DENVER, COLORADO- Homeless sweeps continue in Denver, this round the downtown development authority is sweeping away their furniture. In particular the Wazee-to-Wynkoop block of the 16th Street Mall, in front of the Tattered Cover Bookstore. Not only was the quiet block popular with Denver homeless, it is the site of Occupy Denver's friday night feed, the weekly shared community meal hosted at the doorstep of the Tattered Cover in protest of their support of the city's anti-homeless measures. With the benches gone, there remain no surfaces from which to serve food, nor of course, seating areas to accommodate the homeless community.
Tag: Homeless
Denver judge rules BEING HOMELESS IS IRRELEVANT to defendants charged with violating city’s urban camping ban
DENVER, COLORADO- A hearing was held today to review motions submitted before the criminal trial of three homeless activists arrested last November for violating Denver's Urban Camping Ban. Terese Howard, Jerry Burton, and Randy Russel featured in the infamous 2016 video that showed Denver police officers confiscating their sleeping bags and blankets on the snowy steps of city hall. Through attorney Jason Flores-Williams, fellow Denver Homeless Out Loud (DHOL) activists have filed a civil lawsuit to halt the city's homeless sweeps. In municipal court DHOL hopes to challenge the ordinance being used to harass, displace and imprison the downtown homeless. Already the city's case appears to be derailing based on developments at the motions hearing. Denver municipal court judge Kerri Lombardi approved all the city's motions and none for the defense. Lombardi approved the use of 404B evidence for the city, but simultaneously restricted Res Gestae evidence for the defense. In particular, she refused to qualify two experts on homelessness, precluding the accused from arguing a "necessity defense". Judge Lombardi stated that being homeless was irrelevant to whether they were violating the urban camping ban. When asked to recuse herself, the judge declined, so attorney Flores-Williams declared his intent to file an interlocutory appeal to bump the case to district court. Meanwhile speedy trial was waived and a new court date was set for April 5th. DHOL's 2/17 press release: Yesterday there was a dispositive motions hearing in the Camping Ban criminal cases where homeless and poor people are being charged with crimes for sleeping on the streets with blankets and shelter in Winter. The hearing was noteworthy for the bias and prejudice shown toward Defendants by the Court. 1) At the start of the hearing, prior to any argument, the Judge looked at Defense counsel and said: “The one thing I don’t want is any drama from you, Mr. Flores-Williams.” Defense counsel had never practiced in this court. 2) Without allowing any substantive legal argument, the Court ruled that it was permissible for theProsecution to file a 34-person witness list eight days after the court’s deadline and only two weeks prior to trial. 3) The Court then Excluded all of Defense’s expert witnesses without hearing or testimony, saying that “Homelessness has nothing to do with this case.” 4) The Court then ordered Defense counsel to limit all arguments so that no argument or line of questioning could be construed at trial as an attempt to persuade the jury that the Camping Ban ordinance is itself unjust. 5) At this juncture, defense counsel cited to Fed R. 37(c)and its CO equivalent concerning the prejudice resulting from late disclosure of witnesses. No court response. Defense counsel then quoted from sections from Chambers v. Mississippi, a landmark 1973 civil rights case concerned with due process in which the overall prejudice to defendants becomes so cumulative and egregious that defendants fair trial rights are eviscerated. No response. 6) The Court then took up a Motion from the prosecution that does not exist. A “Res Gestae/404(b) Motion” that wrongfully
Denver 16th St Mall now a Police State
DENVER, COLORADO- The effort to keep Denver homeless off the 16th Street Mall has meant supplanting them with police and police cruisers. At half block intervals, to help shoppers, visitors and business lunch eaters feel safe from the homeless.
Shadoe Garner jailed because Denver police fear the homeless Dirty Kids.
