people’s lives to such an extent that they fear retaliation. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that when you fuck with people’s lives so cruelly and continually that someone sooner or later is going to snap. That’s what the increased security is really for. It’s to guard our dictators from is disenfranchised masses.

I had a person tell me the other day that she had three bodyguards. I thought to myself, “I’ve never been that scared.” I’ve never felt the need to arm myself, or wear a bullet proof vest, or have armed guards watch over me. It doesn’t mean that nothing will every happen to me as I have had way more death threats than I wished. It just means that it is very rare. The odds of dying as a “problem” at the hands of our Problem Oriented Policing team is drastically more probable than getting attacked by terrorists (of course the Eureka Police Department does in fact fit the definition of terrorists).

We need to vote these tax and spend liars out of our government. They operate under the theories of the Hegelian dialect – also called problem/reaction/solution. They paint a picture of a “problem,” incite a “reaction,” and then force a “solution” upon the masses. To be poor is to be the problem. To divide the poor against one another is the reaction. And, to give millions of tax dollars to the rich is the solution.

Once I was taught that this was the land of the free, but a more honest teaching would be that this is the land of freedom for the rich and subordination of the poor. The micro society parallels the macro society. Just like big corporations tell everyone in the world what to do, think and be, the local corporations tell Humboldt county residents the same. It’s the same “new world order” that was responsible for the crusades, nazism, and the war on terror. If it wasn’t for the fact that the nazis were brought over after WWII and given our country (they formed the CIA, they were a third of our psychiatrists, and they were the Bush family) then I could say this is the new nazi Germany. But in all honestly I can only say that we are the old nazi Germany.

love eternal
tad

How can the feds "lift their shroud" when the Emperor wears no clothes?

Peace be with you.

Wednesday, November 15, 2007, the AP ran a story about the Federal Reserve issuing their twice a year report four times a year. The article was boring and stupid. I don’t recommend reading it. Instead I invite you to notice the misleading title most papers titled the article. For instance: “Bernanke is Removing Fed's Shroud of Secrecy,” in the Louisville Courier-Journal; or “Fed Chairman Moves to Lift the Shroud of Secrecy,” the Cincinnati Enquirer; or “Fed Plans to Lift Shroud of Secrecy,” the Tacoma Tribune; or “Fed to Shed Some Secrecy,” the Chicago Tribune; etc. No where does the article state that secrets, like who are the stock holders of the privately owned and run Federal Reserve Bank, will be exposed. The fed’s, as we have been ingrained to call this banking venture, tell us through their spokesman that they will do what they’ve always done only more often. I point out the “newspeak” media ploy because if people knew “the secrets of the Federal Reserve Bank” even the republicans would revolt (one, Ron Paul, did).

The video “Ring of Power” is a low budget high content movie about New World Order bankers, their long rise to power, and how they took over the money of every nation. For those who like to read and don’t want all the extras about world rule, corporate dominance, and current leaders the book “Secrets of the Federal Reserve,” by Eustace Mullins is a real eye opener.

I also suggest reading a book called the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” but I must make a disclaimer. NOBODY KNOWS WHERE THIS BOOK CAME FROM OR WHO WROTE IT! The anti-zionists claim it was written by the forefathers of the modern day zionists. The pro-zionists claim it was written by some anti-semitic who hated all Jews, not just the zionists. Me, I need not be concerned with who wrote it or why, because like George Orwell’s “1984" it’s pages parallel the reality I see around me.

We complain about the big corporations that rule the world, but fail to see that behind each of these monsters is a bank holding the note. They hold the note so they dictate the operations. And the good old US of A is mortgaged to the tune of $9,115,927,573,568.93 to these bankers who call the shots. We belong to them: our resources, our factories and our labor.

love eternal
tad

SWATting citizens ends, but POPping them will continue

Peace be with you.

Garr Nielsen the bigoted police chief of Eureka announced today that the police death squad called SWAT will “stand down.” Garr feels that six, fully bodied armored, machine gun toting, hitmen are not enough for those situations where landlords need their homeless befriending tenets murdered. Garr must now rely on his POP team to do the dirty work of beating citizens to death by hand.

In Tuesday’s Times-Slanderer’s propaganda piece “my word,” Garr called upon all good nazis to turn in their neighbors. He stressed the point that property ownership by poor people is blight and should not be tolerated. Calling homeless people that neo-n-word “transient,” Garr expressed concern about people sleeping in our community. We need to take cars away from the poor and make it impossible to harbor homeless because of some unspecified “criminal behavior” bred by homeless.

Garr didn’t point out that Humboldt County judge Christopher Wilson ruled “the court finds on the night in question there was not enough bed space available; it [sleeping] was not a willful violation . . . defendant is found not guilty by the court.” Nor did he mention Humboldt County judge Bruce Watson’s ruling that a defendant that “was not . . . causing any of the environmental and other harm the ordinance [sleeping] seeks to prevent” was not guilty. Garr didn’t even mention Humboldt County judge Marilyn Miles’ written quote from In re Eichorn “Necessity does not negate any element of the crime, BUT represents a public policy decision not to punish such an individual despite proof of the crime.” No, he just threw out class slurs like “transients” to somehow justify his loyalties to the KKK ideology of his illegal machine gun toting Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.

