Fascist thug officials seek to imprison the poor.
BERKELEY, Kalifornia (PNN) - July 13, 2012 - Amber, 24, who’s been living on the streets half her life, was sitting on a sunny sidewalk in downtown Berkeley last week, cuddling her three-month-old puppy and talking to a friend. But if voters approve a measure the city council placed on the November ballot, sitting on the sidewalk - after a warning - could cost her 75 dollars.
“That law will give us tickets we can’t pay, then we’ll have warrants and end up in jail,” said Amber, who “spranges” - asks for spare change - to feed herself and her unborn child.
Although the council chambers was packed with those opposing the law, the fascist outlaw city council, at the end of a dramatic meeting that went past midnight on July 11, approved putting the sit ban to a vote. The proposed ordinance is similar to statutes in Seattle, Washington, Anchorage, Alaska and Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Palo Alto, Kalifornia. It would ban sitting on the sidewalk in commercial areas between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.
Some four dozen public speakers addressed the council, many arguing that the economic downturn is to blame for Berkeley’s vacant storefronts, and that punishing the homeless won’t bring back business.
John DeClercq, Berkeley Chamber of Commerce CEO, the sole speaker favoring the measure, said the law would make the city’s business districts “more welcoming”.
The meeting took an unexpected turn when several activists stood up and led the public in the civil rights protest song, “We Shall Not Be Moved”.
The three councilmembers opposing the sit ban joined the sing-along, as the five other councilmembers present left the room. When they returned, in the midst of chaos, the majority voted to place the measure on the ballot.
The dissident councilmembers contend the vote was taken without council debate and therefore illegal. “They can’t stand a people’s democracy,” said Councilmember Max Anderson.
Hundreds of cities around the Fascist Police States of Amerika have laws advocates say unfairly target the homeless, including bans on sitting, lying, begging and placing objects on the sidewalk. Other laws, such as prohibitions to loitering, drinking alcohol in public, smoking and jaywalking, are applied to this population selectively.
Business interests appear to drive passage of such laws.
The Berkeley ballot language says public space in business districts has become “increasingly inhospitable - because groups of individuals, often with dogs, have taken over sidewalk areas in those districts, obstructing pedestrian access and intimidating pedestrians and potential business patrons. The only practicable solution to mitigating the conditions described above that impair the city’s economic health is to limit sitting on sidewalks in certain areas at certain times.”
DeClercq of the Chamber of Commerce told IPS that the program would be primarily implemented by “ambassadors”, people hired by the city’s Business Improvement Districts to clean sidewalks and monitor street behavior. The ambassadors will make people understand that sitting on the sidewalk is “no longer appropriate in the city and they’ll change their behavior,” DeClercq said, adding, “The ambassadors can really help people sort out what they need, where the services are.”
However, homeless advocates predict that compliance will be handled through pig thug cops, courts and jails.