DENVER, COLORADO- Credit Shadoe Garner and his fellow Dirty Kids for Denver's current police crackdown on the downtown homeless. Credit might not be the word you choose, because the consequences have been disastrous for those living and panhandling on the street, but the homeless teens known by their community as the "dirty kids" were the first to stand up against the abuse. They refused to abide being commanded to stand when they needed to sit, or make themselves scarce on public property. In May 2016 a dozen were arrested defying Denver's sit-lie ordinance, to test the law's constitutionality, but DPD found other infractions with which to charge them. Shadoe was jailed for possession of an illegal weapon, but the pretext for taking him in was even more contrived. As a Wiccan druid, Shadoe carries a ritual dagger called an Athame. He wasn't threateding anyone with it, but a second stop and frisk revealed a repeat offense, so now Shadoe's bond is set at $10,000, beyond what any homeless person can raise. The pretext for Shadoe Garner's arrest wasn't the weapon, but a charge of LITTERING. On the third day of their sit-in protest at the 16th Street Mall, Shadoe was trying to serve District Six Commander Tony Lopez with notice of a federal suit being filed against the DPD by 27 homeless complainants, for their continued harassment downtown. Though Garner informed Lopez that he was a contracted process server, Commander Lopez refused to take the 11 page document. When Shadoe dropped it at his feet, Commander Lopez gave the order to have Shadoe arrested. Shadoe appears in court on Thursday, August 11, in division 3F of the Lindsey Flanigan Courthouse. Shadoe will be brought into the courtroom in shackles and will likely be represented only by a public defender.
Monk Brown arrest record with Adams County escalates to being beaten up.
BREAKING: ADAMS COUNTY, COLORADO-- COUNTY SHERIFFS BEAT UP HOMELESS PANHANDLER AND TRY TO THROW HIM UNDER MOVING CAR. VIDEO CONFISCATED FROM OTHER HOMELESS MAN. (On March 9, Adrian Brown filed a federal civil rights lawsuit through the law offices of David Lane citing 31 counts of abuses by Adams County Sheriff's Deputies who continue to this day to abuse and arrest Brown and others like him for panhandling at I-76 and Sheridan.) Brown has had every one of his cases dismissed so far by Judge Doyle because CDOT has testified in court that they are not concerned with pedestrians and panhandlers at this location. Eric Brandt has tested Adams County by flying his "FUCK COPS" sign at this location. Brandt's arrest was found to be unconstitutional by the same Judge Doyle on Feb 5, 2016. Since then, both Brown and Brandt have been arrested again, with Austin Johnson and at least half dozen others. Adams County has stepped up their assaults at this location in recent days. Adrian Brown received notice this morning that Adams County made another arrest this morning and went there to intervene and show the deputies the judge's orders and the federal lawsuit. Brandt called the sheriffs department and advised them that they dont fuck with the fuck the cops guys. Today Brown arrived to witness his own brother being arrested and immediatly took up station upon their departure. The deputies immediately turned around, called for backup and took Brown into custody. The deputies beat Brown, repeatedly punching him. They tried to throw him under a moving car. Then they attacked witness Austin Johnson, forcing the phone from his hand with which he was recording he incident. Johnson was cuffed and searched. Brown's brother Zach, and another woman Jen, were charged with trespassing. Internal Affairs refuses to come get statements from the homeless witnesses. Instead it is requiring them to make the 50 mile trip to the Internal Affairs office if they want an investigation. Brown is in Adams County jail on charges of obstructing an officer, assaulting an officer and resisting arrest. UPDATE: Monk just called. Adams deputies did not take photos of his injuries. His bond is $10,000.
Denver homeless kids are reclaiming their RIGHT to SIT on 16th Street Mall
DENVER, COLORADO- Denver street kids are standing up against DPD harrassment, SITTING DOWN. It isn't orchestrated, it's barely organized, a CBS affiliate covered the first arrests, but since last Wednesday, these homeless activists have been defying riot cops and orders to disperse, suffering several citations and arrests every day. As of Tuesday AM, two arrestees remain jailed, one of them bonded with a condition of area restriction preventing him from rejoining the protest.
