(This is one partial account of the events this morning, please involve yourself and be an active participant in this struggle, read bottom for more information on community response )
Early this morning around 6am the Peoples Project Encampment located on D st. and 11th was raided by Police.
At least 25 Police Officers were present, at times many more than that, there were too many to count. There were officers from police units from all over the area including Arcata Police Department, Eureka Police Department, University Police Department, California Highway Patrol, Park Ranger, Fortuna Police, and Humboldt County Sheriffs. The peaceful encampment was disassembled by the police and the belongings of the encampment were confiscated by police.
Participants in the encampment gathered peacefully in a circle were then arrested and put in Police Wagons and taken to Euerka.
16 People Were Arrested.
One man went into a seizure while being arrested, some accounts say he may have been stunned with a tazer gun.
Police made no apparent effort to call an ambulance for the man, protestors themselves called an ambulance. There were many people protesting the action by the police and actively observing police conduct. Many of the encampment participants were handled violently while being arrested.
The encampment protest has been organized by People Project to reveal the crisis of persistent cruelty and human rights violations that houseless people face every day and every night in this community. The goal of the encampment protest is to generate community support for a free, people-run and eco-sustainable campground.
The encampment successfully and peacefully created a safe place to sleep and eat since Saturday April 21st, embracing an honor code of respect, accountability, peaceful relations and health. Park Ranger Bob Murphy facilitated the removable of a rented B&B company portable restroom removed from the site on Saturday, the first day of the encampment leaving the encampment with no restroom.
There is no free and legal place for people to sleep.
People who are poor, houseless, homeless, and denied a dignified place to rest are Criminalized by policies and police.
This is a continuing community crisis that deserves our compassion, time and energy to end these human rights violations against our brothers and sisters that live in our community and create real alternatives that support peoples right to life, right to sleep, and a right to be on our own public spaces.
City Council Meeting
Tonight Wed. 4/25/07
7pm
Community Meeting
D st Community Center
Thursday 4/26/07
6pm
I was there in the huddle, yanked up, pinned and chocked out till I siezed for nearly 6 minutes and only after a spectater from the crowd called the ambulance did they remove the boot from my neck and then proceed to set on my chest and set on my legs.
I urinated and was then stripped and drugged I was thrown bound in a cold cell, without food ,water or warmth while bleeding fom a 1″ gap in my chin.
If we’re not for the beautiful sister and supporters I may have died.
The brutality that the Police and 5 other agencies that participated were over kill and a waste of tax dollars thec $100,000 they’ve spent harrassing the encampment who be able to feed thousands.
Mayor Groves, Has crime gone down?
How has there been positive outpouring?.
Do you have a solution?
What about my survival gear?
Officer Bob Tylor insisted “everything had been destroyed.”
Are the city officials all corrupt as the APD?