UPDATE from Stephan “Bax” Baxter.
THE ISSUE: The Fullerton City Council Votes Down A Homeless Shelter Then FPD Issue Misdemeanor No Camping Citation to the Homeless.
I contend that we should cite “illegal actions,” rather than the condition of homelessness.
I am offended to the core that a city which two years ago made national news with up to six on-duty officers, employed and trained our own Police Department, murdering a local unarmed homeless man named Kelly Thomas, recently voted down a proposed homeless shelter, and is now making news again for actively enforcing a no camping city ordinance and criminalizing homelessness in the process.
My position is that until the city of Fullerton has a homeless shelter or can otherwise provide shelter to those they cite for being homeless, we cannot in good conscience enforce a 1992 municipal code which targets the condition of homelessness. The homeless do learn to be resourceful, but none that I know of – and I know a good many of them – have mastered the act of vaporizing. Being homeless somewhere else is not the answer. Specifically to the mental ill who live in our streets, if homelessness is a crime, the guilt lies not with the homeless, it lies with us.
I believe that parks, transportation centers and all public space should be safe for families and their children. I am not of the opinion that we should grant amnesty to the homeless. The police should treat the homeless very much like every other segment of our population: ticket, seek services for, and if warranted arrest, any 
person that is breaking the law or disturbing the peace if the do not comply. If they are drunk in public, address the act of public drunkenness. If they are assaulting a passersby, selling drugs, doing any of the things that some are being accused of, address the acts that they are committing, not the condition of homelessness they find themselves in.
Go to downtown Fullerton on a Friday night and see who is actually getting in fights and urinating in the streets. It’s not the homeless, it’s the bar crowd. Yet college students are not being picked up at random and cited for their student status. Our policy should not be to cite homeless people in the vicinity where someone has called in a general complaint about “the homeless”. That is what is exactly what happened to two decent people who are friends and that is why some of us spoke at city council last week. They were cited not for what they did, but for their inability to afford an apartment or motel room, and that is offensive. I love Fullerton but I hate this policy.
With the murder trial of two of the six officers schedule for October 18th, and a third not far behind, Fullerton was on a path of healing and we were making great progress in becoming a more loving, accepting and creative community, but if after all that has been accomplished in the last two years, we now react by making the condition of homelessness illegal, and good people living on the margins are criminalized, we have made things worse not better, and this realization should call us to action.
One of the ways which we can resolve this issue is to have the council exercise its right to remove the city ordinance from the books with a majority vote. To that end I had breakfast Monday morning with one member of the city council, who agreed that the enforcement of the no camping ordinance, in a city that thus far has not provided any viable alternative for those sleeping outdoors, is counterproductive and not a real solution. This councilmember indicated that, if my claims regarding the recent citations referenced in this video are true, they will share my concern that the citations are not targeting those who cause problems. [what video? – ed] This councilmember will do more homework on the subject and, once verified, said that they will help us in our goal of ending this practice by reaching out to others on the council. Once I have a clear statement of our objectives and our plan, I will ask them and others if I can publicly state that we have their support. There may be some who support our objectives but are not comfortable supporting the means by which we get there, and I do not want to put anyone in a position where they must refute a statement we make. For now I am not disclosing this council person’s name.
Later that day I met with the Mayor Bruce Whitaker and the City Attorney Dick Jones (“The Other Dick Jones”) for over an hour. I thank Mayor Whittaker for getting me this meeting with the attorney and for the time they both carved out of their busy afternoon to meet with me. I was there to find out as much as possible regarding this “unlawful camping” citation and who holds power to dismiss or otherwise not enforce it. Here is the code: http://www.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll/?f=templates&fn=default.htm.
First Impressions: I was very grateful for the meeting but if condescension was a virtue, our city attorney would be the Great Jehovah. It was with substantial effort and through the gnashing of teeth, that the following information was provided to me:
- The City Attorney or his staff review all the municipal cases the FPD sends to them and they decide if
they would like to prosecute or not. - The city attorney plans to review each of the recent camping violations himself if they make it to his desk.
