The homeless lady made famous by a picture that showed her holding up a sign saying she would kick Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante’s ass for food needs our help. The City of Santa Ana seized her personal cart today. Here is what one of our readers had to say about this:
Aloha’s personal cart, the one in the picture was taken by the city. Her cart is not a store cart, but one given to her by the Catholic Charities.
If anyone is up by the city yard, maybe you can check on what happened to her cart. On the side of the cart it says “Catholic Charities”, in the picture, it is under the jacket.
I remember a few years back, the city paid thousands of dollars to dozens of homeless people because the city took their personal property.
As to whether she is owed additional sums for her work as the model in the “photo“, It might be a good idea for the 4 principals who took, distribute, posted and reposted the photo, to get together and make just compensation, either in cash or renting her a motel room for a night so she can bath, change into new clothes and shake off the homeless smell.
She has no problem with signing a release in the whole photo-gate matter.
Her thinking currently is mailing a complaint to the city council and our local congresswoman.
(I told her just to go to the planning commission meeting Monday night and Sean may take care of everything and find out where her cart is located.)
I wonder if Bustamante tried to get revenge on this poor lady by having her cart seized? That is WRONG. So it is time to act.
Click here to email Bustamante.
Click here to email Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido.
Click here to email Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez.
Click here to email Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream.
Tell them to give Aloha her cart back and to leave her the hell alone!
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Phil the “Cry Baby”, Melisfat and Alicia BowWow have take the Democratic Party of OC down the toilet. They are always so focused on trashing someone they don’t like that they forget what their jobs are. They’re supposed to get Democrats elected. What a bunch of worthless human beings.
By the way, what happended to Mark Sussman?
Mark Sussman was sent to Minnesota for a time-out. PERMANENTLY.
He also forgot what his job was.
Update
Aloha stopped in a few minutes ago. She told Janet and me that some woman (a bloger) met her and gave her money, A man had a chat with her and gave her some money (C. Prevatt), V. Nelson stopped in to get more information and tell me what Oj blog is doing about this and he called T Gordon so he could talk to me, Gordon is sending money for a motel room for a couple nights.
Aloha told me again about her cart going missing. I can’t see anyone stealing the cart. It has no recycle value, the stuff inside had no value except to her. The stuff smelled like homelessness and weight at least 300 to 400 pounds. From the emails I have seen (My main e-mail account was down for a week) the city doesn’t know what happened to it and does not have the cart at the city yard or police station.
I ask Aloha about getting another cart and she told me that Dwight & Leah Smith (Who run a shelter in Eastside area ) got her the cart from Los Angeles (Catholic Charities) and they are built in Colorado.
If anyone will know the cost or how to replace this missing cart, Dwight Smith is the one.
Anyone who would like to give something to Aloha or meet her in a protected safe environment , she comes by my home between 5pm and 6pm, 10th and Broadway.
A word to the wise, money is not the best thing to give to homeless people, food is supplied my all the church’s around town. With the weather turning colder and rain bearing down. Waterproof warm jackets would most appreciated in my opinion.
(whoops, written at the same time as the above comment, hopefully not obsolete)
Paul, calm down. Everything is under control.
Councilmembers Benavides and Martinez are in touch with Aloha via the good Rob Cook (whose e-mail had been down for a few days)
Aloha has enough money donated to her for this misadventure that she will be able to get a motel room for a day, wash up, and get some new clothes and blankets.
There was nothing of any value in her old cart except the cart itself. She likes to weigh it down with rocks and bricks to make it heavy for some reason.
She’s got another one now, but unlike the missing one it’s not legally hers so it would be nice if the old one could be located (plus it was totally pimped out by Rob so it could hold all that extra weight.)
Aloha is one of the many “homeless by choice” – they don’t want the responsibility and hassle of a permanent dwelling. She is a beloved (albeit strong-smelling) neighborhood character and deserves our support; but it is ridiculous to throw hissy fits over the “insensitivity” of posting pictures of her making humorous political statments.