Papa POP in his “my word” claimed he would use his Garr badge to get a permanent slave labor/jail work crew assigned to the City of Eureka. This makes sense seeing how he left a Washington state Sheriff’s department which was run not by a law enforcer but a correction officer. Never even obtaining the position of undersheriff in his last job Garr can guess on how to use the slaves labor he and his murderous gang-bangers at the EPD enslave. Aren’t chain-gangs the way his fellow bigoted nightriders still to this day keep their “undesirables” from being an “eyesore” to the rich, white masters in the south?

In Wednesday’s “my word” one of Garr’s quislings explained how you could turn in your neighbors as a drug house. Rebecca Kimble explained that “drug houses” could be “identified” by the fact that they have friends. Though Ms Kimble lists nine bullets on how to tell if the neighbor you don’t like could be labeled a “drug house,” only one actually points towards “drug houseness,” or criminality. Only the “[illegal drug] transaction” if witnessed would constitute “probable cause,” yet Ms. Kimbles alludes to friends, gifts, music and children all as signs of an invitation for “further crime.”

Ms Kimble advocates not just turn in your neighbor, but keeping logs, getting them evicted, and suing them in court. Ms Kimble wrote that you could get $7,500 for suing them, but didn’t tell you how much it will cost you when you lose the suit and have to pay for your neighbor’s lawyers and possibly a counter suit for invasion of privacy. I couldn’t honestly tell you how much it will cost you, but I know it will be fucking expensive. Hell just having me walk up to your door to serve you with counter suit papers will cost you $100, and the process server is the cheapest person in the whole court gambit. Depositions, lawyers, court reporters, transcripts and professional witnesses all make hundreds of dollars per hour.

These law enforcement people and their minions only tell you their twisted version of freedom and liberty, because they never get stuck paying the tab. It’s you stupid people who listen to Hitler, Stalin, or Nielsen, that end up paying directly for their fascism. It is us the majority though who must pay by having the increased crime, drug use, deaths and all the individual problems that this type of police-state/crypto-eugenics brings with it into what was once safe, friendly small town America.

The 1935-36 attempted fascist coup of the United States by the likes of House of Morgan was defeated, but traitors like Prescott Bush continued their support of fascism and eventually it’s evil seed started choking out the wheat. A quote from FDR I found while reviewing the facts of this attempted coup by corporate interests seems very applicable today:

``In 1776 we sought freedom from the tyranny of a political autocracy--from the eighteenth-century royalists who held special privileges from the crown. It was to perpetuate their privilege that they governed without the consent of the governed; that they denied the right to free assembly and free speech; that they restricted the worship of God; that they put the average man's property and the average man's life in pawn to mercenaries of dynastic power; that they regimented people. And so it was to win freedom from the tyranny of political autocracy that the American Revolution was fought....”

love eternal
tad

The big MAC evicts all single men.

Peace be with you.

The multi-million dollar, chronic homeless case management warehouse, the MAC (Humboldt County, Multiple Assistance Center), gave all single males 30 days to get out. Like so much other “homeless help” the MAC boondoggle was envisioned, planned and built without an operating budget. After spending their recent quarter of a million dollar advance, MAC decided to throw out the homeless men who have no real help anywhere else.

So much for using that bullshit line, the one about “caring about the true homeless, but I had no right to live.” When the MAC opened it threw every non-profit, trying to help the homeless, in the area into a financial mess. Now the million dollar remodel is cutting back. I’m sure they thought getting in bed with the Mental Health department would be profitable, because Phillip Crandall claims 80% of the homeless are crazy enough to need reprogramming at the big MAC (he also claims 90% need rehab there).

If the sheriff or police needs a quarter of a million bucks to arrest the homeless, they get it. If the D.A.’s office needs a quarter of a million bucks to prosecute the homeless, they get. If the jail needs a quarter of a million bucks to incarcerate the homeless, they get it. If the probation department needs a quarter of a million bucks to keep the homeless easy fodder for the police and sheriffs, they too get it. But somehow through an insanely management heavy MAC staff, after putting those people on “meds,” we’re broke and the mere 16 homeless men they allowed in, are now out.

I guess it was all bullshit from the gate to obtain property for the local governance, just like the Arcata Endeavor. It’s wrong, we spend these millions of dollars to build places to help the homeless and leave them with nothing. Slavery is just around the corner - “Arbeit macht frei.”

love eternal
tad

We're back

Peace be with you.

The secret password for this blogspot has reappeared. I know very little about blog administration. For instance, I have been taught that I don’t know how to remove mean, spiteful, comments. I do know that the measure with which you mete will be the measure you’re measured by. So if you want to lie and pretend your someone else: it’s your Karma.

Some things you should know are:

1. If I call something a NAZI it is because it is the actions, the justifications or the rhetoric of the German NAZI party.
2. If I call something “fascist” it is because it supports the corporate/police state/governance that is associated with fascists.
3. If I refer to the “party” I am referring to the republican/democrat/green party which goose-steps in unisons with the status quo.
4. If you don’t like what is written on this blog then find a blog you do like.

I hope to get back those writers who have no place to express their ideas and frustrations. Many topics that affect many Humboldt citizens are discussed or mentioned very rarely in other Humboldt media. It seems sometimes as if there is an agreement between media people to suppress or ignore certain topics. Hopefully we can broach those topics here. Have fun, play nice and research the truth for yourselves.

love eternal
tad

test

Can we get this blog up and running?

check out the "Arcata Reporter"

check out the "Arcata Reporter" at arcatareporter.blogspot.com

Arcata People Project action coverage

check out coverage of the Arcata People Project action on indybay.org
http://indybay.org/northcoast/
http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/04/27/18405860.php
http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/04/25/18405092.php

lots more articles there...if you're having troubles finding them, look for the "North Coast" page under "regions."

