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Health, Housing & Public Services

SFPD Arrests Woman for Sitting On Sidewalk?

by catalina

Fri, Jul 27, 2001 7:13PM

During NASNA, a weekend to highlight street newspapers and the escalating war on the poor by cities, police and media, participants witnessed firsthand harrassment around 16th and Mission.

<table width="600" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="3">
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#333333"><font color="#FF9933"><b><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">ANY
GIVEN DAY IN PROGRESSIVE SAN FRANCISCO</font></b></font></td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td width="300" align="center"><img src="/imcenter/1-cart.jpg" width="300" height="216"><br>
<font face="MS Sans Serif, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Photo
1:</b> As the North American Street Newspaper Association meets in San Francisco,
a participant happens to notice some homeless people near 16th and Mission.
</font></td>
<td width="300" align="center"><img src="/imcenter/2-copcart.jpg" width="300" height="225"><br>
<b><font face="MS Sans Serif, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="-2">Photo
2:</font></b><font face="MS Sans Serif, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="-2">
Suddenly, the SFPD races up to the peaceful scene. After weeks of half-truths
and distortions by local corporate media, the police are ready to teach
the homeless a lesson!</font></td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td width="300"><img src="/imcenter/3-heretheycome.jpg" width="300" height="213"><br>
<b><font face="MS Sans Serif, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="-2">Photo
3:</font></b><font face="MS Sans Serif, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="-2">
The two officers make their presence known! Notice the white arrow pointing
to the woman sitting on the sidewalk.</font></td>
<td width="300" align="center"><img src="/imcenter/4-sittingdown.jpg" width="211" height="231"><br>
<b><font face="MS Sans Serif, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="-2">Photo
4:</font></b><font face="MS Sans Serif, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="-2">
This enlarged version shows that the woman is sitting on the ground, posing
no threat to the 2 heavily-armed officers or anyone else.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td width="300" align="center"><img src="/imcenter/5-copgrabsher.jpg" width="300" height="233"><br>
<b><font face="MS Sans Serif, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="-2">Photo
5:</font></b><font face="MS Sans Serif, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="-2">
Sitting on the sidewalk minding your own business? Too bad! SFPD is here
to clean up these streets. </font></td>
<td width="300" align="center"><img src="/imcenter/6-coparrestsher.jpg" width="300" height="207"><br>
<b><font face="MS Sans Serif, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="-2">Photo
6:</font></b><font face="MS Sans Serif, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="-2">
Sorry, ma'am, you'll have to come with us. You are guilty of looking poor,
being homeless, and daring to come into the Mission, which is being "cleaned
up" just like Market St.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top" align="center">
<td colspan="2"><font face="MS Sans Serif, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>ATTENTION
SF CHRONICLE! ATTENTION SF EXAMINER! REPORT THE NEWS, NOT JUST YOUR TWISTED
PLAN FOR GENTRIFICATION AND REAL ESTATE AND AN ALL-WHITE ALL-RICH SAN FRANCISCO.
</b> </font></td>
</tr>
</table>

For more information: http://www.indybay.org/housing/

Add Your Comments

§Jeeeze....

by LC

Sat, Jul 28, 2001 1:08AM

I hate to see that kind of shit going down. I spent too
many years on the streets being homeless, and these photos reminded me of how fast people seem to disappear day to day...LC

§every FUCKING day

by homeless pissed

Sat, Jul 28, 2001 10:40AM

this kind of shit happens all day every day you fucking rich people watch you we can only take so much of your bullshit

§kneejerk

by martin (noapology [at] tds.net)

Sat, Jul 28, 2001 1:59PM

Can you verify what reason the Police gave for aressting the woman in the photograph?

Certainly the Police in SF and elsewhere are responsible for a grotesque amount of harassment of innocent persons. More often than not those harassed are people of color or people of the "lower caste".

That being said I don't think it is unreasnable that we may see a homless person aressted from time to time. How do you know that this woman was actually aressted for something "legitimate".

Finally, what is your point with these photographs? What are you trying to achive?

§actually

by anonymous witness

Sat, Jul 28, 2001 5:07PM

actually the photographer in this scene fled the area when one of the policeman started calling and waving to her, mentioning something about "her film" ... the goal to accomplish here is that everyday harrassment *is news* and it deserves to be on here. the reason you dont get information from the cops is because if you go up and try to ask them what it is about, you run the risk of arrest yourself. this is what doing "copwatch" is all about. the level of harrassment against citizens who conduct legal copwatch tactics is unbelievable. all out against the police state

§I'm resisting a temptation...

by marque (marque [at] wiznet.ca)

Sat, Jul 28, 2001 8:24PM

I have to resist the temptation to merely write, repeatedly, "Fuck Off, Martin...FUCK OFF!
I know thats not a rational response, no matter how offensive I find this post.
On the other hand, its probably no less rational to the said post, no matter how plainly rational this person is trying to come off.
Having once been repeatedly punched by cops in Toronto for sitting on some steps of a building after walking for ages and feeling tired and in a very poor state of mental health & unkempt at the time, and having seen police do far worse to other people who were standing or sitting too long in one place while not wearing suits or carrying 'GAP' bags, or looking like someone capable of indiscriminate consumption, the description of the pictured scene strikes me as more than plausable.
Further knowing that cities across N.America are dealing with the increased homeless by arrest & removal, often enough as part of an openly stated policy, also adds plausability for me at least.
I have been given no reason to make the assumption that you have- that the reporter in this case is LYING. Because that is what you are suggesting, after all, since these photos are obviously taken at a range that was close enough to audibly distinguish what was being said.
Of course, this isn't impossible- I have been at events where the press has printed a misleading or down-right dishonest description & photo. In a mainstream newspaper.
So I accept that a certain bias is always possible, though I'm enclined to believe that there is far more likely to be bias present when greater personal, financial renumeration is at stake, which you'd have to admit is a missing motive in a case where the reporting is done by volunteers.
'Finally'- what is trying to be achieved is a much-needed counter-balance to the extremely limited media sources that have led you to maintain such a limited middle-class bias. I thus thank the alternative media for presenting news that is more in line with reality as I have experienced it than the one I have been uncomprehendingly subjected to on a continual basis by the other media available.

marque

For more information: http://free.freespeech.org/marquelinques

§Good photos -- good point

by ben

Sat, Jul 28, 2001 8:36PM

Having watched and tried to find out why police are harassing homeless people or people of color in the bay i can certainly testify that asking what they are doing can lead to detention--for example, i was accused of 'interfering with a police officer in the conduct of their duty" for asking an officer what they were doing. I was handcuffed, searched, warrant checked and held for almost an hour before they moved on to other harasmments. I followed the track record of that particular officer--he later beat tupac chakur for an alleged jaywalking offense.

Needless to say anyone who is homeless or works with homeless people knows that the police repression of homeless is so constant, systematic, violent, repressive aimed at defending realtors, business interests etc. that while they is some minor statistical chance that the cops have some other 'reason' for a particular arrest the initial contact is generated by profiling of the poor.

poverty profiling is so ubiquitous and accepted that most people don't understand that it is a patent discrimintary violation of human rights.

wake up. fight back. thanks to the poster for the pix
ben

§the rest of the story

by ch@nce (streetsheet [at] sf-homeless-coalition.org)

Mon, Aug 6, 2001 11:59AM

another anonymous homeless woman arrested in San Francisco... so what happens after there's no independent media around to witness?

please read:

http://www.indybay.org/display.php3?article_id=2540

For more information: http://www.sf-homeless-coa;ltion.org

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