- The FPD may cite individuals and then decide not to take it further themselves. e.g. none of the no honking tickets issued by FPD last year to cars showings support at KT Protest ever made it to his desk. For lack of a better description they were torn up before his department could get involved.
- Chief Dan Hughes has the power to do the same with the recent citations. If my claims are true the city attorney agreed that Dale and Julia (the subjects of our city council comments) clearly are not good examples of “the homeless problem.” (Side note: I tracked down Julia at the library yesterday to find out if she is comfortable with her name being mentioned. She asked that we only use her first name, I hope we respect her wishes.)
- While it is true that the citation is defined as a misdemeanor, and that fines can potentially be over $2,000, the city attorney does not believe the judge, especially the homeless judge in Santa Ana, would impose the maximum fine. Dick Jones had pre-selected five examples in the last year where fines were $40.00 and below or were paid through community service. He could not tell me if there were other examples where the fines were much higher. I requested that he get back to me on that.
- In response to a question Dick Jones said that in his role as city attorney he could advise the Chief of Police that it is in the city’s best interest, in terms of legal exposure and liability, to not enforce the no camping ordinance. He, however, has no plans to do so, and I failed to convince him that increased contacts with the homeless to enforce this code could result in more lawsuits and more settlements.
- The city attorney believes that these citation are business as usual and that they have been issued all along. He said that he does not characterize the recent citations of a change in policy, or out of the ordinary.
- He believes that these citations are a last resort and issued only when citizens call to complain about the homeless, and that only those who refuse to comply with “self help” (too convoluted to explain here but anything from “moving along” to agreeing to be admitted to a hospital, would fall under self help) are issued tickets.
- Neither Bruce Whitaker or the other Dick Jones have any recollection of then acting Chief Hughes making a statement in regard to not enforcing this code until a homeless shelter is in place in Fullerton. I may be wrong about that, so if anyone can find a clip or story where Dan Hughes makes this claim please forward it to me. Dick Jones stated that even if the chief made such a claim he is under no legal obligation to keep it.
- Both the Mayor and The Other Dick Jones feel that I need to meet with the Chief of Police and address the enforcement with him. They did not want to help facilitate this meeting so I will reach out to Dan Hughes myself this week.
- No one hugged at the meeting’s conclusion! 🙁
My impressions after spending an hour with The Mayor and City Attorney. My personal impressions only, these are not facts:
- It was not a pleasant meeting, and the unpleasantness could have only been avoided if I had agreed with everything they were telling me and if I did not ask any follow up questions.
- Although we have had a good relationship over the last few years, especially regarding the recall and the
overreaching practices of FPD (justice for Kelly etc) I do not believe that the mayor will support us here. There is nothing I would rather do than retract that statement and thank him for his help, as Bruce Whittaker is often the only member of the city council to show up at protest in response to an incident of police abuse and he was vocal regarding Kelly Thomas. My presumption is that as an advocate for small government he must not be comfortable with idea of tax dollars and city government providing a shelter. He stated that he prefers that charities do these things (not verbatim), not government. I do not, however, conclude by this that he lacks compassion for the homeless, he has shown a lot of compassion to Kelly’s family as they were mourning their son. Again I hope I am wrong about this. I hope that he comes to understand that a municipal code targeting the CONDITION of homelessness rather than a particular ILLEGAL ACTION of a homeless person, is a far greater violation of Libertarian principals and personal responsibility than providing housing to those most in need is. - There is a great fear among city leaders that Fullerton is becoming a destination point for the homeless and both The Mayor and The City Attorney believe that the removal of this municipal code when made public will translate to an even larger homeless population. My impression is that they believe that cracking down on the homeless, regardless of its fair application (they may have convinced themselves that only the worst of the worst get these tickets) is preferable to attracting more homeless tourists (my word not theirs) and them getting more complaints from citizens and The Chamber of Commerce.