"as long as you're annoyed" ...another one from tad

Peace be with you.

Resist!

Non-violent civil disobedience, resistance, direct action, and community are the tools with which peoples will make Babylon, “the mighty whore,” fall. Our local leaders are nothing more than quislings for the new Reich. Our criminal justice system is nothing more than a slaughter house factory that kills human spirit and dignity for the corporate churches of the false profits. The legislation is written for rich white busy-ness owners. Our laws are designed to oppress women, gays, peoples of color, homeless, unemployed, non-christian or zionist right, working poor, and yes despite your denial, the so-called middle class too. Our solders, the military and cops, are used to maintain “an order” which is designed to protect the financial interests of multi-national corporations and their “new world order.” Inflation is an artificial manipulation designed to keep you working harder and harder while producing more and receiving less. Debt was invented to keep you desperately employed to pay for shinny shit over and over again. And rules are used to confuse you as to what you have to do compared to what they want you to do.

Anarchy and Pacifism is NOT riotous or cowardly! A person standing in the street in a Jesus pose while full body armored riot cops crush their skull is neither rioting nor running. Anarchy is the opposite of government. Capitalism, socialism, and communism all have a “leader” and a steep hierarchy – masters on top slaves on the bottom. Anarchy is more like that picnic at the beach. Nobody is in charge, the work, resources and their resulting rewards are shared equality. Peace is maintained because it is in everyones best interest to be peaceful. Governments are cruel, violent, and oppressive in order to maintain control. Anarchy is compassionate, caring and liberating in order to eliminate the need to control. Anyone who makes it to the age of 18 has proved, to me at least, that they are smart enough to live. If they're smart enough to live then they must know that living in peace is a hell of a lot better than living in war.

The law is handed down to the people from a white, male, heterosexual, corporate financed, christian oligarchy. The law is enforced upon the people by a military controlled by the same oligarchy. The guilt of the people is determined by the same oligarchy. The prisons and forms of punishment are run by this very same oligarchy. Our wages come from this oligarchy and our rent payments return to this oligarchy. We've made this oligarchy rich and powerful.

Now this oligarchy has abandoned us. They have turned their military against us. They have rescinded the rights they originally motivated us to support them with. They have tried to leave us with only two alternatives – be their slave or be fodder for their dogs of torture.

I for one will insist on those rights I have. What if everyone insisted on all their rights all the time? What if employees refused to pee in cups and took every Sunday off? What if every person charged with a crime insisted upon the required formal reading of their charges, a speedy trial by a jury of their peers, the right to a defense, and all the discovery which might shed light on their case? What if entire neighborhoods refused to let the police into them? What if we stopped paying the banks that pay the military? What if we stopped supporting the corporations by refusing to purchase their crap? What if everyone said “no, I don't have to?” What if we support the sister or brother who makes our bread? What if we fed everyone? What if I only traded my tomato for and an apple and not a dollar? What if we all did what is right simply because it is right? We would be Anarchy, we would be Peace, we would be Love and we would be Free. Jesus was not a coward, nor violent, nor Christian, he was fucking revolutionary! Tear it down with your palms facing forward, and expect resistance.

Love eternal

tad

from tad

Peace be with you.

A funny thing happened to me on the way to an anarchy the other day. I had sent away to this “anarchy” group for a pamphlet that I believed did an excellent job of explaining to someone who had never experienced anarchy what it is. This group offered two bundles of free pamphlets to those who couldn’t pay. As you know I get my food, clothing and shelter out of garbage cans so I felt I qualified for the program.

I filled out as much of the “form” as I am able to do – no phone, no street address, no last name; you know the shit that always gives us away as houseless peoples. I hit send on the e-mail, told the owner of the P.O. box to keep on the lookout, and started making a mental list of people who, if given the pamphlet, would create maximum distribution. I really never thought that my brothers and sisters would ever consider rejecting my request because I didn’t fit the correct class.

Imagine my chagrin when I check my e-mail and see a title from the anarchists that says; “order (some Babylon number) has been cancelled.” The e-mail basically claimed that they had some type of “class filter” in place and well I’m just not good enough to be an anarchist. So I sent them back my typical “fuck you fascist” reply and asked that they leave me alone.

I told that story because often I am invited to see a brother’s or sister’s show, or event, or talk, or class, or whatever and I arrive and am turned away because the person at the door thinks I’m “homeless.” (No I got a fucking home; it’s shelter I lack!) It isn’t “more common than not;” it’s every time! The only time it doesn’t happen is with people who recognize me.

Having studied the theories of governments for myself, having learned histories from multi-divergent-points of view, having lived and failed in a capitalistic society, while watching the communistic society crash to the ground, having been raised on the stolen land of numerous anarchical peoples, having recognized the original peoples rich truths, naturally I would question why people so like to prejudge me. Though I would never give a shit, I would wonder for the knowledge of it.

So here’s my thought on it. Everyone wants a spot on the pecking order. Those anarchists probably thought “Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber.” They probably think I got a bottle of mad dog in one hand and a bible in the other. No my friends, I can’t keep my fist raised in solidarity with mad dog in my hand. Let us face it, it’s easy to judge those less than yourself as such.

Does this mean anarchy won’t work? No; it just means these people aren’t anarchists. Power to the people!

love eternal
tad

tad: prophets and "false profits"

Peace be with you.