Ray Lyall Denver homeless man loses home in legal battle over tiny houses
DENVER, COLORADO- Ray Lyall was among nine homeless rights advocates arrested last October trying to defend a row of Tiny House model homes they built on public land administrated by the Denver Housing Authority. All were accused of trespass and today was Ray's day in court before a jury of not quite his peers. Though the jury perceived Ray's act to be political and were shown the paradox facing the city's homeless, they found in favor of DHA and its SWAT eviction team. Denver's lack of sympathy for the homeless is shared by Denver residents serving jury duty. All of whom were conscripted through addresses, many of them gentrified. Like his co-defendant DJ Razee, the first of Ray's colleagues to take a stand in court, Ray was found guilty of trespass. Instead of jail time Ray was sentenced to twelve months probation, forty hours of community service, and a protection order to stay clear of DHA stooge Ryan Tobin. Ray also has to write a letter of apology stating that he understands trespass is not an acceptable protest act. Most significant however is an area restriction. Ray can't return to the area bordered by Arapahoe and Lawrence, 25th and 26th, the block where Denver Homeless Out Loud erected "Resurrection Village". If the tiny houses were demolished the night of the police raid, and the vacant lot has been locked ever since, what does Ray's area restriction matter? The where to which Ray cannot return is under the tree he and DHOL's real-life homeless members have called home before and since, a tree along the sidewalk of the DHA property, outside the fence but now inside Ray's area restriction, where Ray & co. never bothered anyone, though maybe they troubled Ryan Tobin's view, which is what prompted the heartless crackdown in the first place. Ryan Tobin is not just DHA's manager, he owns a $650,000 gentrified home across the street from the restricted lot. While urban "housing authority" entities purport to supply all income residences, they profit by redistributing properties to developers and relocating low income communities to the lesser desirable areas. Denver inaugurated Spring 2016 with homeless sweeps to clear the gentrified neighborhood of its street dwellers. Where police can't harass for "encumbrances" to move homeless along, they prosecute with "trespass". Each of the DHOL defendants who've reached trial or have taken plea deals have been given the area restriction. Restricted from a fenced lot surounded by no trespass signs. The legal overkill recalls the army of police officers deployed to assault DHOL and their tiny homes. Ray isn't going to jail but now he really has nowhere to go. Ray was houseless, a distinction that's not just a technicality. Now Ray is homeless.
Now is a good time for the homeless to warm up in Mayor Hancock’s office
This is what the Denver Homeless have to deal with today... along with an asshole mayor who took their blankets and sleeping bags. Maybe this would be a good time to go sit in his nice warm office.
HEADS UP: DPD courtroom leak reveals Denver homeless sweep to start at 1pm
DENVER, COLORADO- City attorneys asked county court Judge Espinoza for a continuance today because their key witness was preoccupied with a "city wide operation" which they conceded was the well publicized homeless sweep which local media teams and Denver homeless have been anticipating all morning. It turns out Commander Lopez might have trouble reaching the witness stand because he's set to begin the confiscation of homeless possessions around the Samaritan House at 1PM. So that's news for everyone. Please spread the word. Trial attendees are planning to spend their lunch break augmenting activist numbers at Park Avenue and Lawrence.
