Thread: ACLU sues Santa Monica over homeless treatment

ACLU sues Santa Monica over homeless treatment

By CHRISTINA HOAG, The Associated Press
5:33 p.m. July 14, 2009

LOS ANGELES — The ACLU of Southern California on Tuesday sued the city of Santa Monica, charging that police regularly harass, arrest and push homeless people out of city limits in violation of their constitutional rights.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of six homeless people, the third such action taken against an upscale Southern California coastal city. Other cities were Laguna Beach and Santa Barbara.

"Santa Monica is functionally operating a deportation program against its mentally disabled homeless, acting to eliminate the homeless, not homelessness," said Mark Rosenbaum, ACLU's legal director.

Officials in Santa Monica, which traditionally prides itself as a socially progressive community, said they were surprised at the charges.

"We were quite taken aback and perplexed," said Julie Rusk, human services manager who oversees the city's homeless programs.

Rusk said the city police force operates a homeless liaison team, which is charged with building a rapport with street dwellers to get them into housing and mental health services, operates a homeless community court where homeless people can have citations dismissed in return for community service, and has 400 shelter beds, among other services.

"Our approach is really about housing and services to keep people off the street," she said.

But Rosenbaum pointed to one man who was arrested at 4 a.m. for sleeping outside a shelter that had no free beds. He showed police his employee badge and pleaded to be allowed to go to his job. He was jailed for two days and was fired.

He also said police commonly prod homeless people to "move on" outside city limits to downtown Los Angeles' Skid Row, Culver City or Venice.

In one case, a paranoid schizophrenic woman who has been arrested and jailed three times for street "camping" was repeatedly told to move on – she now sleeps on a sidewalk in nearby Venice, he said.

"It's not only illegal but callous and inhumane for any city to have its police officers cite, arrest and harass mentally ill or physically disabled homeless persons, even as it fails to provide them with sufficient shelter space," Rosenbaum said.

Santa Monica has won widespread praise for its homeless programs and for its emphasis on finding permanent housing for the most chronically homeless, said Joel John Roberts, who heads Path Partners, an alliance of homeless service providers in Los Angeles.

"I find it ironic they're being sued. Out of 88 cities in Los Angeles County, they're definitely leading the way," Roberts said. "But police are always the first responders when it comes to homelessness. There's always going to be that tension until you get the homeless off the street. Someone's got to stand up for the rights of people living in the streets."

In Laguna Beach, the ACLU's lawsuit spurred a repeal of the city's ban on sleeping in the street In March. The city also formed a task force to draft a plan to address homelessness.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... dex=131874

Are these illegal aliens or American Citizens? Now you know not much has been done to illegal aliens, but when Americans fall on hard time they are harmed more by who? Are these disregarded "We the People"?