The simplest comparison between our Prophets and the false profits of the christian right shows a huge abyss between the two. The new fascist christdom idolizes the corporate state as the child of god, while Jesus placed the individual as God’s child. It is easy to see a tree and know that God’s perfect and then look at a strip mine and know the fascists are fucked up!

The basis behind the cruel nature of the fascist policies is supremacy. The fascist believe that the gender and race that destroyed the world is evolutionarily superior while those peoples which lived in harmony with the earth are inferior and only continue to evolve due to the science of the fascists. The engineers call this theory intelligent. The Hopi call it Koyaanisqatsi, which means “Life out of balance.” Extracting all the Earth's resources so a few rich bankers can live with the freedom and security that they deny the rest of the world is way the fuck out of balance. It is so easy to see the eventual death of mankind, and maybe the Earth herself, that Prophets have foretold of its coming for millenniums.

The use of guns, starvation, and disease to “motivate” peoples to give up low impact lives and punch time clocks to pay rent to the self proclaimed Lords of the land is only oppressive and in no way correct. Those who wear the dark blue uniforms and maintain the status quo are the same ones who slaughtered every indigenous Peoples on the Earth. They have taken the Holy Mother Earth out of their religions and trampled on every spiritual belief in Her. They have used the same “science” they use to destroy with to distort and convolute the very teachings they proclaim as a gift from God.

Jesus’ last words in the Christian bible are “feed my lambs.” Today we close soup kitchens because we can’t afford highly paid “case managers,” and claim that scraps of bread only encourage people to choose poverty. We call those who don’t choose Koyaanisqatsi abnormal and those with the most money normal. Once we label them as abnormal then we use the most inhuman methods to Christianize them, or Capitalize them, or Democratize them, or Americanize them.

The social scientists would have us believe that as soon as all Peoples in the world are paying rent to the global landlords, paying taxes to hire the armies that oppress them, and are making the false profits for the these landlords, then the world will be a place of peace and harmony. Yeah, and as soon as frogs learn how to fly they’ll stop bumping their ass!

Jesus was a higher evolved human, not George Bush. Muammad was a higher evolved human, not John Rockefeller. Lao Tzu , was a higher evolved human, not Pat Robertson. Siddhartha Gautama was a higher evolved human, not Tony Blair. Millions of Indigenous Peoples are higher evolved humans, not the pillaging Imperialists.

Love eternal
tad

GERONIMO IN JAIL!

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/02/14/18363310.php

Geronimo Garcia, a very good soul, has been put in jail by the Arcata Police after ascending the Statue of Dead President Willy McKinley that is, unfortunately, in the middle of the plaza.

for more info including court date (Feb 21?), see indybay article at:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/02/14/18363310.php

from the PPU, Olumpia WA

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/02/354257.shtml

Memories of Camp Quixote

author: Ray Kavick

The (abbreviated) story of Olympia's Camp Quixote

My name is Ray Kavick, anarchist and member of the Olympia Poor People's Union (PPU). This is a short reflection on the first week of an encampment we set up in Downtown Olympia on Thursday, February 1st. We called the encampment Camp Quixote. This piece is not that comprehensive, but gets the basic story out there. My comments DO NOT represent those of the PPU. The PPU is a non-hierarchical group dedicated to improving the lives of the poor and "homeless" in Olympia by whatever means available. To contact the PPU write us an email at poorpeoplesunion@yahoo.com or, if ABSOLUTELY necessary, call us at 925-285-5342.


The first tents were awkwardly set up with the people at the campsite looking over their shoulder every once in a while. I felt that many of us were waiting for the police to come immediately. During the planning meetings, it was assumed by nearly everybody that we would be at the site for an hour at most. When the first five tents went up and an hour had passed, none of us were completely sure what to do. But that soon passed, the group got together and we decided to go ahead and put as many tents and as many people on the sight as quickly as possible.

A local peace group was holding a sit-in at two locations that day protesting the laws that the city passed banning sitting, panhandling or performing on Olympia sidewalks. Once it was over many of them came down and hung out with us. People passing by stopped to see what was going on. The energy was beginning to grow in the small, gravel and mud parking lot. The tents continued to be erected, we made a few pallet runs in order to get the tents off the ground, different musicians came by and played for us and random people dropped off food. A port-a-potty arrived by truck later in the day. The pigs were nowhere to be seen.
By nightfall, the group was operating smoothly and the unity we had talked about and hoped for in the meetings was materializing. Once the fear of the police had subsided we all threw ourselves headlong into the undertaking and the sense of excitement among the group gave us all a small, constant buzz. We were no longer doing something "illegal", we were doing what we needed to do. If something needed to be taken care of, people got up and did it. Whenever someone needed something, we gave it to them, or tried to. At the end of that day, the hope I had for the encampment multiplied exponentially.

The next day, in our local, shitty newspaper, we were on the cover. The Olympian was telling everyone that we set up the camp to "protest" the new laws. While all of us despised the laws, we did not do this to "protest" anything. We did this create what we needed: housing and a sense of community. But it was easier to label us as "protesters" for The Olympian, something they are still doing. Anyway, that day brought the media, along with more people, more food and more tents. There was no word on the police, but the in the paper the city council expressed anger at us for being "ungrateful" for all the City had done for the "homeless". Everyone laughed at this and the day went on. We set up a communal tent to store food and serve as a makeshift kitchen. An Olympian photographer wandered through the camp, as well as a snobby reporter. The City manager, Steve Hall, a exceptionally disgusting human being, came by and informed us that this action represented a "poke in the eye" to the City. I suppose he thought this would fill us with shame and make us leave. Later in the day the Seattle stations came down and began filming.