Fuck Cops Guy Eric Brandt deployed ACME Kop Katcher Kit but caught Denver’s SIT-LIE ordinance instead
DENVER, COLORADO- That's right, DPD motorcycle gang members fell for Eric Brandt's cop trap, hook line and donut, but as usual, that's not what Eric was after. On this particular arrest date, Eric wanted to test Denver's "Sit-Lie" ordinance and this week Eric had his day in court. The city pressed its case for two days but after only ten minutes of deliberation the jury found Eric innocent. He admitted to sitting down, to purposefully seeking arrest, but his lawyer drove home the import of repudiating unjust law. Denver's ban on sitting or laying down in its Business Improvement District is a prohibition aimed squarely at the homeless. By a five out of six majority the jury vindicated Eric Brandt and refused to convict. The first day was spent hearing the testimony of a 20-year veteran cop so clueless he thought protests required permits, so flaky he denied seeing Eric's donut or the six by four foot box tilting above it. He was so smug he cropped the ACME Kop Katcher Kit out of his crime scene photo, and so dumb he reported verifying Brandt's identity by his RTD disability pass yet failed to deduce Brandt was disabled. This poor officer was so simpleminded that Eric's defense attorney risked being seen badgering him with a mere superiority of faculties. As a result, the officer's misconception about permits was not corrected. The audience knew his MO to be an unconstitutional, the jury got it, as might your average highschool civics student, so the cross examination ended without having to contradict the little officer of the law. But the cop left the stand as he came in, having spent sixteen years of his service on the motorcycle unit, policing marches downtown, following orders and harranging protesters because they don't have permits. And he's back on the beat right now. Otherwise the outcome of Eric's trial was a total victory. For jury nullification. For freedom of expression. For the affirmative defense that performance art trumps a municipality's authority to enforce conformity and order. And for human rights. Everyone has a right to sit down whether or not a chair is provided or deprived for that purpose. Those of us with places to sit, like cars and houses and restaurant chairs, don't need that protection, but the homeless do. No gentrifying business-first politician should be coaxing police to pretend it should be otherwise. The DPD may still issue citations but the likelihood of conviction is now greatly diminished. A civil suit from Eric will now hasten Denver's incentive to repeal the errant ordinance. Downtown Denver's sit-lie law is about to sunset by natural cause, Eric Brandt, force of nature.
Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus told to dismantle their tiny house or be cited under Denver’s Urban Camping Ban.
NEWS FLASH! Denver's Mayor Michael Hancock has ordered the Denver Police Department to arrest Baby Jesus for sleeping on the steps of the Civic Center, in defiance of Denver's camping ban.
Repeal the Denver Urban Camping Ban
My favorite picture of a favorite banner. Although the DPD evicted our protest camp from the courthouse steps, it's now much more visible to commuter traffic on Denver's busiest artery, Colfax Avenue.
Care for the less fortunate
With dusk falling across the skyscrapers of upper Manhattan, Pope Francis implored the city – all cities – to care for the less fortunate. “There are the foreigners, their children who go without schooling, those deprived of medical insurance, the homeless, the forgotten elderly,” he said. “These people stand at the edges of our avenues, of our streets, in deafening anonymity.”
Denver cops using urban camping ban to harass protest on free speech plaza
DENVER, COLORADO- During their nightly raids of the protest encampment at the Lindsey Flanigan Courthouse, technically Tully Plaza, Denver police are citing the city's "Urban Camping Ban" to rouse the activist and force them to collect their belongings in semblance of "moving along". Plaza arrests have reached fourteen but have been for obstructing passageways with "encumbrances" because Denver has been avoiding bringing the camping ban charge down on anyone with the legal means to contest it. Denver is circumventing a federal injunction which protects the Occupy Denver activists from arrest for distributing "Jury Nullification" fliers in front of the courthouse, by finding the protest activities to violate other ordinances. Activists have relied on the injunction to protect all speech, thinking that the original injunction would be unconstitutional if it presumed to dictate the content allowed. The city's latest ploy was not unexpected and shines a light on the selective enforcement of laws designed to oppress those inhabitants stuck on the streets, who don't have an activist's prerogative to move along.
