exposing the brutal gentrifcation squad known as lower polk neighbors

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Adventures in Liberal Fascism Pt. 3

WARNING! IDENTITY THEFT!

There was a bit of confusion at a recent LPN meeting. In praising the city's "community justice center" idea, Superior Court Commissioner Ron Albers buoyed his claim as to the experiment's merit by mentioning to meeting attendees at O'Reilly's Holy Grail that a "homeless coalition" supports it and "is very eager" about it.

What follows is vital information on what you can do to protect yourself against identity theft. Know the difference between: 1) The Coalition on Homelessness and 2) The San Francisco Homeless Services Coalition. Don't you think it's kind of funny that there would be two groups within several blocks of each other in the Tenderloin with such similar names? I'm sure that Commissioner Albers didn't mean to confuse anyone. Why would a group that has over the years always voiced opposition to the onslaught of anti-poor programs City Hall has shat out suddenly become giddy about an experiment that would only make the connections between the police state and non-profits more devastatingly explicit?-- consider the recent spectacle of outreach workers leading the police to hidden homeless encampments.

At the LPN meeting in June of this year, Julian Potter from the Mayor's Office griped that the Coalition on Homelessness opposed the "community justice center." LPN member Dan Diaz asked her about "recalcitrant types," and she stressed that through using this new judicial system "the average person does finally break through." Albers concurred this, in describing a similar system employed at the Drug Court where he's served, "There used to be the thing that people said about leading a horse to water, and you can't make them drink... You can coerce them in a certain way to get that horse to drink that water." Now come on. Does the Coalition on Homelessness really support coercing homeless people to do anything they don't want to?

A recent article in the Guardian attacked the San Francisco Homeless Services Coalition as being a recent L.A. transplant org that's little more than a canvassing racket with a very well-compensated admin. Nobody's quite sure which "homeless coalition" Albers was referring to. It appears this was very intentional.

Jenny Friedenbach, the executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness has this to say: "We oppose a community court in the Tenderloin if it is going to include any infractions related to a person's status being homeless such as: sitting on the sidewalk, camping, open containers, urination and misdemeanors, 647's which include camping laws."

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