Oakland Officials Serve Mass Eviction Notice To Priest

Oakland Officials Serve Mass Eviction Notice To Priest
By Lynda Carson March 16, 2004

Oakland Ca--On March 15, the day before the vote for the Nuisance Eviction Ordinance (NEO) is to take place at Oakland City Hall, hysterical Oakland Officials pulled a fast one and served an Eviction Notice intended to displace at least 30 residents of St. Patricks Abbey Housing Program at 3700 E. 12th Street, in East Oakland.

Father Donald Weeks of the Abbey stated that he believes that the mass eviction was a political move by Oakland Officials attempting to chase away a former prison inmate by name of Carey Verse who has been labeled as a sexual predator. Verse only days ago moved into the Abbey. Weeks expressed anger that the recent mob assault at the St. Patricks Abbey Housing Program whipped up by City Officials had also resulted in someone snipping their phone lines and cutting off their communications with the outside world.

City Officials have defiled the sanctity of the Holy grounds at the Abbey, said Weeks.

Oakland Council Members plan to cast a final vote to set up a police state like eviction program on March 16 known as the Nuisance Eviction Ordinance (NEO), and wasted no time in promoting the NEO by conducting one last mass eviction just one day before the vote is to take place in hope of convincing anti-NEO forces that the NEO is needed.

The NEO if passed would allow the City and Police to target anyone it deems to be a nuisance, and would require landlords to evict them. Presently, the City has to use due process and prove in a court of law that a public nuisance actually exists at a property before the courts can take any action to evict all the renters at the targeted location. Oakland Officials want to get around due process and the courts, to obtain the power to evict anyone they please.

Oakland Council President Ignacio De La Fuente whipped up a mob of locals to protest outside of Verse's latest residence at St. Patricks Abbey, and then followed up by serving an Eviction Notice to Father Donald Weeks and all the residents at the East Oakland location.

Within a few hours, Verse was packed up and wisked away by nightfall to an unknown location after receipt of the Eviction Notice in hope that the rest of the residents and Father Donald Weeks would be spared by any further assaults and harassment by Oakland City Officials.

Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente had already threatened only days before to do whatever it takes to get Verse out of his latest residence, and out of the blue De La Fuente quickly followed through with a scheme to accuse Father Donald Weeks of violating Oakland's occupancy laws and served Weeks and the rest of the residents an eviction notice.

Like Father Weeks, local activists also believe that this was a politicaly motivated mass eviction that took place on the eve of the NEO vote so that extremists in the Oakland City Council will claim that Carey Verse could have been evicted by City Officials without all the others facing eviction had the Nuisance Eviction Ordinance been in place.

As recently as February 17, the first vote for the NEO took place, and while speaking at the podium before the full City Council, Steve Edrington of the Rental Housing Association of Northern Alameda County exclaimed that if the NEO was in place then, they could already evict Carey Verse from his then residence in Oakland at a downtown Hotel.

Activists already believe that Oakland Officials got down and dirty to use Carey Verse as a poster child to whip up a frenzy of support for the NEO vote taking place on Tuesday March 16 at Oakland City Hall, and condemn the eviction actions as little more than an underhanded ploy to hoodwink the public.

Said a source wanting to remain anonymous, "We know how these twisted politicians operate in Oakland and we already believe that they will try to use Carey Verse in an effort to paint anyone against them or the NEO as a supporter of sexual predators. It's the same tactic used by the Republicans during the Willie Horton fiasco, and we are not fooled by this kind of dirty politics".

Activists urge Oaklander's to appear at the March 16 Oakland City Council Meeting to oppose the Nuisance Eviction Ordinance and it's extremist supporters.