- There is a huge gap between how they both believe the city ordinance is being applied and how it is actually being applied. I believe that the mayor will look into the claims I was making during our meeting and that he verify them, I would like to believe that the city attorney will do the same If he does, the recent tickets that we were speaking to in this video should be dismissed if we believe what he said during the meeting. “If they are not causing a problem they would not be ticketed.” Time served should be given in regard to Dale not signing his ticket.
- The onslaught of homeless hypotheticals and analogies given to me during or meeting as justification for the no camping code, was soul-crushing (this is fact)
AS of today I have been given nothing by anyone in city government which would make me believe that planned isolated 1-day camp-ins by a group of us, in protest of the criminalizing of homelessness in a city with no shelter, should not move forward. I will, however, continue to reach out to leaders as my 
preference is that this goes away without us having to do so. I will also continue to build the framework to pull this off successfully.
Eventually the hypocrisy of ticketing the homeless for being homeless in a city that offers no recourse other than to be homeless somewhere else, and the blanket punishment of a segment of our population without regard of any individual’s actions will resonate with both conservative and liberal residents. This practice goes against all the basic principles that we as Americans have come to believe in and this will trump any inconvenience the homeless may cause them. The ideals of personal responsibility and a collective presumption of innocents, ideals that I believe the mayor, the city attorney and the chief of police believe in as well, are assaulted by the enforcement of the no camping code in Fullerton. If empathy were equally applied to all residents of Fullerton they would reach the same conclusion.
If we can get this message out we win this thing and we can continue forward with Fullerton’s slow transformation to becoming a more loving, accepting and creative community to live and work in. If I must violate the camping ordinance myself in order to get that message out I will, and I hope some of you will consider joining me once all other efforts are exhausted. I prefer we do this without camping, I don’t camp!
Is Fullerton the only OC city citing homeless for being homeless? It seems that both Santa Ana and Anaheim have a more tolerant approach towards homeless people. In my local park there is a homeless lady who camps during the daytime, and she is left alone as long as she is not breaking the law or disturbing the peace, as you point out.
Some parks located in central Anaheim have a higher number of homeless persons, and neighbors have complained to the city. In previous posts here I read that these persons were being shuttled between Anaheim and Fullerton locations. It was also pointed out that a county, not just single city solutions are needed. In the meantime, Fullerton should stop this practice of citing homeless people. Your mayor should be open minded, and consider that charities alone can not solve this problem.
in a related-homeless situation in LA, a federal judge ruled on a lawsuit, brought on behalf of homeless disabled veterans, arguing that 400 acres of Veterans Administration land in Brentwood, in West LA, is supposed to be used for housing disabled veterans.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/175985/victory-homeless-vets-la#axzz2dbDSHrHM
I think it was last year that Santa Ana was ticketing homeless at an alarming rate…outside the City Hall area. Among the homeless are US vets. It is disgusting how these people are treated and their crime is they do not have a place to live. Homelessness is not a crime it is a reflection of an uncaring society.
Last month, hubby and I were at Long Beach Veterans Hospital emergency… around midnight…a homeless vet came into the hospital waiting room and asked for help…Long Beach cops were harassing him for sleeping in his car on city streets. He was asking to move his car in hospital parking lot to sleep…which was 90% empty and clerk said no. WTF????
I suggest we demand city officials to live as regular citizens and experience first hand, how hard it is to get by…working for and living on minimum wage…sleeping outdoors and not for one night… at least a month each…then maybe they will wake up to the needs of their citizens and yes, homeless people are citizens!
The mayor of Fullerton must be a caring individual, but the pressure of residents leery of homeless people plus his own limited government vision must be playing a role in maintaining this policy of citing homeless. Our friend Ryan C, as Fullerton resident has posted several articles on this issue, and I wonder what he has to say about this policy.
People sleeping in the parking lot was a common situation during the height of the housing and employment crisis. Parking lots around the 24 Hour gyms had a large number of vehicles of people who had lost their homes. The McDonald next to the 24 Hour in Lemon St, in the borderline between Anaheim and Fullerton, posted several signs of “No loitering” as families spent hours inside after buying a meal.
