A group of activists have been calling out the Eugene Police Department recently for what it says is grossly out-of-hand treatment of the city’s homeless community.
Members of the Lane County Students for a Democratic Society say they have been receiving accounts of police oppression from homeless people and social service workers who work with the homeless on a daily basis.
SDS member Leif Brecke said Eugene police officers have been ramping up efforts to ticket homeless people and break down their campsites, which would force them out of town during the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials when thousands of visitors are in Eugene.
Brecke said police officers have followed workers for the group HIV Alliance, which conducts a needle exchange program, and arrested the homeless when they receive the needles.
He added that officers have been harassing homeless people at free meal sites by groups such as Food Not Bombs and forcing persons doing probationary community service to break down homeless camps.
EPD officials have vehemently denied the allegations of officers targeting homeless people and forcing them to move out of town during the Trials.
Nearly 50 demonstrators marched around Hayward Field Sunday afternoon and ended at the EMU. The marchers carried dozens of signs painted with sayings that ranged from “Keep Eugene Weird” to “Beds Not Jail Cells.”
Members of the homeless community joined in the procession as the group chanted in unison: “Where do you sleep? In the streets. Whose streets? Our streets.”
About 10 to 15 EPD bike patrol officers buzzed around the chanting activists, prompting one demonstrator to ask, “Why the hell aren’t they out protecting people and doing their job? We’re peaceful and obeying the law.”
Sgt. Bill Solesbee, one of the bike patrol officers, said the escort was only to make sure the group followed the traffic laws and to ensure the safety of the Trials.
EPD spokeswoman Melinda Kletzoksaid the police department is short-staffed and added, “We have trouble even responding to regular calls. We don’t sweep homeless out of the city.”
“This is just something the city of Eugene would never do,” Kletzok said.
One social service worker who is employed at Food for Lane County said, “It’s insulting to our intelligence when police officers say this is not happening because it’s clear to us in the grassroots organizations that it is going on.”
The employee wished to remain anonymous for fear of being fired, but did go on to say that “citations for the homeless have intensely, intensely ramped up in the last few weeks. Some people are getting as many as 20 tickets in the last month for anything that you can possibly imagine – vagrancy, open containers, trespassing, jay walking.”
Eugene Police auditor Cristina Beamud, however, said in the last month she has only received one complaint from a homeless person claiming to have been treated unfairly by EPD.
An employee of the low-cost health and human services agency White Bird Clinic, who also wished to remain anonymous for fear of being fired, said the oppression “is definitely happening, but it’s just under the radar.”
Eugene Police Officer Randy Ellis said the allegations are false and added, “there’s nothing going on in the department, period. There are no sweeps going on, and in reality citations are drastically down.”
Kletzok sent the Emerald a report comparing the number of citations that SDS members have alleged are being used to harass the homeless. The report lists “transient contact” in 2006, 2007 and to date for 2008.
The report shows a slight rise in the number of violation of park rules and criminal trespassing citations. The others, however, back Ellis’ statement of citation numbers being down.
Rod Edward Bell, a homeless man who participated in the demonstration, said he has never actually been ticketed in Eugene but wanted to show his support for those who may have been.
Made Marco, an employee of Food for Lane County, said the pressure has been on in the city for a while now, but overall the “city really has a policy of being kind to folks.”
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