Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 10:21 AM
To: Garr Nielsen
Subject: homeless and freezing weather

Dear Chief Nielsen,

Again I must complain about the work that [Murl] Harpham and Sanchez do out in the bush. Sanchez wielding a machete around homeless people who's only "crime" is poverty and Harpham with his ridiculous "holier than thou" attitude do nothing to bring real safety or respect to this community.

Yesterday these officers walked out to a camp that has been kept clean and without heavy drugs, etc.and told the people there that they must be out by 1pm today or their camp would be destroyed with the machete Sanchez held. Where are
these people to go?

We have freezing weather upon us. There is no plan for sheltering on an emergency basis and the housing plan of this city clearly discriminates against the poor, so more homelessness is on the way. What is the plan to "control" the
larger numbers when the financial meltdown finally hits?

The Quality of Whose Life? An Introduction to America's Modern Anti-Poor Movement

It's clear that there's a huge disconnect between our ideals and public policy. For example, The Huffington Post recently reported: "Americans vastly underestimate wealth inequality and support a more equal distribution of wealth." If this is true, why are we wasting billions of tax dollars locking people up simply for being poor? The chart below graphically captures the policy consequences of this cognitive dissonance. (Remember it when your Mayor or Chamber of Commerce promises that a Quality of Life ordinance will bring prosperity and security to your community.)

This is from a July 6, 2005 PLAZOID. The Plazoid was a brilliant independent, self-published pamphlet/zine that circulated in Arcata in the mid 2000's.

SOON Nazi authorities and the police began to consign members of other groups to the new camps: homosexual men arrested as criminal offenders; Jehovah's Witnesses who refused to obey demands to cease their activities; women accused of prostitution; people labeled "asocial" because they were homeless, begged, or for some other reason did not fit into Nazi society.

Monday, June 14th WHILE a caring community member shared sandwiches with up to 100 hungry people in Redway- on the street- engaging in a responsible and constitutionally protected activity- the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department drove around photographing the people who were eating lunch. This is INTIMIDATION. This is profiling. There is no good reason for it.

People are scared when the Sheriff’s Department behaves this way because the Sheriff targets anyone who lives outside with very few resources. The Sheriff’s Department hunts people down while they are sleeping -out of sight- and Sheriff Deputies attempt to DISAPPEAR people who are, for instance, sitting under a tree for shade.

Students and Community Members Chain Themselves to Arizona State Capitol

ARIZONA’S APARTHEID STATE CALLS FOR A STATEWIDE AND NATIONWIDE CALLOUT FOR NONVIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE! 

“Today we are chained to the Capitol, just like our community is chained by this legislation.”

20 April 2010 Phoenix, AZ —Nine students and community members chained themselves to the doors of the Arizona State Capitol today in protest of SB 1070, blocking the east entrance. They are calling for a national movement to employ nonviolent civil disobedience as the next phase of the Immigrant Rights Movement.

SB 1070 passed in the Senate and is on is scheduled to be signed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. SB 1070 is sponsored by Russell Pearce and passed through the nation’s most extremist legislature—Arizona being the engine for all anti-migrant legislation in the country, with at least eleven states poised to follow suit, if Brewer signs this bill.

To Eureka Police Chief Garr Nielsen,
Eureka City Council members,
Eureka Mayor Virginia Bass
Eureka City Attorney Sheryl Schaffner:

We, of Redwood Curtain CopWatch, receive report after report of unprovoked, vicious behavior by Sergeant Michael Quigley toward houseless people. With this letter we intend, once again, to alert you to Quigley's regular practice of abusing his authority and abusing people whom he apparently perceives to have little to no political power. As exhibited by his indecent and cruel behavior, Quigley believes he has absolute impunity to blatantly and repeatedly violate peoples' human and constitutional rights. This open letter goes out to hundreds of individuals and groups to call attention to Quigley's ongoing unacceptable behavior and to publicly call on you to correct it immediately and prevent any such misconduct and abuse in the future.

Recently, some of us witnessed 4 (that's right FOUR) Eureka Police Officers arresting a woman for sitting in a covered bus stop late at night with only a blanket in her hand.  Three vehicles, two of them K-9 units, were there.  The officers were: Adam Laird (Badge #40), Kurt Rulofson (new guy), Ed Wilson (Badge #96), and Mike Guy (Badge #63).
 
The woman asked the officers, "Where do I go?" 
 
She told them "I didn't do anything."  But, you see, if you sit somewhere in public at night, when you have no other place to go, you get arrested.
 
After the woman was HANDCUFFED, male officer Rolofson, in the presence of the other cops and 4 copwatchers, searched her.  That means he put his hands in her ass pockets and felt all over for... something (found nothing).  It happens quite often here in Eureka- male officers searching women.