A few us felt a sense of disgust and anger upon seeing them but we put it aside in order to get the word out about what were doing, accepting that our message would get skewed. I was to discover later, however, that the Seattle stations gave us pretty decent coverage, probably because they weren't worried about upsetting the wingnuts, wealthy business owners and rich City Council members of Olympia as much as The Olympian was.


It was ridiculously cold that second night. A few people brought a barbeque down and some coals, being that burning a fire to keep warm was forbidden us. Later, even was burning coal was made "illegal". The cops had started driving by regularly that day, going up and down the alley next to the camp. It got down to twenty two degrees that night. Perhaps if Steven Hall had stayed the night he might not have run his arrogant mouth as much he did and still does.

The next three days brought us a number of things which I will tackle in no meaningful order: a communal hall was built with lumber donated from a local salvage company. It was draped in tarps and became an awesome little spot for us to hang out. Our kitchen was expanded and a fantastic fellow named ____ acted as our cook, making food that blew out what the Starvation Army dished out. In the hall we had communal food and tobacco, with new donations coming all the time. We shared everything there. A few people were a little reluctant to share their tents and some people got mad at the positioning of certain tents, but the problems were dealt without much friction. I have not felt so at ease in a long time. I will probably say it again, but this was a small slice of the kind of community and future many of us dream of. Some of you may give me shit, but I wanted to cry a few times for absolutely no rational reason.
Those three days also brought the City Council meeting and the first real worry of the police raiding us. The PPU planned to go as a group to the Council meeting and flood it, but it occurred to many of us that this would be an opportune moment for the police to come. So those who could be arrested stayed at the camp and those who could not went to the meeting. Quite a few people spoke during the public comment section of the meeting, and one of those people was a woman named Carol. She ripped into the Council and expressed her outrage towards what they were doing. We didn't get raided that night, but Carol was later arrested.

She had a warrant out for her, but the police knew she was in town since it was issued. This arrest was purely political in nature. Someone who angrily denounced the Council was in jail the next day. I am sure this disgusts you just as much as does me so I will not comment on it anymore. Needless to say, this unnerved us all, being that we were expecting them to come for all of us. At night, cruisers were driving by, some of them flashing their searchlights into the camp at two in the morning in order to wake us up. The pigs seemed to hate people trying to improve their lives so much that they constantly looked at us with scorn if not hatred as they drove by. We weren't doing anything wrong, not even by their bullshit standards. But the OPD are a bunch of psychotic, ex-military mutants who never graduated from junior high, so I guess I kind of understand.

Lastly, those three days were filled with paranoia at the seemingly inevitable police raid. The Council, in comments and at the meeting, stated that they would not talk with us and that we had to go, period. Steve Hall said that if we didn't leave then the police would come in. Rumors began to circulate. At 6 at night. Within 12 hours. Definitely in the middle of the night, probably 4 AM. In retrospect, the police and City did an effective job at freaking us out. During those weary days, people with warrants or carrying children took off. Each time we heard a rumor everyone was on the phone, calling their friends and the media in order to get as many people to the site as possible. The corporate media eagerly descended from Seattle in order to get those juicy pictures of people getting cracked on the head. Strangely, I believe their presence kept the cops away on at least one of these night, although I cannot be certain. Each of those rumors turned out to be false, though, and I think people got a little burnt after three days of preparing themselves for a confrontation.

On the second to last day the police gave us written warnings to leave or face arrest. On the back of the warning was a list of numbers for shelters that the residents of the camp could call. All of them were either out of service, full or impossible to get into quickly. After that, we began to look for another spot to house the encampment. A church was contacted and it seemed likely that they would let us. When the word finally came that could in fact move to the church's property we informed the City that we would be moving. Nevertheless, the State had to flex its muscles and surround the encampment at the 4:30 Friday morning. We were basically out of there already and we finished cleaning out the spot under the eyes of the pigs. We left the spot cleaner than we found it.

Now we're at a new spot in West Olympia, being graciously put up by the Unitarian Universalist Church. They are not dogmatic and are truly good people. While the camp is no longer Downtown where more people can get to it, we still have a safe place to go. The community and the bonds that grew out of that first week are still alive and strong. The City and their hired thugs cannot destroy the trust we all now have for each other, and that trust is the most important thing to come out of the whole endeavor. Without it, we would not be able to continue. The new camp is up and we'll be up to more mischief later. But I can't tell you any more than that. Just keep your eyes peeled... ... .

Love, Ray Kavick of the PPU

Welfare and Roger Rodoni

“ROGER RODONI TAKES CORPORATE WELFRARE
by Jake Pickering

- Social Worker -

P.O. Box 3050 , Eureka , CA 95502

(707) 832-8005

- February 16, 2007 -

“I try not to say too much to an intellectual void.” - Roger Rodoni

According to the February 16, 2007 edition of The Times-Standard, as reported by James Faulk, 2^nd District Humboldt County Supervisor Roger Rodoni’s recent speech to Eureka Republican Women was not only beyond hypocritical; it was incredibly insipid.

Roger Rodoni leases “a substantial portion of Pacific Lumber land since he first ran for the office in 1992… around 9,000 acres, including a house and a barn, and for it Rodoni paid only… $350 per month.” (www.northcoastjournal.com/122503/cover1225.html)

Never mind the obvious implications of blatant political corruption for the moment and focus on the hypocrisy displayed by conservative cattle rancher Roger Rodoni. Here we have our long-time 2^nd District Supervisor quite literally on the take from Pacific Lumber!

