9/23/2013

OUR NIGHT OF PEACEFUL PROTEST AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN SUPPORT OF FULLERTON'S HOMELESS
At Issue: Fullertons Chief of Police, Dan Hughes indicated as recently as March 2013 that FPD would not enforce a 1992 Unlawful Camping without a full-time shelter* A proposed shelter by County Supervisor Shawn Nelson was voted down in June of this year by a 3:2 council vote. Doug Chaffee, Greg Sebourn, and Bruce Whitaker voted opposed and Jan Flory and Jennifer Fitzgerald in favor. In the weeks following this vote FPD started sweeping homeless encampments and individual men and woman sleeping in varies public and private locations around downtown. In the previous 2 months citations have increased by almost 2,000 percent** Chief Hughes did not announce the enforcement a policy which was contrary to his last public statements on the subject* Chief Hughes has stated that he believes our homeless population to number between 200 300. If this is correct, and multiple tickets have not been issued to the same person, approxemetly 25% of the homeless in Fullerton face misdemeanor chargers, which unless a plea deal is reached, amount to well over $2,000 each Approximately 60% of the citation turn to warrants for arrest **and jail time at a cost of $133.00 per day.*** Issuing tickets to those who are sleeping is an ineffectual way to respond to the complaints of citizens and local business as this does not allow officers to target those who are causing most of the problems. Everyone looks innocent when they are sleeping. Having failed to come up with any real solution to the homeless problem the City of Fullertons enforcement of this municipal code is an ineffectual and cynical attempt to sanitize Fullerton of its homeless population without providing those being cited with an alternative. The homeless are criminals for simply doing the things one most do to survive Fullerton is still in the shadow of having three of its officers charged with murdering an unarmed and compliant homeless man named Kelly Thomas on July 5th 2011, and with their historic trial potentially only weeks away, one where the likely outcome is that Fullerton will have the distinction of being the only city that in a 163 hired and trained an officers now convicted of murder, to then make homelessness itself illegal without offering any viable alternative, is to us an obnoxiously unfathomable lazy response, which further marginalizes the homeless and burdons Orange County tax payers and the criminal system. Out of the 60 tickets issued so far we should expect 40 to go to warrant. Even if each individual spends only one week in jail, the cost to OC tax payers will be $37,000. 37K to criminally shelter 40 people for one week. What have we accomplished? 37K and one week later they are back at the same spot, only now they lost what little they have, and they have one more reason on their record for why they cant be accepted to a halfway house, or get a job.
*http://www.ocregister.com/articles/shelter-499363-homeless-city.html) . ** http://www.fullertonobserver.com/artman/uploads/foearlysept2013.pdf ***http://www.ocregister.com/articles/state-243090-prisons-california.html

Our Goal In Protesting: Our intentions with this first protest and civil disobedience is to bring attention and public pressure on the council so we can have a moratorium on the enforcement of Fullertons Unlawful Camping Ordinance until there is a year-round shelter in the vicinity of Fullerton, placed on the agenda. We want the council to be on record, and we believe that once the public understands the consequences of this policy, and how a policy such as this portrays an image of Fullerton which is not in keeping the spirit of fairness and charitable nature that our community exhibits in most other ways. Before deciding to have a small group of us, who are fortunate enough to have homes, sleep outside at the transportation center in violation of the no camping ordinance, I met with the city attorney, the mayor and councilmember Jan Flory, and I reached out to everyone else on the council. I made the request to have a moratorium place on the agenda again in person during public comments, as did over 20 other speakers (link to video below) at the last two city council meetings. I also sent more formal request by email. As of today only councilperson Jan Flory has responded to any of our request. Ms. Flory tells us that she does not intend to have the issue agenized.

