To Be or To Be Somewhere Else

To Be or To Be Somewhere Else

This pre-ticket bit was originally published as a comment to a Colorado Springs Independent piece from 12 October of 2011 linked below. It refers to video of a meeting some of us had with the city. The links are still good, (28 July 2014).

http://www.csindy.com/IndyBlog/archives/2011/10/12/occupy-colorado-springs-hits-legal-wall&cb=daf7fd987b44451b18eaa9dc3f2de02f&sort=desc#readerComments

Re: “Occupy Colorado Springs hits legal wall”

An attempt to address a few issues presented here in as brief a fashion possible:

  Regardless of the opinions of any observer or participant in any protests currently under way here or across the country, police are likely to follow the direction of their superiors, apart from unauthorized behavior on the part of mavericks or rogues.

Jason points out that the Bill of Rights "trumps" city ordinances and statutes, and if that is not true then I am personally inclined to object strenuously and if necessary physically, in the sense that I will camp "illegally" with the occupiers during the course of the current protestations.

A point is advanced during the meeting that separates homeless campers from active political occupiers. As a matter of personal opinion, though there are some real differences in context, the camping ordinance is bad law as yet untested in courts. However, having been involved with the free food biz in Colorado Springs for decades I am confident in stating that many homeless campers are in their position by choice, having opted out of a political system found onerous. I see no legitimate difference between this lifestyle of protest and the pointed expressions of protest embraced by Occupy Colorado Springs. Other homeless campers are thus because of uncontrolled habits, some of which fall under the label of "diseased" behavior by authoritative bodies in the U.S. or because of circumstances external to their control. There are only two varieties of property in the entirety of the U.S.--public or private. If the continuously burgeoning population of homeless campers is barred from sleeping on public property, and have no means by which to acquire access to private property, they have no option at all. Others are then required by default to put them up, thus far manifest here in conditions both unsanitary and unsavory as demonstrable by the bed-bug ridden Express Inn or the Aztec Motel, or else the Salvation Army--court ordered church. Otherwise, our only other option is to incarcerate them. I maintain that an unmentioned and "unalienable" right of all human beings is simply to be, wherever that being may take place.

Jason points out the tenuous Constitutional position of the camping ordinances in a reasonably clear manner. The position of the police is clear and understandable, though I believe they are mistaken about the issues with city statutes; they will do as directed by others. Some of us affiliated with with the Occupiers, including I, believe arrest followed by courtroom examination of these and other questions may be seen as a good thing, and would result in the elimination of obviously untenable, ill-conceived statutes that are currently being enforced only in the most visible and problematic cases anyway.

This describes some of the entanglement of the only somewhat separate matters of Occupiers in Colorado Springs, and campers in Colorado Springs. Without more than this brief mention, it also demonstrates the erosion of liberty in this country that precipitates the protests in the first place.

Finally, to nip a little at Bryce's bait, his "dismissive" attitude is unnecessary and dishonorable. I would personally love to see the unconstitutional camping ordinances put to the test in court. The U.S. Constitution is NOT an especially arcane piece of work, in spite of generations of lawyers' efforts to make it seem so. Here's a copy for you to examine: http://constitutionus.com/ . Have one of these, too: ushistory.org/declaration/document/

As an individual, merely affiliated with the fine and diverse members of Occupy Colorado Springs, I can speak only for my own motivation and opinion.

More from 2010

So Colorado Springs is an unusual place, it seems to me. The first city in the country to sell advertising on the sides of school buses as a means to stretch budgets. Among the first to attempt to establish legal discrimination based on sexual orientation. The first to crow about its terrific natural attributes, while simultaneously dismantling access to them and associated services. Living here, it's often difficult to tell the rhythm of the national pulse, because we seem to have such a distorted view here, and yet, as with some of those things noted above, we seem often to find ourselves at a sort of cutting edge, (or is it a slashing, burning edge?).

Homelessness has been all the way up on the front page of our news around here for several months. Around Christmas time last year the local media began focusing on the burgeoning camps along the highly visible areas of Fountain and Monument Creeks. The community, which seems to have been largely ignorant of the fact that they shared the region with a significant number of impoverished and homeless folk prior to the "news" coverage, leapt to its feet and with little foresight, began establishing a huge glut of random supplies in the camps. The campers, (surprise!), had no way to manage the trash generated by the not-quite-random acts of kindness, and admittedly often hadn't the organizational skills to prevent a huge mess. Within a month, news coverage had shifted from compassionate to distasteful, to downright antagonistic, labeling the camps as, in milder statements eyesores, or in graver terms blaming the campers for Colorado Springs' economic woes.

Local enigma Bob Holmes of The United Way and a coalition of disparate groups banded together to force the passage of an anti-camping ordinance in town, followed last week by a nearly identical county ordinance. The camps are now gone, pretty much. Bob, the CSPD's "HOTT" Team, (a handful of city police assigned exclusively to the havenothings), and other sources agreed previously that there had been around 500 campers. So where did they go? It appears that many, if not most, have moved into local motels funded by a grant from the Springs's fairy godmother, the El Pomar Foundation.

Here comes the meat of this particular thing. Perhaps chief among the current homeless hideaways is the Express Inn, located in the heart of camper territory at I-25 and CO Highway 24. God bless 'em, the folks behind the renewed purpose of the old, hopelessly decrepit Inn seem to be beyond overwhelmed. Although the key players in what really amounts to a very small bit of the overall drama involving the campers in town are obviously motivated and compassionate, (except for Bob and his pals, maybe), very minimal oversight or planning has gone into the Express Inn project. The result, in the parlance of the Inn's clientele, is a clusterfuck.

Mind that the sample from which the perception arises is very limited, but word is, paramedics respond to the Inn on a better than nightly basis. Random sponsored clients are housed together, three to a room. Nothing proactive is done to address the various, often uncontrollable habits of the residents. The rooms are not cleaned or maintained, really, and conditions may have been more sanitary along the riverbeds. Altercations among folks with conflicting habits are inevitable, and some who have spent years in unrestricted pursuit of self-destruction are without any direction at all, so far, as how to manage an abrupt and drastic social change find themselves hopelessly out of place. Management handles problems along this vein by summarily ejecting offenders.

In spite of whatever noble intent may be behind the project, none of this is going to work! Funding for the Express Inn and other similar scenarios in town is expected to disappear in a month, (unless some cryptic hints by El Pomar turn substantial). It doesn't really matter. Unless some significant motivation and assistance is provided for the once and future homeless in the discussion, they will not benefit, nor will the city of Colorado Springs, from this plainly temporary fix. Some residents with a bit greater alacrity at societal maneuvering may luck into a less tenuous situation following the Inns, but when it happens it will be mainly a matter of blind fortune. Most will find themselves in worse straights than the were when the HOTT Team threatened them into a scenario without consultation. The questions posed at various meetings before this solution presented itself remain. What are the campers supposed to do now?

We'll see if we can figure it out in another post. In the meantime, here's a link to a posting by Kathy Kelly posted earlier this year. She sets out to address homelessness in ColoSpgs and immediately becomes derailed in an anti-military rant. Funny thing is, she's probably right.

http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/5540-colorado-springs-ban-qno-room-for-homeless-hereq.html