By Matt Agorist
Santa Ana, CA — The City of Santa Ana has come up with an innovative and despotic way of keeping their homeless population in check — imprison them. The city is now party to a federal lawsuit over unreasonable seizure, false imprisonment, and due process violations.
Heading up the lawsuit on behalf of Michael Diehl, who has lived at the encampment for three years, is the ACLU of Southern California. The lawsuit demands the immediate removal of the 6-foot-tall chain-link fences penning in 75-100 people and their belongings.
“Defendants’ actions have not only illegally restricted the liberty of the homeless people living in the encampment, but it has also cut them off from access to food, water, and medical care thus threatening their health and well-being,” the lawsuit states.
According to Courthouse News:
Diehl was shot in the head at a Tustin convenience store in 2009. He lost his right eye and doctors were unable to remove the bullet from his head. He takes medication every day to control seizures that have become more frequent with the increased presence of authorities at the encampment, he says in the complaint.
When a woman suffered a seizure at the encampment after the fence was erected, Diehl says, paramedics had difficulty reaching her because the barriers have blocked parts of the sidewalks at Chapman Avenue and Orangewood Avenue where people used to come and go.
If people living at the encampment cut holes in the fences with bolt cutters, Orange County Public Works employees repair it. For the elderly and disabled it is neither safe nor realistic to scale the fence or navigate the river to get to a steep, rocky embankment on the river’s west side, Diehl says.
“Children, people with severe disabilities, the elderly and others are deprived of food, water and access to restrooms,” said ACLU homelessness policy analyst Eve Garrow. “The county should take action to rectify this egregious violation of basic human rights.”
Naturally, the county is claiming that they are not doing anything wrong and that the fence, put in place after the homeless community began growing there, is for ‘flood control.’
“The county is aware that there are homeless encampments in the project area. Flood control channels are not a safe place to live. Sign postings and in-person notifications about the project have been provided to those encamped along the county maintenance road,” the county said in a statement.
However, according to Diehl and the others who are imprisoned in the camp, police told them that they should move there to avoid citations for sleeping in public in the other parts of town.
What this case in Santa Ana illustrates is the state’s continued war on the right of people to exist. Every time a group homeless community finds a safe spot, located out of the way, they are targeted for removal, or, in this barbaric case — imprisonment.
Earlier this month, the Free Thought Project reported on another war being waged against the homeless population in California. Known as ‘The Promised Land,’ a group of homeless people in Oakland sought to improve their situation by creating a camp that would foster sobriety and help people to get jobs. It was located out of the way, under a series of overpasses. They had running water, were growing their own food, and did not allow drug or alcohol use within the camp.
As cops and officials allowed the other heroin riddled encampments to continue, they targeted The Promised Land for destruction.
Diehl now seeks an injunction ordering the county to provide him with “reasonable means of leaving the riverbed and being able to retrieve his property.”
Matt Agorist is the co-founder of TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. He is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Follow @MattAgorist. and now on Steemit
Yet they are a sanctuary city for illegals… what is WRONG with this picture?
Just another Corruptifornia way of doing business!!!! This state SUKZ!! Give this POS place back to the mexicans!! It would serve them right to get this BIG LOSER of a state & ALL the libtards dumped into their laps!! THEN finish building the wall from Texas to northern Crapifornia!! JUSTICE solves ALL problems!
Perhaps we should give Mexico back their entire half of the US that we stole through killing Indians and Mexicans.
It was Spain who owned the land for 200 years, then Mexico for 20 years, then the U.S. for 175 years. Why give it to Mexico? If you think the U.S. was brutal look into what Spain did in Mexico and South America and its territories in North America.
Only the ones hidden deep in the jungles managed to survive it. They don’t speak Spanish there because they liked the sound of it. Mexico and some in the U.S. are absolutely hypocritical when it comes to Mexico’ history on this.
California is, by itself, the 6th largest economy in the entire world.
If the US were to lose California… you wouldn’t even be able to understand the potential ramifications of such a loss. Let’s just say this for simplification: You wouldn’t like the results. So much so, you’d beg for them to come back so the US economy can be restored to power.
Doesn’t take a genius to understand what “losing the 6th largest economy in the world” would do to your country’s economy.
Please, for your own sake, get more informed.