The financial benevolence bestowed upon Rodoni by Pacific Lumber should not only rightly be considered a fetid form of political bribery, Rodoni’s sweetheart deal with Pacific Lumber is an obvious case of corporate welfare run amok.

However, as financially fortunate as Roger Rodoni is, in his typically hypocritical Republican fashion Rodoni cravenly chose to personally attack the less fortunate of Humboldt County, referring to our meager social safety net as a “gravy train”, of all things!

Regarding the fact that the state and federal governments are considering draconian cuts to necessary programs that “supposedly take care of the people who can’t take care of themselves”, Rodoni coldheartedly quipped “I’m sitting here thinking, they need a bigger axe… Humboldt County is an oasis for this sort of thing.”

Rodoni’s outspoken opposition to vital social programs for the working poor, the disabled and the elderly is as legendary locally as his repeatedly displayed antagonism towards Native Americans and other oppressed minority groups.

Roger Rodoni is a right-wing relic from Humboldt County ’s puerile past. Rodoni is a racist Republican redneck who openly brags about his bigotry, wallowing in his hatred for women as well: “Like Supervisor Bonnie Neely, who he said has been buried in the Humboldt County Courthouse for 30 years; or Arcata Mayor Harmony Groves, a ‘social utopian if I ever met one – every time she talks you expect butterflies to come out of her mouth’.”

Roger Rodoni is the personification of political embarrassment. However, what is truly pathetic about Rodoni is that he is not nearly intelligent enough to understand that he should be ashamed of himself! How did Rodoni ever get elected to public office in the first place?

Oh yeah, that’s right. Pacific Lumber and their abusive parent corporation MAXXAM, Inc. put him there. Apparently, Savings & Loan scammer Charles Hurwitz’s largesse came in handy for Rodoni’s political campaigns. Too bad his constituents have received so little in return.

Ironically, Roger Rodoni said he is puzzled why “these characters keep getting reelected.” So are we! Humboldt County can do so much better than Roger Rodoni.

It is time for Roger Rodoni to retire from the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors. You can make it happen! Public pressure still counts for something in this county, and I urge you to contact 2^nd District Supervisor Rodoni to let him know what you think of his reelection prospects in the upcoming June 2008 primary election.

Tell Rodoni that the time has come for him to move on. Roger Rodoni’s office phone number is (707) 476-2392. Please give him a call, and tell him Jake Pickering sent you!

thanks Jake....

communique from Olympia, WA.

On February 1st at 12 PM, the Olympia Poor People's Union (PPU) set up a tent encampment on city property. The date of the action intentionally corresponds with the city's implementation of an amended pedestrian interference code already in effect. The addition of Ordinance No. 6456n to the existing law criminalizes sidewalk sitting with a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. This act of civil disobedience, the encampment, was carried out in response to growing discontentment amongst Olympia's poor people over the slow, systematic attempt at the dispossession of our city's homeless, orchestrated and supported by some city officials and business owners.

In addition, significant portions of the population of Olympia have taken on a generally dismissive and apathetic attitude towards the plight of those in need. This is the inception of an ongoing effort on the part of the PPU to find a sustainable, dignified way to address the issue of homelessness in this area, rather than to ignore it or to punish its victims.

The PPU believes the rights to shelter, dignity; mental and physical health to be basic human entitlements; and that a community where all individual members are valued and their contributions recognized must be realized. The PPU believes that all people are entitled to these basic rights, and if these rights are not provided, we believe it is essential for us to take what is necessary for survival by the means available. The State thus far has proved inadequate in addressing our needs as human beings, and the situation has grown too urgent for us to wait for either institutionalized charity or bureaucratically hampered government aid. We thus are attempting to take matters into our own hands.

To be treated as human beings is our goal. As there is a stigma attached to being homeless, we will create homes of our own and show ourselves to be responsible, caring members of the community, as capable of taking care of ourselves as any other group of people. In our encampment, we will keep order, prohibiting drugs, alcohol, violence or theft. These are our only regulations. We will work towards creating sustainable, permanent housing for all who are in need and to create a space for those who are looked down upon to be integrated into the community, not out of charity or pity but out of acceptance, solidarity and mutual appreciation.


All Power to the People, -Olympia Poor People's Union

Letter from Arcata Food Not Bombs to the "Co-op"

This letter was recieved by email. I decided to just leave all the funny type-o doo-dads in there. I think that the meaning is clear.


FOOD NOT BOMBS

December 6, 2006

Dear Arcata Co-Op,

The North Coast Co-Op, Arcata Store, is one of several sources from which Food Not Bombs (FNB) gleans food. FNB is an effort to feed anyone who is hungry in an open, respectful way. Many FNB volunteers are committed to non-violent social change through the celebration and nurturing of life by preparing and giving out free vegetarian or vegan food –some volunteers help out on occasion, as a way of being part of a compassionate community, meeting a concrete need, and “giving back.”

Locally and elsewhere, Food Not Bombs has a long tradition of conscious and sanitary food preparation and service. Volunteers are well-known for prioritizing dignity in their food sharing and diligent standards of cleanliness. Arcata FNB has been continuously serving at least once a week for over four years with out any complaints of food poisoning. FNB volunteers spend many hours preparing, cleaning, transporting, serving and eating each free community meal.