Did you have a chance to read the story of the legal victory of LA Vets?
no, I have not read it…do you have a link Ricardo?
Sorry Inge, I overlooked your request. The link is posted in my comment at the beginning of this thread.
Baxter, try camping in Hillcrest Park. You might run into Pastor Willie.
I don’t know if it is the heat or what, but Santa Ana, seems to have a population of needy (ie. HOMELESS/BUMS/STREET PEOPLE) that has grown expodentially over the past week(s).
There have been several reports of incursions and incedents in my neighborhood: (door handle rattling. aggressive pan handling etc….) and it seems like there are way more guys sleeping in the doorways?
Is this because of a crackdown? Or just because it’s hot as hell?
the armory is closed during the summer months. There is no place for the homeless to sleep, especially males. I would be careful name calling individuals who have no place to call home…for whatever reason…you may someday find yourself in their shoes…
Inge, we need homeless people to come to the Anaheim City Council meeting today — where it’s nice and air-conditioned — and talk about how the City should better provide for their needs by, for example, not giving away some of its most valuable resources to Arte Moreno for NOTHING.
Thanks for posting this Vern. The Video I and others commented to on FB is linked to here at The fullertonian. http://thefullertonian.com/Article/Details/892?fb_action_ids=10151871943156532&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582
The problem of homelessness is such a BIG problem that searching for practical solutions (that work, are cost effective and not too burdensome for taxpayers) seems out of reach. As is said there are many reasons for homelessness giving the solution tremendous complexity (something like X! possible solutions, where x is the number of reasons for homelessness).
The county’s 10 year plan is a joke (IMO).
Bax (if you read this), what solutions would Dale and Julie suggest for the homeless problem?
You’re making a very good point. We tend to generalize and oversimplify critical issues. Wikipedia provides a good framework on the causes of this problem. Looking forward to the solutions that Dale and Julia would suggest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness
Thanks for all the thoughtful comments, it’s getting pretty rare these days were any story is not followed by pages of name calling and b.s. Orange Juice must have decent readers.
I do not know what Dale or Julie would suggest, I would suggest that there is no single modern western country which does not have some homeless in their streets. In very competitive profit driven societies not all can compete, and some will always fall through the economic cracks. Add to that the mentally ill who are incapable of joining the work force, those who suffer with addiction, single mothers and the senseless criminalization of petty drug offenses, that are issued to keep our lucrative prison system going, and make young able bodied men and women unattractive candidates for employment, I’d say the odds are stacked against us.
I know Dale and Julie personally and they are among the segment of homeless, perhaps 30%, who with temporary assistance, housing, training, resume, can again return to society and find a low paying job. I think of these tax dollars as an investment, and long term a tax savings.The treatment of the addicted has minimal success, so that does not go away completely. The segment of homeless who are now in and out of jail, on perpetual probation or parole, and caught up in the system, who along with the mentally ill, will almost certainly always have a good portion on the street or in an institution, I see very little in the way of solutions. For those who will be on the streets, it is in our economic interest, and the interest of a communities quality of life, that we provide them with some basic accommodations (shelter at night and public restroom during the day) as this will lesson the negative impact that there presence has on local businesses and residents. Unless someone can tell me that our society will one day be free of any homeless, or that the homeless will learn to go without sleep or having bodily functions, providing these accommodations seems like a no brainer to me. It is far less costly than what we have now. Ask any business in downtown Fullerton.
We can’t fix the problem, we can only improve it by taken a number of steps, none of which should include the issuing of tickets for a condition that we must accept will to some degree always exists. doing so is costly, it further tarnishes Fullerton’s image, crippling our efforts to attract business interests in a city that is still recovering from the murder of Kelly Thomas, and to the individual who is swept up in this idiotic police muscle flexing, especially those like Dale who can find their way back with a little help, it is one more roadblock from allowing them to do so. This is just stupid, and it needs to end.
baxter
http://www.artwithanagenda.org
And, yet, Kelly Thomas was not killed ’cause he had no place to sleep.