It’s still a mystery what happened to her cart; nobody with any legal authority to confiscate it did so, it just disappeared off the street while she was in a medical building; it was either a malcious thief or a malicious cop who likes to make life difficult for the homeless in general, but it’s pretty unlikely it had anything to do with the photo and the blogs.
In fact, let’s think about this – her blog notoriety helped her, otherwise we would have never heard about this routine injustice against one of our neighborhood homeless.
FROM THAT POINT OF VIEW, we should THANK Thomas, Sean, Phil and Chris for making Aloha a celebrity and heightening our awareness of injustice. If I were Sarah I would begin to suspect that they had it all planned out painstakingly! Hence: the entire feud between Thomas and Sean was just staged, so that, just when memories of the August LOC posting had faded into oblivion, Sean would have an excuse to re-post it as a way to demonstrate Thomas’ insensitivity, and brilliantly bring Paul on board to create a flame war with Bacerra, drawing bloggy rubberneckers from across the spectrum to watch the bloodsport while meanwhile becoming more and more aware of Aloha the jolly homeless woman. And now, EVERYBODY is competing to help her with her cart problem!
Thank you, Thomas, Sean, Phil and Chris! Brilliantly done!
(Meanwhile, give on Art’s link; http://orangejuiceblog.com/2008/11/help-aloha-get-her-cart-back/ even if Aloha is all right, I’m sure Art will get it to other needy homeless in this cold season.)
Why hasn’t the city erected a statue in Thomas Gordon’s honor yet? Maybe we should petition to have his birthday made into a city holiday. All our school children should be required to read about his exploits. Heck if my daughter were old enough I would offer her to Mr. Gordon to take as his bride.
Wait a second, on second thought maybe people should pull their heads out of their rear ends and see that had Mr. Gordon hadn’t tried to be cute and funny by taking this picture, given it to his little gopher to pass it along, and that mental midget Prevatt had not posted it this would all be a moot point.
Speaking of Prevatt, I see he is trying to portray himself as some sort of savior over on the Liberal OC and is taking whacks at Art and Mill.
Is he pissed because he can’t get married or is he just afraid that if the courts say he can, nobody will want to marry him? Which ever it is, he has some ral issues to deal with.
Mr. Cook were you not the one who concocted this story about, “Aloha’s personal cart, the one in the picture was taken by the city.”? Is it not true that you did so to make this blog look bad, and in particular go after Sean? Obviously the city did not take it and now that folks notice that why don’t you apologize for saying that they did? You were the one that started that rumor and unfortunately Art took your word for it. I notice you did not mention that you were the one that told Art that the city took the cart when you were posting on other sites. Why is that?
2. Chris Prevatt, on November 24th, 2008 at 7:40 pm Said:
Jose S.
“As a matter of fact I did help Aloha when I saw her. She also told me that she had no problem with my posting her picture on TheLiberalOC. She was however none too happy with “that Planning Commissioner” (Sean Mill) who reposted it in order to go after Thomas Gordon in a personal feud.”
Chris,
I wonder then why you felt you had to “help” Aloha if she was compensated by Thomas at the time he took the picture and you posted it?
The fact is that you recognize that you exploited her. But like I said before, I believe you were manipulated and influenced. Regardless, you held up to ridicule, a woman who is homeless with a sign the said “Will Kick Bustamante’s ass for Food” The Will do X for food is a stereotypical epithet used to ridicule the homeless. You were used by Republican Thomas Gordon to hold a homeless person up to ridicule by using a stereotypical epithet known collectively by society at large as a point of ridicule for the homeless. That is tantamount to any number of stereotypes attributed to the gay community or any other minority group or vulnerable population.
This is evident by the fact that Thomas is apparently sending money to put Aloha up in a motel for the night. A “Homeless By Choice” person according to Vern Nelson. I find that statement just odd as it would usually be uttered by a Republican commenting on the state of the homeless.
You should understand that just because a person is complicit in others exploiting them does not make it ok. Take for example how you were used and manipulated by Phil Becerra, and Janet Nguyen. Or how you were used as a pawn to wage a war against Edgardo Reynoso for Melahat by proxy through Hoa Van Tran.
