Attack on the Homeless in Fresno, CA is broadcasted.

[annm4peace]

We need as many people as possible to listen to the Homelessness Marathon.

The city of Fresno, CA has been attacking the Homeless for the last 2 years.
Your local Pacifica Station might be carring the show that starts at 4pm Pacific time, '
or you can stream it in at
http://www.homelessnessmarathon.org/ http://www.kfcf.org/
If we treat Americans like this,, what are we teaching our children ?
People are encourage to call in.

************************************************************************************************
The Tenth Annual Homelessness Marathon will originate from Fresno, California starting at 4 p.m., PST, on Tuesday, February 20th and ending at 6 a.m., PST, Wednesday, 2/21/07. The Homelessness Marathon is the world's leading radio broadcast focusing on homelessness and poverty. The 9th Marathon, which originated from Atlanta, was on more than 110 stations coast-to-coast, while another 30 or so stations across Canada carried a parallel Canadian Homelessness Marathon. "We picked Fresno," explains the Homelessness Marathon's director, Jeremy Weir Alderson, "partly because of the extraordinary cruelty with which homeless people are being treated there." Allegedly, in the course of making sweeps, the City of Fresno has thrown away the meager possessions of homeless people, including their IDs, money, sleeping bags and tents as well as a list of items Alderson calls "particularly shocking," including someone's false teeth, a cane, a wheelchair, the ashes of someone's dead grandchild and a tent thought to have kittens inside (the kittens were never seen again). In response to a lawsuit filed by a group of volunteer lawyers, including the ACLU and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, U.S.

District Judge Oliver W. Wanger issued a preliminary injunction ordering the City of Fresno to stop throwing away the possessions of its homeless citizens. In his decision, Judge Wanger characterized the City's arguments as "disingenuous" and "dishonest." Fresno's mayor, Alan Autry, responded by calling Wanger's ruling "cavalier" and "veracity challenged," suggesting that the judge, "enter the real world and find out the real truth." He didn't stop there.

In a radio appearance, Autry insisted that one homeless encampment had to be cleaned up because kids in the neighborhood were "watching people have sex," and because the encampment was "a disease factory." "This mattress that the judge says we should have gave back was riddled with everything from e. coli to hepatitis... something that it would take a hazmat suit to give back to that person." But Mike Rhodes, editor of Fresno's Community Alliance newspaper and the only reporter to attend the entire court hearing, points out that
"the evidence at the hearing was clear - the City of Fresno was violating the constitutional rights of the homeless. They were taking the property of homeless people and immediately destroying it. There were no bizarre allegations, like the mayor made, about sex in the street or mattresses with e. coli and hepatitis at the hearing. These continuing lies and attacks on the homeless are just more evidence that this city has a long way to go in understanding how to treat the homeless with dignity and respect.”

Additionally, the city has based it's estimate of how many homeless people are in the area partly on a statistic attributed to HUD. But HUD disavows the statistic completely, and no one associated with the city will explain where it really came from. Fresno's mayor, police chief and city manager were the first people invited to be guests on the 10th Homelessness Marathon (but so far they have not responded). The broadcast will be available free to stations over the NPR satellite, the Pacifica satellite and a webcast. It will be hosted by local community radio station KFCF and an ad hoc committee of activists on poverty and housing issues. "Mayor Autry says he wants the truth to come out," says Alderson, "and we're going to help him with that, but unlike the mayor, we're going to see to it that the homeless people of Fresno -- and across the country
-- get their say too."

Additional information about the Homelessness Marathon, can be found at the Marathon's web site: http://www.homelessnessmarathon.org Additional information about the court case can be found at: http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/14787.html http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/23/18332519.php

[Monkeyman]

1. Let see 250,000 homeless veterans

hmm I think its time for us to hit back

[annm4peace]

2. Many attacked in Fresno are Veterans

fresno needs a Veterans for Peace group.
A report came out that before Katrina, Fresno had the most % of poverty 2nd to New Orleans.

[Monkeyman]

4. Here is a email for all the VA info you need to make people aware

[e-mail]

[aquart]

3. Where is the veterans' housing?

Constructing housing provides jobs and creates homes. Where are these projects to show our vets we support their sacrifice?

[Monkeyman]

5. That is part of the last budget cuts by Bush

[DBoon]

6. Like the 1932 Bonus Army?

The Bonus Army or Bonus March or Bonus Expeditionary Force was an assemblage of about 20,000 World War I veterans, their families, and other affiliated groups who demonstrated in Washington, D.C. during the spring and summer of 1932 seeking immediate payment of a "bonus" granted by the Adjusted Service Certificate Law of 1924 for payment in 1945. They were led by Walter W. Waters, a former Army sergeant, and encouraged by an appearance from retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, one of the most popular military figures of the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army

picture of the encampment being burned down when the marchers were forceably evicted:

[Mojorabbit]

7. I am schizo on this

I have protested on the streets the Orlando edict of not feeding the homeless. I participate with Food not bombs. I am appalled at the mass eviction of the homeless from their camp near the overpass.
The cops here threw people's medicine away for cripes sake. I took in a homeless person for a while too last year and gave him some work so he could get back on his feet. We have something like six thousand more homeless here than beds available.

On the other hand I had a scruffy homeless person camping in the woods in front of my house. Everyday the pile of beer bottles and broken glass built up. Sofa cushions were set up in the woods for his bed, used condoms and food containers littered the area. My nine year old niece walked by his "bed" every day on her way to and from school. I called the cops and had him removed. Was he a danger to her? I just could not take the chance.

So there it is in all honesty...I am split in my behaviour.

[smokey nj]

8. Kick