“I invite you to participate in a Town Hall Meeting, Wednesday, November 14, 2018, at the Fairgrounds in the Arts and Crafts Building. It starts at 5:45 pm, to discuss and ask questions regarding the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s ruling directing those who have no home may use public property in which to rest and sleep,” Del Norte County Supervisor District 1, Roger Gitlin.
A panel of City, County and State elected and appointed officials have been invited to participate and answer your questions at this Town Hall Meeting and explain the decision, the impact it will have on our community and options available to address the collateral issues which null and void existing State law and County and City Ordinances on health and public safety.
Let us all stand united in speaking up for a solution to this condition.
I just watched a town hall called the City Council meeting, took place on Monday. Nobody showed up except one fellow concerned with vigilantism. Just saying, that was the place to bring up concerns.
It took just one dirty cop and some bad circumstances for me to find myself in a legal mess and then homeless. That dirty cop was Joseph R. Garcia. Anyone remember him? I certainly do.
He started in with me by falsely arresting me for evasion on 9th onto H street. (BTW, reminder to cops: You have to use your lights and sirens to let people know you are trying to pull them over.) Even though the case was thrown out for lack of evidence, i still had to pay over $600 to get my prized car back. Because I was on probation at the time, I suffered a probation violation for this, despite the case being thrown out. This would later result in me going to prison because I had a suspended sentence hanging over my head.
Suffering a financial loss I got kicked out of a treatment program. (That’s another story in itself) That was my second probation violation which resulted in my going to prison.
Coming out of prison it was hard enough to function but I found myself homeless. I did the very best I could to bring an income in, but law enforcement continued to be a problem for me. In my opinion, the actions of one bad cop is enough for me to blame the whole department as they should have removed Garcia a long time ago.
Anyway, after finally finding a place in Gasquet as luck would have it, Garcia would move into his newly purchased home, right next door to me. The level of harassment was far too much and the financial losses were to great from this and I was forced to find a new place to live.
I found a trailer and parked it in someone’s back yard, only to have it burned to the ground by someone who didn’t like me. I was left homeless for 3.5 months living in my car. Garcia and his cop buddies took this as an opportunity to harrass me constantly. Instead of renting another place I saved up and purchased a small motorhome shortly after finding a patch of land I could park on at night with permission.
While I didn’t want to drag my story into this I really wanted to point out this:
Law enforcement, at least for me was the reason I was homeless at least at some level. At least though, Garcia is dead now so that’s one bad apple removed from the bunch.
BTW, Garcia is the one who killed the man on the Hiouchi bridge. (I was a witness but on parole at the time and refused talk for fear of retaliation).
People need to pay attention to what the Del Norte County Sheriff department does to the homeless population. I don’t know if my case was an isolated situation, or this is a symptom of a bigger problem. If a person is sleeping in their car, there is probably a reason. Leave them the hell alone! Everyone needs sleep, even if it’s not in a bed.
However, if a person is on private property and sleeping without permission, this is not okay.
There should also be no distinction between someone sleeping with or without a car sleeping at a beach either. I was given a $700 ticket for doing so, while being homeless. (Guess which cop did this?)