Food Not Bombs is a loose-knit group of independent collectives all over the world, most concentrated in North America. FNB ideology maintains that myriad corporate and government priorities allow hunger to persist in the midst of abundance. While there is enough food in the world to feed everyone (likewise in Arcata), so much food goes to waste intentionally and/or needlessly as a direct result of capitalism and militarism. FNB tries to call attention to poverty and homelessness, the results of these oppressive, violent systems, by sharing food in public places and facilitating the gathering of poor, homeless, and other disenfranchised people. Most of the food served by FNB is healthy surplus food that would otherwise go to waste as well generous donations from individuals in the community. FNB invites people who eat FNB meals to be involved in providing the food themselves. Food Not Bombs does not make people jump through bureaucratic hoops or punish anyone for being poor, but rather fosters empowerment and self-determination.

Food Not Bombs in Arcata has an her/history that includes subjection to police repression, arrests for serving free food on the Plaza, and success in overcoming prohibitive city action, through persistent dedication to feeding hungry people. Vincent of the Arcata Co-Op requested a letter from Food Not Bombs and has articulated 3 conditions upon which FNB volunteers can again receive Co-Op ‘throw-away’ food and, in turn, feed many people.

The 3 conditions are purported to be in response to the Co-Op’s claims that it received a complaint-- that produce was found on the Plaza. Apparently, the presumption is that 1) the produce was donated by the Co-Op to FNB, and 2) FNB is somehow responsible.

The 3 conditions that Vincent has ‘mandated’ (apparently on behalf of the Co-Op) in order for FNB to receive donations again are:

1) that three people, regular FNB pick-up volunteers, present their ID’s and confirm that they will be the sole designated receivers of Co-Op donations;

2) that any food be picked up on the Plaza after FNB meals, and;

3) that the donated food be cooked in a ‘certified-to-code’ kitchen.

As community members and as volunteers committed to service and sharing, we hope that the Co-Op will defend against the systematic violence of poverty and acknowledge the presence in our local communities of poor individuals and families, and respect their needs.

Here are our responses to the 3 requests:

1) Because we understand and respect your need to be familiar with people who are picking up food donations, we will designate 3 consistent FNB volunteers to do pick-ups, and we will make sure that you are introduced to any ‘new’ people who may, in the future, replace one of the “three” taking on the task of pick-ups.

2) Rest assured that we will see to it that food and garbage resulting from our FNB community meals will be picked up from the Plaza and at any other serving sites to the best of our ability before leaving the site of our FNB event.

3) Regarding the request that we prepare our community meals in a ‘certified’ kitchen, we find this request unreasonable. The method of food preparation for our events is our concern. Our food preparation is adequate and appropriate and always has been. Moreover, our food preparation is neither legally nor otherwise relevant to the Co-Op or to its expressed concern(s).

We are hopeful that donations of food from the Co-Op will immediately resume, as homeless folks are at this time especially in need of healthy, cooked meals. For some, such meals are critical to their very survival.

If you believe that further negotiations are required with Food Not Bombs, we request that you not withhold food donations during that process. The Endeavor has cut back services during the most severe weather time of year, now more than ever FNB is needed for the survival and dignity of hungry people in Arcata.

Sincerely,

the Local Food Not Bombs Community

[Then there was a written note that said something like (but more eloquent): “If someone requests food for Food Not Bombs who has not been previously designated to do pick-ups, please ask her/him to call 822-4014 so that we can coordinate.”-- This was added to assuage that horrendous worry that different people may request food to make free meals.]

UPDATE!!!: Los Angeles Skid Row Rally

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/01/191954.php

At the first of what organizers say will now be weekly Saturday rallies in front of the LAPD’s Central Division headquarters, a Skid Row rally on Saturday, organized by a homeless man, saw the largest public turnout yet for a public demand to end L.A’s massive new push to criminalize all this city’s homeless people.

Activists are calling on the community to help set up a base-camp on Skid Row to halt, immediately now, the police attacks.

Since last August, Los Angeles police have been the staging, on Skid Row, the largest attacks on homeless people in the city’s history; daily waves of police arrests, beatings and harassment that has terrorized all homeless people here: with up to 4,000 homeless people targeted.

And with, up until now, almost no widespread Los Angeles city outcry.

At this first of weekly rallies were activists from Food Not Bombs, the People’s College of Law, CopWatch Los Angeles, the Downtown Unitarian Universalists, and the Skid Row-based Catholic Worker community. Activists say they are now planning this week to establish a base camp on Skid Row --to intensify the community watch, and to assist homeless people here; and also other groups; in documenting the daily police attacks, as well as to support the upcoming weekly Saturday rallies.

About 1,000 homeless people are holding out on Skid Row sidewalks now nightly –with another 3,000 throughout the L.A. area who are estimated to spend at least one night, every three months, living on Skid Row.

“It is critical that from here on out no cop anywhere in this city get away with telling a homeless person anymore that they are a criminal because they refuse to go to a shelter. Don’t they get it? A Federal Court has ordered --as long as L.A., countywide, has over 80,000 homeless people and less than 30,000 shelterbeds you cannot humanely forbid anyone in here from sleeping wherever. This city has the worst housing crisis in the nation; but L.A. is now trying to enforce a new policy --‘shelter or criminalization.’ These attacks on homeless people are something that must end now; and the people of LA need to know that since last August, under our new, so-called “progressive” mayor, Antonio Villariagosa, homeless people are now being beaten, arrested, and criminalized --like has been done by no other mayor in Los Angeles’ history." stated the homeless organizer of the protest, David Busch.