So by all means, save the economy of the state, but IMPRISON PEOPLE YOU DO NOT APPROVE OF…….FUCK CALIFORNIA!! Our LOSS, will actually become our GAIN!
TIME TO BEGIN UNCHECKED PUBLIC EXECUTIONS OF ANYBODY INVOLVED IN THIS TYRANNY! SHOOTING TRAITORS IS THE DUTY OF EVERY AMERICAN…STOP TYRANTS FROM DESTROYING OUR NATION FROM WITHIN!!
Are there guards? I can’t imagine a simple unguarded fence holding in all those people. Is there a gate? Can they come and go? Seems to be more hype and less like ‘imprisonment’
Sure, they are free to come and go as the please, which is why the people are filing FEDERAL SUITS TO STOP THIS….YEP, ALL HYPE….just to defend the tyrants in public ofice, and keep the nazi police stuffed with OUR MONEY… TIME FOR PUBLIC HANGINGS OF OFFICIALS AND EMPLOYEES TO COMMENCE!! STOP BOWING TO SUCH ABUSE AND TERROR BY HIRED HELP…SHOOT THEM!!
My question is, why can’t we do away with the war on drugs, and create a war against homelessness? It would seem that making these 2 changes would make for a decent society, while the way it is now is immoral and sinful.
Goverments wars on drugs and poverty seem to make things worse!
Can you see the cage that you are in? Did you know that the door was unlocked?
This exact scenario was fortold in great detail in a DS9 episode where this period was called “the Bell riots”. Very prescient, and that was over 20 years ago!
Flood control? from a chain link fence?
I love StarTrek. The supposed purpose of chain link fence is to keep people out of the flood zone so if it rains a lot they won’t get swept away, not to channel the water itself. That’s what the flood zone is for. It a concrete creek.
While t.”he Democrats had their “War on poverty”, the Republicans have created their signature “War on the poor.”
This is the California that former movie-star, Arnold Schwarzenneger required two terms to bankrupt. He and current congressional representatives in congress ignored, for over 10 years, warnings about the erosion of the Orville dam in northern California that has been overflowed by recent rainfall. Schwarzenegger and congress-criminals continue to be more interested if preserving the illegals than in preserving native Californians. Schwarzenneger is an immigrant from Austria. One wonders which foreign entity the congress-persons have pledged 1st allegiance?
More proof we are within a NEO-FEUDAL state called Amerikkka.
Need to reverse the picture and put all libtards in there.
So the Democrats that run California are imprisoning poor Americans allowing dams to fail and letting illegals have a free ride. Democrats are evil.
Understand one thing..the People will not tolerate inhumanity imposed upon citizens, or illegal aliens when they are the subject at hand. Governing bodies and the people that involve themselves with government will not harm the helpless without a fight with decent people all across this country.
Why should we care about these “homeless masses”in the U.S.A. when the money can be better spent making sure women are not forced to wear burkas in countries thousands of miles away, and there is so much “democracy” to spread and nations everywhere to rebuild after being “democratized” into rubble. Just ask the iraquis, afghanis and syrians how great democracy is!.
CITY OFFICIALS THAT TOOK PAR%T IN THIS CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE, MUST BE EXECUTED FOR TREASON!
DO NOT ALLOW THESE TYRANTS TO GO FREE OR PROFIT IN ANY MANNER!!
THEY NEED TO BE PUBLICLY HUNG OR FACE A FIRING SQUAD!
NO GOVERNMENT HAS THE LEGAL RIGHT TO IMPRISON PEOPLE IN SUCH A MANNER!!
WHAT COMES NEXT FROM THIS……DOOR TO DOOR ARRESTS FOR ANYTHING THEY DECIDE?
HAVEN’T THE PEOPLE HAD ENOUGH TERROR FROM THEIR EMPLOYEES?
STOP BOWING DOWN AND BEGIN TAKING MATTERS INTO YOUR OWN HANDS…YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO QUESTION ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING…NEVER BOW DOWN, NEVER SURRENDER TO TYRANNY!!
THIS IS TYRANNY, PLAIN AND SIMPLE….STAND AND FIGHT!
My voice will start at a BANG! And continue…WE SPEAK FOR OURSELVES…NOBODY SHALL SPEAK FOR US!