The longer our debt ridden economy continues, the more working poor/homeless will continue to grow. The only jobs available are part time…just where can one live with a part time income? Meanwhile, our representatives will rush in to yet another country and “defend” them, while at home — Rome continues to burn.
Correct David. Specific to these cops and others like them, not all police, the reason none of the normal triggers a human might expect to have at some point in the almost 10 minute beating death of Kelly Thomas, was because these officers did not relate to him as a human. He was scum.
In their mind I suspect his appearance, his homeless status. and his mental heath all contributed to them having zero empathy and unleashing such violence on him without remorse. On another day it could have been some other variables which they equally consider scum, (e.g, undocumented worker in his bike after too many beers, low end prostitute, a junkie, any black man under 60 etc.
Whatever they cant relate and that will differ from one cop to the next. That is why there must be consequences when they go too far. We can’t build empathy from a total disassociation with the public. Us v them, is their attitude, and its a big problem. Until a new generation of police are trained to represent the community and its interest, instead if trained like an occupying force, we need to reform through accountability.
Empathy will not find root, but the influence if self preservation is already well entrenched. They must be accountable like any one of us for their actions and believe that they will go down if they go too far and lose control.
a perfect example to not judge someone by their looks … he has nothing yet he still thinks about others needs….http://youtu.be/U1Vko8KjxhI
(update)
At the last council meeting, Jan Flory, who won a seat in an election shortly after the recall last November, asked Chief Dan Hughes point blank: “Why now?” referring to all the public comments on the “no-camping” violation. The chief acted as if nothing had changed and contracting his statement in March of 2013 where he said they “could start enforcing the no camping ordinance if there was a shelter to take them too”. On this night, from the same seat he, however, said,that they have been enforcing the ordinance all year. Business as usual.
I was informed yesterday by someone within the Police department, that around 2 months ago Chief Dan Hughes and one of the homeless liaison officers were called on the carpet by Downtown Fullerton’s highly influential Chamber of Commerce “to do something” about the growing homeless population” To in effect chase them out of downtown(the unquoted are my words) The data is in and it can be found in this weeks Fullerton Observer. There can be no doubt that the police have responded to the Chamber’s demands. According to the Fullerton Observer in the last 7 weeks (363) calls complaining about homeless activity have resulted (59) “no camping violations”, over 50% of which have turned into warrants as the homeless did not show up for their court date. (are they surprised) The previous year, presumably while not under pressure from the Chamber of Commerce, a year were there was an actual encampment of homeless (i.e. tents, mattresses, BBQ’s, coolers, lawn chairs etc) and at least two stabbing incidents at the Hunt library, only 21 tickets were issued in response to (1,869) calls. At this pace we will issue (438) no camping tickets this year compared to (21) last year. Half of which will turn to warrants and further pressure out county jails. THAT’S AN INCREASE OF CLOSE TO 2,000%, and Hughes looks at Ms. Flory and the last council meeting and says “nothing has changed”?
What changed is that when local residents and librarians were complaining around the Hunt library no one in leadership cared, but when the Chamber of Commerce demands action, they get action, and in a rush to please the chamber and show that tickets have been issued, any homeless person would do. (e.g. Dale and Julia) The Chief stated that these tickets are only issued when the homeless refuse to move, that is not true. The citing officers I’m told is willing to admit that he did not give them that opportunity, he cited them on the spot despite Julia’s offer to move. Even the Chief of Police has said that Dale and Julia do not cause problems. Is this our solution to the homeless problem folks, right after we vote down a homeless schelter. Saying you can’t be homeless does not unhomeless someone!!! and whay would Chief Hughes not admit the pressure was coming from the Camber when being questioned by Jan Flory? Instead he only said that they were responding to complaints, when the previous year there were just as many complaints. This not reform, this deception, and decent people are getting ground up by the system in order to appease the Chamber when the answer is as simple as providing a few public restrooms in downtown during the day and a year round emergency shelter at night.