Denver’s Argonaut Wine and Liquor reserves the right to roll their derelict customers without you videotaping it
DENVER, COLORADO- Occupy Denver activist Caryn Sodaro was arrested in April for filming Denver police officers physically tormenting a drunken itinerant behind the Argonant liquor store on 760 East Colfax. Appearing in municipal court yesterday Caryn learned her accusers aren't the DPD but Argonaut itself, whose employees charge Caryn with trespass for not removing herself from their parking lot with sufficient deference. Caryn was among a group of onlookers who were hoping to curb the police abuse by recording it. Of course documenting police brutality is not illegal, so the City of Denver is relying on private interests to complain to take the heat from law enforcement's decision to make an arrest. You might well ask, what interest does the Argonaut have to keep customers or passersby from witnessing police officers kicking homeless men behind its store? Caryn was retreating as ordered. In fact she was four spectators removed from the crime scene when DPD reinforcements lunged toward her to nab her. Now the DPD want to hang Caryn's arrest on a technicality, that she was trespassing, ignoring whether witnessing the potential commission of a crime wouldn't be sufficient excuse to bend the Argonaut's property rights. No one otherwise pretends that crimes like domestic violence are protected by claims to the privacy afforded by private property. Why does the DPD think its officers can indulge sadistic tendencies behind a veil of private security guards? On Tuesday Argonant dispatched staffers Chris Crowley and William Dehl to bear witness against Caryn Sodaro. I wouldn't bother to highlight the pair's personal identities here were it not for a colorful twist in the courtroom which in retrospect is unsurprising from blond thick-necked goons who may delight in watching inebriates get the jack-boot. Waiting their turn to receive instruction from the judge, Crowley and Dehl amused themselves through the long morning docket by making disparaging and racist remarks to each other about the mainly Hispanic and black defendants in the clutches of Denver's judicial quagmire, many of whom were in-custody and could not post bond. The Argonaut has been a Capitol Hill favorite for a half-century, and no doubt it has finessed the art of dealing with the regular drunks. No doubt letting local officers vent their anger against bums in back alley is a tradition in the liquor biz. Fortunately cell phone cameras mean those days are waning. The Colorado legislature recently reinforced the public's right to film the police. It can hardly be in the Argonaut's best interest to shield police brutality from citizens who want to intervene. The Argonaut doesn't want to highlight the consequence of alcoholism. Hopefully despite Argonaut's efforts, getting rolled by the cops will prove to be less inevitable.
Charles Dickens and the Tattered Cover Bookstore
“Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.” ?? Charles Dickens, Great Expectations Pause you who read this and think of the man, Charles Dickens, who gave to the world some of our most memorable stories and books; A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations, to name only a few. Charles Dickens, a man filled with compassion for the poor and hungry, who he wrote about so eloquently. Now comes The Tattered Cover Book Store who seeks to make a profit from this man's stories and the people Charles wrote about; the Tattered Cover who through their membership in the Downtown Business Partnership, supports the Denver Camping Ban, a law that criminalize the poor and homeless. Pause a moment for the poor and hungry. Tell The Tattered Cover, in the eyes of Charles Dickens, they are hypocrites. Stop selling his books or send a letter to the Denver City Council resending their support of the camping ban. Send an e-mail to books@tatteredcover.com if you have compassion for the poor. Your voice will make a difference for those less fortunate. Please pass this on to all your friends and family; Together we can change the world.
The Denver Homeless Problem
The Denver City Council believes that if you criminalize, arrest and jail this man we have solved the homeless problem. If you agree with the City Council go back to your TV and watch the latest episode of "Keeping up with the Kardashians". But if you truly want to understand, and you want more information, then join activists with OCCUPY DENVER on Fridays. In doing that small act, you will meet the face of the homeless, you will be on the path of becoming a true compassionate human being. The photos below show feeding the homeless feeding at the Tattered Cover Bookstore in LoDo, every Friday at 5:30 pm.