A Recap of Our Night The picture below is of the view I woke up to at 5:30 am on the morning of Wednesday September 18th at the Fullerton transportation center after spending the night in protest the recent crackdown on the homeless for unlawful camping. This commuter hub by day is also the place where Kelly Thomas was beaten to death by up to six on duty Fullerton police officers a little over two years ago and where now other officers just feet from the crime scene make the condition of homelessness illegal. When I spoke at city council earlier that day, I asked if making homelessness illegal was really the lesson we were meant to learn from what happened in July 5th, 2011. I want to thank everyone who went to city council, spoke at city council, came to the transportation center, spent the night there, brought clothing, and like my friend and artist Katarina Perdue, brought food. Katarina in fact brought five pizzas, which were quickly distributed to supporters, commuters and the homeless. My friend Rikk Agnew, brought a storage container of clothing and tons of canned food. Jesse Latour was celebrating his 34th birthday and brought the cake his mother had made him to share with others. People were coming and going all night and Im guessing that for a hour or two we had around 60 friends and supporters there at one time. Not bad for a school night.

Photo by Stephan Baxter

Thats not counting Michael McConnell who is an expert on homeless issues who took the train up from San Diego to connect with us, and had been alerted by the ACLU of our event, or the 2 observers who were sent by the National Lawyers Guild, to ensure the police did not overstep, or the very drunk 300 lb 2

bar patron, who's brother and cousin are police officers, and who at 2:15 am and with very little nuance, expressed that he took exception to our signs and wanted to smash my face by ripping his shirt off and pointing at me. The police, who on any other night are regularly seen at the transportation center, stayed away throughout the night which I appreciate. There was no reason to confront us as we were being peaceful and not bothering local businesses or their customers. One of the servers at the Hub came by that night and thanked us for keeping it cool. No tickets were issued to us or anyone else that night. Thanks in great part to the shirtless drunk man's other brother, who was of equal size and the recipient substantially more reason, my friends Damian, AJ and Max, and the tears of one of the very large drunk mens girlfriends, peace eventually prevailed and faces were spared of smashing. In fact by 3 am we had become expert drunk whisperers (especially AJ) and we all got big drunken hugs upon our new friends departures with what we believe was a sober girlfriend at the wheel. Exhausted after the bar dude drama all but four of us left to find a proper bed and those who remained lay back down for a two solid hours of sleep. At 5:30 my friend AJ from InLeague Press, woke me from the opposite side Id last seen him at, due to a sprinkler incident I had slept through, and the last four of us who remained out of the group broke down our illegal makeshift encampment, before any commuters arrived. All but one the homeless who had been sleeping on surrounding benches had already moved on and the place was for the next 15 minutes beautiful and quiet, reminding us that this location place, in addition to being a hub for commuters and the cynical ticketing of the homeless, was also home of the publics memorial to Kelly Thomas, a man himself homeless when he last encountered the police. Before going to work at my office in Corona, I stopped to get some food and lots of coffee, and until the afternoon crash hit around 3pm, I was none the worse for wear, but I was the worse for not showering. This protest was not a matter of us pretending to be homeless; we were in fact very much unlike the homeless. Spending the night on the brick pathway of a busy well lit transportation center surrounded by friends who share a commitment to change this policy, was not a great sacrifice. I was not hungry, I was not lonely, I was not in fear, the weather was mild, the Lawyers Guild Observers had our back, cameras at the ready to roll is there was trouble, it was one day of sleeping rough, not day 7,000 as it was for others and most importantly we knew things the next night would be more comfortable. Tonight, however, those who are actually homeless, will have none of these luxuries. They will instead be terrorized by all the normal things the homeless have to worry about, along with this new terror. Namely that at any moment a flashlight could hit them hit them on the legs and just as they open 3