On a side note: Chamber of Commerce does very little complaining about the hundreds of drunken idiots the 40+ bars in downtown attract … they afterall are spending Daddy’s money.
Unless a commitment is made to dismiss Dale and Julia’s tickets and that no further ticketing will be done until there is a shelter or camp in place, and/or addressing the issue is put on the council agenda in the next week, the first night of our strategically timed, and well organized one-night camp-ins is tentatively scheduled for Sept 17th at the transportation center. This is will be following the next scheduled council meeting at 6:30 earlier that evening. I hope some of you will join me in whatever level of support you are comfortable with. Showing up at city council and speaking up, making phone calls to the council and city attorneys office requested that that this stop, showing up at the transportation center with signs in support of us or actually bringing a bed roll and sleeping rough in violation of this ordinance. Please contact me at stephanbaxter@me.com if you are willing to respond to this call of action. If you plan to sleep in protest there will be guidelines you must sign off on as we can not give them cause to arrest or ticket us for any other reason. (Please note: if you are already living in the streets I do not want you participating in this camp in. if you have a safe spot that you usually use, stay there. The next day we get to go to work and we get to lock our front door. You don’t. I also do not want to be accused of using you to get attention or of putting you in a position where you will be ticketed. We are not pretending to be homeless, we are privileged by comparison, but we are well intentioned in bringing attention to Fullerton’s criminalization of homelessness when they have no solution other than be homeless somewhere else.
The Chambers of Commerce, in Anaheim and Fullerton, are quite controversial institutions. Protesters showed up at Insider’s Briefing” sponsored by the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce, Farmers and Merchants Bank, last week.
Some of these protesters are member of the Democrats of North Orange County. Greg could invite them to your call of action. I’ll be there on Sept 17th.
http://www.dailytitan.com/2013/09/protesters-take-action-at-fullerton-chamber-insider-briefing/
I think I’ll put this one up as its own post.. and maybe join you if I can.
As I read your post, Stephan, I had some thoughts:
1. Perhaps Mayor Whitaker and “the other ‘Dick’ Jones” would find it informative to fast for 2 or 3 days to gain a sense of what some homeless go through as it applies to being able to enjoy a meal. Possibly spend a night or two in a cheap motel without a change of clothing. In watching City Council meetings thru TV feeds, I also have noticed the City Attorney’s condescending attitude; sadly, there is another local City Attorney with a similar attitude – perhaps it is engrained?
2. I wonder if Councilmember Fitzgerald had any input in to the Chamber’s purported involvement in escalating citations against the homeless?
3. Is there a way to obtain documentation of the number of citations for violations during the DTF “party time” hours? I’m speaking of (at minimum) Friday and Saturdays (8 or 9 p.m. to 3 or 4 a.m.). How many citations for public drunkeness, urinating in public, loitering, fighting, littering, indecent exposure, etc. have been issued?
4. Other cities seem to post info about “sobriety checkpoints” without providing the general vicinity; I am not sure Fullerton does that. If FPD does post the vicinity of such checkpoints, that could explain the apparent dearth of DUI and related citations resulting from such checkpoints. Checkpoints should be announced, but not where! Hell, even Al Michaels (?) got caught in L.A. when he made an abrupt U-Turn after seeing a checkpoint.
Thanks for listening!
“Possibly spend a night or two in a cheap motel without a change of clothing”
Why not. Norby did it.
I am the author of The Brighter Side Of Homelessness. In my book it states that is is not criminalistic or illegal to be homeless because, in my opinion it isn’t. How in the world could you call a “sleeper ” a criminal. To me, most of the homeless people are good people who are fighting “blocks” for a so-called normal liife. For many homeless it is not their fault and they don’t have any help getting out of their situation. I want the homeless to be treated with full respect and in many cases extra special because, well simply they deserve it. They are the best people I know to help me out with a few bucks, a bus pass, a pat on the back, a smile, and a n encouraging word. God bless all of them every day in every way!