Tattered Cover Five return to the scene of the crime
DENVER, COLORADO- On May 8th 2015, the Tattered Cover Five returned to the scene of their heinous crime, feeding the poor and homeless. After being convicted in a kangaroo court hearing in City Court for disturbing the peace and being a general nuisance, the defendants once again returned on Friday to the Tattered Cover Book Store where they fed the poor on a rain soaked evening. When we as a society look past an act of compassion and charity in feeding the poor and homeless, to see our shame, to feel our discomfort and then to criminalize this act of kindness. Then we are a Broken and Sick Society. We can cure this sickness in our society; we must unite and come together; You need only commit one small act of kindness; skip one hour at your local pub; one hour at the mall; one TV show and then come and volunteer in front of the Tattered Cover book store on Friday night. The one hour you give will tell the city "We Do Care About The Poor and Homeless" I believe there are many good and kind people out there, we need only find them. Are you one of those kind and caring people? Let us come together and show the city of Denver, we do care.
City of Denver wins court battle to ignore the homeless, one arrest made
DENVER, COLORADO- The trial of the Tattered Cover Five concluded this week. For three days a municipal court considered whether a complaint made against protesters drumming in front of the downtown Tattered Cover Bookstore should or should not curb the protesters' freedom of speech. And the jury really didn't get it. Not only did their verdict uphold the police's discretion to decide whose speech can be considered to be disturbing the peace, but the jury introduced their own arbitrary enforcement, judging some drummers guilty and some not, even though the complaint which prompted the charges was based on the "loud and unusual noise" generated by the ensemble. The jury had even heard testimony that defendants were threatened with arrest if we "so much as touched a drum." How then could this case be about disturbing the peace via loud noise? Defense attorney David Lane knew our acts of defiance were more accurately "disturbing the police." More obtuse than the Denver jury was the presiding judge, who resisted every rational objection and motion to insure that blunt authoritarianism always received the benefit of the doubt. I'll admit our supporters in the audience were glib throughout the trial as our lawyer David Lane could hardly sidestep using the dumb and dumber city attorneys for mops. But the judge always ruled in dumb's favor. It was as if courtroom 3H was an Affirmative Action program for logical fallacies, and the judge was a rubber-stamp for the rule of bad law. This was never more clear than in the trial's final moments, when extra deputies ringed the courtroom and then arrested an audience member. Just before the jury was to emerge with its verdict, the judge reminded everyone that filming or recording the jury was prohibited. David Lane voiced his objection at the buildup of officers in the courtroom without cause. As usual the judge was dismissive. Lane emphasized that in all his years this was an uncharacteristic show of force. The judge didn't care: "Objection noted." It was her usual refrain. As the officers moved closer to the audience to make their oppressive presence felt, the activism instinct to raise cell phones at the ready gave the officers their cause. This escalated into a standoff, with the deputies ordering an activist to leave the courtroom. His protestations of innocence were interpreted as resisting so he was led off in handcuffs, prompting of course more impulses to film the arrest. When more officers began targeting more cellphones, a voice of authority rang out. It wasn't the judge calling for order in the court. No, she was satisfied to let the deputes maraud through the audience and extract people with physical force without even looking up from her monitor. It was the sonorous voice of David Lane that brought the officers to heel. He said "Nobody can take anyone's phone." Lane's gravitas had never given the judge pause but it stopped the deputes in their tracks. "The most an officer can ask you to do is to put your
Mother Teresa was the Janet Matzen of Calcutta