“She was however none too happy with “that Planning Commissioner” (Sean Mill) who reposted it in order to go after Thomas Gordon in a personal feud.” Chris Prevatt
Chris,
Aloha has never met Sean Mill. I’m sure any homeless person would be happy to say what ever you ask them to after you and apparently another person for reinforcement come to them and give them money and other aid.
The fact that you were used and manipulated by Phil Becerra to post this picture taken by Thomas Gordon does not negate the fact that this woman was exploited. My friend Vern Nelson puts forth a valiant effort to steer the focus of disdain for this act by the perpetrators to one of adulation by the fact that this crass act resulted in a host of guilt buying efforts by you and Thomas. But this effort by Vern is simply because he is sick and tired of all the personal squabbles being waged here on this blog. I don’t blame him. It must be wearying for him.
A “Homeless By Choice” person according to Vern Nelson. I find that statement just odd as it would usually be uttered by a Republican commenting on the state of the homeless.
Oh, Aloha told you something different, Paul? I assume you must have spoken to her? (It’s true that President Reagan coined that phrase, outraging liberals, when he wanted to weasel out of federal responsibility for helping the poor; doesn’t mean the phenomenon doesn’t exist though.)
Vern Nelson puts forth a valiant effort to steer … adulation … guilt buying efforts by you and Thomas. But this effort by Vern is simply because he is sick and tired … squabbling…
*sigh* I always have to explain my humor to you, Paul. First of all it does seem unlikely that it was the posting of the photos – by anyone – that led to the cart theft. On the other hand it is certain that we would be totally unaware of the cart theft, and not talking about it, if Aloha hadn’t achieved recent notoriety here thanks to the photo postings.
So I took an extra step, adding in the conspiratorial-type thinking of certain ex-Juice-sisters we know, and created a scenario where the postings were heroic and altruistic. It was “tongue in cheek,” but actually less farfetched than a lot of what gets said here.
Vern,
Youre right. I dont usually get your humor. Youre on different plane man. But I stand by my statements. Its abundantly clear that Prevatt and Gordon are trying to purchase their guilt by the outpouring of cash from their pockets. i wonder why Gordon has to send his donation? Is he out of town? And whats Phils excuse for not stepping up in this flood of absolution for sale?
1. Gordon is in Denver, likes Aloha, and worries that he MAY be responsible for what happened.
2. Lots of folks are donating including you; are YOU “purchasing guilt etc.?”
3. Good point on Phil. Think you can spot him a 20 so he can help? KIDDING
Actually,
I am not purchasing guilt. I was sickened by the first photo to begin with. Sean’s re-posting of the Photo was to call out Gordon and Chris Prevatt on what they did and how crass it was.
The OCTA is raising their rates so Phil may need to borrow the twenty to kick into the Aloha fund. I went out and looked for Alohas cart myself today because I was homeless myself many years ago for about 10 months. So I can sympathize with the woman’s plight. The disdain I felt at the sight of that photo was out of personal experience. And no I did not choose to be homeless. Nor did any one I met that was homeless choose to be homeless. So excuse me if I don’t find humor in the Ronald Reagan redux.
Before anyone nominates Thomas Gordon, Chris Prevatt or Phil for Saint Hood, don’t forget their intention wasn’t to bring to light Aloha’s living conditions. It was to poke fun at an inept SA Councilman while taking advantage of a lady. Shame on the 3 Stooges or Dumb, Dumber and Dumb Ass (whichever name you prefer).
Apparently they were raised without manners and taught to take advantage of someone who has difficulty managing their life affairs.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah! Happy Birthday to me! (just wanted to see that in writing)
Why do the same people use 20 different names its sort of getting annoying. Just post under one name if you have words to say and want to be taken seriously one name might help your cause although I doubt it.
Em,
Feliz cumpleanos!
Thanks Art!
Honestly…this homeless person needs locked up in a mental institution!
Homelessness is a personal problem.
They CHOOSE to live on the streets…