February 2, 2007

Dear Mayor Foutch:


It continues to be possible to amendment or rewrite this ordinance.  I urge you to consider these changes. 

We agree, as you thought we might, about surveillance cameras, but I think if I was a business owner, who felt intimidated, I would opt for a surveillance system within my shop that also captured the front of the building.  Many businesses already employ  cameras and I think they serve a valuable purpose generally.  I think such a camera would provide a record for prosecution in the circumstances that warrant prosecution. 

I do not think that either of us want to see the City set up surveillance cameras to record activities.  There are privacy issues even in public spaces that should be respected and it is qualitatively a different thing for a government to install surveillance cameras as opposed to a private business employing a camera on their business premises.

Would you consider asking the City Attorney to provide an official opinion regarding reduction of the ordinance's maximum penalty?   Would you consider asking the City Attorney to review the possibility that a person committing the misdemeanor offense of simply sitting down on the sidewalk, an activity which has now been criminalized by this ordinance, could constitute a violation of probation, release, deferrals and cause a person to have to serve years in jail?

Sincerely,

Mike

Read more...

I found a trash heap on Red Square today. It contained trash gathered, presumably, from the Evergreen woods. "ERC - the friends of the forest" say, "Please use a trash can."

see the pictures

In response to a recent anti-homeless ordinance in Olympia, WA, the newly formed Poor Peoples' Union has begun a tent city encampment in downtown Olympia. Organizers wish to claim a space for the homeless within the community, to bring awareness to homeless issues, and to use the encampment as a springboard for efforts to combat the new ordinance.

On November 28, the Olympia City Council approved a new version of the downtown sidewalk ordinance, with only one member voting against. The new ordinance outlaws sitting on a downtown sidewalk within 6 feet of a building, bans "aggressive" panhandling, and requires paid permits for busking (playing music for money). The ordinance took effect today, February 1st.

In response, the Poor Peoples' Union was formed. The PPU is an organization of Street People ("Homeless") and their friends. PPU is a autonomous, democratic organization where the unhoused have the final say on matters that effect them directly.

The first action of the PPU has been today's setting up of a homeless encampment, at the intersection of State and Columbia in downtown Olympia, behind the Brotherhood Tavern. Donations of food, water, and tents have already arrived, with many poor and homeless pledging to stay on site until the city of Olympia backs off from its persecution of the city's homeless.

Today's onset of the ordinance was also met with multiple sidewalk sit-ins, organized by the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace. However, the police did not enforce the ordinance upon any of these sit-ins, and did not engage the participants.

So far, the only response to these actions has been from one city official, who visited the tent city to tell the organizers he thought this was a "poke in the eye" after everything the city has done for the homeless. The popular response was that everything the city has done to the homeless has felt like 500 pokes in the eye.

If the city wants to maintain good relations with the poor and homeless in the future, the homeless community needs to be involved in the decision making on anything that affects them. We don't need charity. We need solidarity.

Finally, a couple recent videos of police in St. Petersburg slashing up homeless peoples' tents:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrPdZmPB36U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpxo0mfVons&NR

I vote that it rain, I'd like some cleansing wind too. While I'm at it I'd like this rain and wind to be a taste of almost spring weather, warming us some, and reminding us that this too shall pass.

I'd like the folks downtown to be exempt from any hard rain and winds.

Until then, I'll enjoy what we do have, although I have been heard to grumble. Check out Rob Whitlock's fine local photos, this one of a Foggy Morning. Fog can make for beautiful scenery. But I still am craving rain.

The following was posted at http://blog.myspace.com/jamesastaples I am reposting it here with consent of the author.

"Starwing, Toren Valimir, is running for Olympia City Council.

This message was not solicited by Mister Valimir.  In fact, he is unaware I am writing it.  This is the considered opinion of an educated American who knows Toren personally; nothing more and nothing less.

He stands head and shoulders above all seven of the current Olympia council-people, in terms of his grasp of the issues, his concern for the PEOPLE and his desire to be a REPRESENTATIVE of the PEOPLE.  He will bring a wave of genuine DEMOCRACY into the council chambers, for the first time since T.J. Johnson was elected.

Toren is an old-school revolutionary Constitutionalist, whose devotion to civil rights and the Constitution as the highest law of the land parallels the earliest heavyweights in this republic, people like Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and Thomas Payne.  He cares deeply about the fact that the people of Olympia are getting shoved aside to make way for special interests and big business.  Toren wants us all to remember that WE are supposed to have all the governing power, and that our elected officials are sworn to serve US.  

I have engaged Toren in heated political discussion and debate, and have found him to be as flexible and teachable as he is learned and well-spoken.  He listens well, speaks well and consistently demonstrates a masterful grasp of logic and critical thinking.

A vote for Toren Valimir is a vote to return regional power to the PEOPLE from whom it lawfully derives.  Please, give your support and your vote to a true patriot and populist; VOTE for Toren Valimir for Olympia City Council.

Thank you and Gods Bless America.

- Rev. Dr. James A. Staples
   Owner, Five Corners Book & Magick Shop

--- THINK TRUTH. ---"