(The above photo is of Janet on May Day 20015 feeding a group of 50 people in front of the state capital, still wearing that warm smile for all the homeless and hungry.) Janet Matezen was a 54 year old working mom. She had recently lost her job at a local market where she worked as a meat cutter. Like many of the middle class, Janet was also struggling to make ends meet. It was October 2011, Occupy of Denver made camp in Denver's Civic Center Park. Their number began to grow daily as word of the movement spread via the media. Janet had never been a protester or even been to a rally such as Occupy, but she was curious. She decided one day that she would drive to the park to see what it was all about. When I first saw Janet in the park, she looked like any other mother from any city in America. She was average with one difference, she always had a warm smile. She began to talk with the others there in the park, and the more she heard their stories the more shocked she became at the conditions many there were living under. She never spoke of her own problems. Janet's struggles seemed to fade as she listen to their stories. After all, she had a home and food for her table. I believe the old adage "I use to feel sorry for myself because I had no shoes, and then I met a man who had no feet" best describes Janet's experience there with Occupy in Denver's Civic Center Park. In the past four years, Janet has transformed herself into an advocate and champion of the homeless and hungry of Denver. Whenever the city council is considering new legislation such as the Anti Camping Ban, Janet is always there to lend her voice in defense of the poor and homeless. When the Colorado House of Representatives were recently considering a bill of rights for the homeless, Janet was present at every stage of the hearings. When the homeless are arrested for falling asleep in the park, she is always there to help, even if it's only to be with them in court. One spring day in 2012, I interviewed Janet in the city park; one of the questions I ask her was; "Did she have any fears of the people there in the park" her reply surprised me, she said "Oh no! I know they would protect me, it's the police that I'm afraid of." I did not miss the irony of her answer; to think that a 54 year old mother in the park would be more afraid of the police than the homeless. I could only conclude, that Janet, after witnessing so much of the violence by the police against the homeless knew who in truth would serve and protect her. Janet has also had her small victories, besides feeding the homeless, as reported in the "Popular Resistance" **STAFF NOTE: Planned protests at Palm Restaurants are cancelled
The Tattered Cover doubles down on its privilege to ignore Denver homeless
DENVER, COLORADO- Representatives of Occupy Denver met with both owner and manager of The Tattered Cover Bookstore last week hoping to avert taking public action against the popularly lionized bookseller for its passive support of the city's Urban Camping Ban. There was hope that owner Joyce Meskis could reconsider her "neutrality" on the policy of oppression which has proved disastrous for Denver's beleaguered street dwellers, at the very least, rescind her membership in the Downtown Business Partnership, the lobbying entity which conjured the ordinance. INSTEAD Meskis told the Occupiers to redirect their efforts toward citizens instead of pressuring businesses to take sides. Meskis admitted she had not followed the city council hearings and so did not know that individuals have had no more clout there than have the homeless. The camping ban was proposed by a cabal of businesses, OD explained. Its repeal will no doubt require an outcry from the same. Meskis remained adamant that her business take no side. OD suggested that a bookstore of all places might want to hold itself to the higher ideals it propagates. What good is literacy if it does not elevate? Meskis held firm: the Tattered Cover must entertain both sides and allow customers to arrive at their own conclusions. Imagine a dealer of books so pedantic. Really, are there two sides to human rights? Archbishop Desmond Tutu once wrote that neutrality helps the oppressor, never the oppressed. They haven't read him, or maybe they disagree? More obnoxious than ignorance is arrogant ignorance. Even the illiterate do not argue against Edmond Burke's "when good men do nothing." What's the point of enriching yourself with a business if it's not to have more impact on your community? Looking at the callous indifference of business leaders, who reserve their personal sympathies in the interest of dispassionate objectivity, you might as well be staring at an American general, a politician, or other such sociopath, the embodiment of Capitalism, void of humanity. Fortunately people governed strictly by the bottom line are much easier to reorient than others whose values are ideological or moral. Attenuating their flow of customers brings businesses to heel. Money talks, and yes, it's too bad the Tattered Cover has turned out to be the unlikely posterchild. BUMMER? HARDLY. What we have is a opportunity to blow open the conservative liberal pretense that privileged first worlders need not soil themselves with taking sides. Wars happen, torture happens, neglect of the poor happens when community members, particularly the power centers of business, say nothing to oppose them. The Tattered Cover maintains its ambivalence is a principled stand. I think its acquiescence on the urban camping ban allowed the more preditory downtown businesses to rationalize their inhumanity, thinking "see, it's not just us assholes." OD's reluctant boycott continues undaunted this Friday at 5:30pm at the Tattered Cover's LoDo store.