Kellys Memorial on his birtday Courtesy of Damion Lane Photography

their eyes the light pointed at their face telling them that their existence is illegal. Unless someone has a swastika tattooed on their forehead, citations issued when the accused are sleeping are not effective in targeting troublemakers, having interviewed 14 of the individuals its clear that we in fact target the low hanging fruit, not the criminals. These citations make it illegal for a homeless person to get tired and they are in no way a solution, temporary or otherwise, to anything. Without targeting those who cause problems they are in ineffective response to complaints made by citizen and local businesses. All these tickets manage to do is add one more item the host of other reasons which prevent a homeless person from rejoining us within the margins of society. Approximately 60% of the tickets issued result in warrants for arrest, and jail is the most costly and ineffective way to address the homeless issue imaginable. Despite all this, not one council member has publically expressed concern or a desire to agendize a resolutions directing the police to not enforce unlawful camping. These are elected officials, who prior to this unnatural consensus, could not agree on a single item relating to police or the homeless. Almost everyone else I speak with about these tickets and their application agree that enforcement of noPhoto of 2 protsters on 9/17, curtesy of Jesse LaTour camping is an obnoxiously cynical and counterproductive practice and turning the poor and neglected into criminals is not what our community cares to be known as just as our image is recovering from the summer of 2011. How do they not get that? Not a one. I returned to the transportation center for a while the following day and spoke to men and women in the food line at the 1st Congregational Church. All who wanted to speak felt positive over what we had done and they continue to be hopeful that the city will realize this is wrong and of no benefit to anyone. To all who supported us on Tuesday in person or from their homes by voicing their opinion to the council by email or by phone, and shared our event on social media, I am in your debt. Please continue to put pressure on these folks. I know that their support of the enforcement is mostly based on an idealized description of what is happening by our Chief of Police, and fear of any political fallout of big donors like the Chamber of Commerce. The former is already being proven false by the citations themselves, and the consistent statements of witnesses and those ticketed by officer Tong, and the latter will remain a test of this councils character. Since 4 of 5 came into office after July 2011, we need to consider if they acted any differently on this issue than those who came before, as with Kelly Thomas this is an issue which requires that one trade a little political and establishment security in order to retain ones moral north and sense of fairness when each of them stand for election. We should not have to work this hard to get people to do the right thing. To at least put this issue on the agenda. There are many cities who criminalize homelessness, but Fullerton is the only one to do so after a community rallied together to bring justice to another homeless man named Kelly Thomas. Making the homeless illegal is not what so many in our community fought for and we will not allow such a cruel 4

policy to represent the city we love. We need to get our request to have a moratorium placed on the agenda out to the community. All interested press are asked to contract Stephan Baxter. I will be happy to answer any questions which you may have. Stephan Baxter ArtWithAnAgenda.org Fullerton CA Stephanbaxter@me.com 714/342-3052

Video: Anyone interested in seeing the public comments will find them at the following link starting approx minute 20 something and it goes 30 speakers deep. Yours truly is #18. http://fullerton.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=482 We thank the local press for taking an interest, please stayed tuned we have more events planned Fullerton Stories: http://www.fullertonstories.com/news/city-council/homeless-advocates-set-up-campafter-council-meeting The Fullertonian: http://thefullertonian.com/Article/Details/901 The Daily Titan: http://www.dailytitan.com/2013/09/debate-on-treatment-of-homeless-delays-citycouncil-discussion-on-water/ Orange Juice Blog: http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2013/08/baxter-fullertons-homeless-have-notmastered-the-art-of-vaporizing/

Orange Juice Blog: http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2013/09/baxter-lets-camp/ The Fullerton Rag: http://fullertonrag.com/category/homeless-shelter/ The Fullerton Observer: page 1 Jane Rands, Page 18 Stephan Baxter http://www.fullertonobserver.com/artman/uploads/foearlysept2013.pdf A video reminder what of started this all. As a result of the murder by Fullerton offers of Kelly Thomas, a local homeless man, I state as fact, that we will not the condition of homelessness to become illegal. That is not what the people had in mind when 66% of us recalled the incumbents who hindered rather than helped in the days after the murder. KCET Article and mini documentary (video)
http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/orange/justice-for-kelly-art-show.html