"Not even a Republican politician would have even dared attack us like this –and it is disgusting. Housing, not shelter, is a human right for all; and this trying to force us into accepting prison-like “shelters,” under threat of jail, or criminalization, must stop --now,” further stated Busch.

Busch is homeless, and living on Skid Row, and has been attacked by cops there twice since August. He has been homeless for over 13 years.

Activist say the waves of arrests and property seizures and beatings are coinciding with homeless being shipped by threat of force out of downtown; and away from many of the government offices and services they need –all in order to evacuate the poor from L.A.’s center for new loft and other pro-business developments downtown.

LAPD Chief William Bratton, in the past, has linked the current sweeps as part of his “Broken Windows” policing policy for L.A..

Coinciding with the Saturday rally --the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness, a large city anti-poverty group –also though, on Thursday, issued a press release to every newspaper, radio and television station in Southern California, as well as to all major national news media, denouncing the sweeps; and demanding a full accounting from LAPD for every homeless person harassed by a cop since August.

Eighty-percent of skid row is African American –and the largest percentage of the homeless on Skid Row, almost 10,000, are people forced to live in tiny one room hotels where they have had to pass constant drug screenings and cops have master keys, and where cops have been mounting unprecedented attacks on parolees also residing here to force them from the area. Meanwhile, this week, the Los Angeles City Council is also set to give continuing major green lights to a new, billion-dollar downtown mega-development, the “Grand Avenue Project”: and, along with the city ok, over 50 million dollars in taxpayer subsidies for the project.

City Councilwoman for Skid Row, Jan Perry supports the Grand Avenue project –but is offering nothing comparable to help even those homeless on Skid Row who’ve scraped themselves up off the sidewalks, and clawed their way into these tiny hotel rooms.

Homeless activists are calling for the community to show up en-mass for next Saturday’s rally, and to also pack tomorrow, Tuesday’s 9:30 a.m. Police Commission hearing at Parker Center; and to demand an end to all the attacks on the Skid Row community –as well as every Council meeting this week --and to also demand an immediate halt to the Grand Avenue Project, no matter what it takes, until community demands for equity for poor people downtown and throughout Los Angeles for the poor are meet by the developer consortium, and the L.A. City Council.


http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/01/191954.php

Skid Row Los Angeles Rally

STOP THE SWEEPS NOW!!


Since last August, Skid Row's homeless people have undergone the largest mass arrests of homeless people in L.A. history; hundreds of homeless people each month now have faced multiple daily raids of police demanding warrant checks, searches and property confiscation --as waves of 50 new LAPD officers brought to the area have swept through for daily beatings and arrests of homeless people --in order to now clear downtown for the newest wave of luxury loft developers. The Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness estimates as many as 4,000 poor and homeless people may have had police demand their ID; handcuffed them; searched through every bag, suitcase, and possession they have --and then been transported to the LAPD booking room; and cuffed to a bench for up to an hour or more before being given a "choice:"

get into a "shelter" --or go to jail.

A Federal Court recently found almost 90,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County --and less than 30,000 shelter beds.

Incredibly, Central Division is getting away with now not classify these Skid Row actions as "arrests" --Division Captain Andrew Smith even recently claims that arrests on Skid Row "declined" this year. (citing only about an additional 2,000 "official arrests").

http://www.downtownnews.com/articles/2007/01/08/news/news01.txt

LAPD are conducting a mass disinformation campaign that has hid the actual arrests figures since last November.

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/11/188692.php


Nor do these figures include recent pre-dawn raids --where sleeping residents are woke up and are told, now, since the first of the year, to "leave in 20 minutes" or be arrested.

Additionally, since the first of the year, Skid Row Police are systematically clearing now entire streets in pre-dawn raids: Los Angeles, San Pedro, 5th St. and Crocker St. --and herding people towards the L.A. river --demanding that thousands of homeless people maintain themselves now in the fifty blocks of Skid Row for up to 2&1/2 hours each day without any public water source; only one public toilet that's not in a religious mission; and not a single public place to lie down, or even sit, until 8:30 a.m..; when only two tiny parks, with barely enough rain cover for 50 people, are supposed to serve a street population of up to 4,000 at any given time.

A homeless person on Skid Row was mocked last week by one LAPD policeman, "By the end of this month all this will be gone" --referring to the thousands of homeless people here who are breaking no law, and yet are facing daily, unprecedented, cop harassment. LA City Council insiders are even warning activists that such raids are being now contemplated soon for Hollywood, Venice, the Valley, and South L.A..

Stated Robert Erlinbusch, Director of the anti-poverty advocacy group, The Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness:

"There are also many reasons why people will refuse to go to shelters; firstly, they are almost always full --making them impossible for many to get into -and, additionally, shelters separate unmarried partners; they often refuse to accommodate people's dogs or other pets; or provide adequate storage and transport of possessions; they do not accommodate mothers with children of certain ages; and they are often places extreme, and unlawful, hostility to anyone of the LGBT community."

A Federal Court order currently forbids LAPD from arresting anyone for merely sleeping on the sidewalk in the Skid Row area between 9 p.m. at night, and 6 a. m. each morning.

People are urged to bring signs, banners, and self-standing tents with footprints no larger than 8'x8'; solar panels; water; legal internet relay antennas; healthy vegetarian food and --respect for ALL residents here --for the rally, and to support the growing community resistance.