Target of Occupy Denver boycott expects DPD to roll protesters like they’re homeless sleepers
DENVER, COLORADO- Downtown eatery co-owner Jon Schlegel thought the homeless were defenseless when he led an effort to criminalize sleeping or seeking shelter out-of-doors last year. Instead Schlegel incurred the wrath of Occupy Denver, who've maintained a now seven-month long Boycott Snooze protest opposite his trendy restaurant. Yes it's personal, Schlegel opened SNOOZE in a depressed area adjacent to a homeless shelter, now he wants to gentrify his digs by running out the homeless. So every Sunday occupiers bring signs to sway potential customers from supporting Snooze's war on the homeless, and every Sunday Schlegel calls the police. But there have been no charges, officers remind Occupiers they are within their rights, yet Snoozegoers are treated to the illusion that the boycott's legality may be borderline. You know, it's that phony paradox promoted by our corporate media, that free speech means having to tolerate another's opinion however offensive. (When free speech offends you, you are likely the offender being protested.) The real question is how Denver Police justify juxtaposing their intimidating armed presence against a citizen's First Amendment rights.
Snooze owner Jon Schlegel wants Denver Police to treat Occupy protesters like they’re homeless
(As best we could determine, Facebook was refusing to aggregate this article so long as "Snooze" and "Jon Schlegel" were mentioned in the headline. The article you are looking for is above at this link. Target of Occupy Denver boycott expects DPD to roll protesters like they're homeless sleepers. Facebook still won't allow the photo.)
Somebody’s stabbing homeless people in the back and it isn’t even in Colorado Springs where it happened
Hey, in the US the job of stabbing homeless people in the back is normally left up to America's municipal governments, like the lickspittle police loving one we have in Colorado Springs. However, some other mentally deranged jerk is now doing it in PERSONALLY in the LA area... No wonder folk go berserk with hate up in Aurora, Colorado living in a society like ours has become... 3 LA-area homeless people found stabbed with notes
Should homeless camping ban apply to Occupy Colorado Springs protest? Homelessness is often also protest.
COLORADO SPRINGS- Activist Steve Bass was arrested last night for overstaying his welcome in the city's Acacia Park, violating the ordinance against pitching a tent in a public park. While the city is asserting that the anti-homeless no-camping ordinance ban applies to overnight free speech and assembly, and the OCCUPY COLORADO SPRINGS protesters argue that protest should be differentiated from the homeless issue, Steve reminds us that for many on the street, homelessness is their protest. Bass has longtime experience administrating the Sunday morning soup kitchen at CC's Shove Chapel. According to Bass, it's not a matter of "To be or not to be" but the unalienable right to be or be somewhere else. Here's an excerpt from his statement: A point is advanced during the meeting [Occupy Colorado Springs negotiations with City officials] that separates homeless campers from active political occupiers. As a matter of personal opinion, though there are some real differences in context, the camping ordinance is bad law as yet untested in courts. However, having been involved with the free food biz in Colorado Springs for decades I am confident in stating that many homeless campers are in their position by choice, having opted out of a political system found onerous. I see no legitimate difference between this lifestyle of protest and the pointed expressions of protest embraced by Occupy Colorado Springs. Other homeless campers are thus because of uncontrolled habits, some of which fall under the label of "diseased" behavior by authoritative bodies in the U.S. or because of circumstances external to their control. There are only two varieties of property in the entirety of the U.S.--public or private. If the continuously burgeoning population of homeless campers is barred from sleeping on public property, and have no means by which to acquire access to private property, they have no option at all. Others are then required by default to put them up, thus far manifest here in conditions both unsanitary and unsavory as demonstrable by the bed-bug ridden Express Inn or the Aztec Motel, or else the Salvation Army--court ordered church. Otherwise, our only other option is to incarcerate them. I maintain that an unmentioned and "unalienable" right of all human beings is simply to be, wherever that being may take place.