California city council approves reparations to homeless for police abuse

U.S. Uncut

In order to resolve a lawsuit brought forward by 4 homeless plaintiffs, the Venice, California City Council approved a payment of $1.1 million in reparations for harassment by the police, conducted as part of a local effort against the homeless population.

In one particularly brutal example of discriminatory policing, Venice police were caught on video violently arresting two street performers without provocation.

The law used to justify the 2010 crackdown, which was struck down in June 2014, stated that “no person shall use a vehicle parked or standing upon” city streets and parking lots owned or controlled by the city or county “as living quarters.”

However, the attorney for the plaintiffs, Carol Sobel, argued that police were authorized to arrest people for arbitrary reasons because of the wording of the law, as citations or arrests could be made at routine traffic stops simply due to the presence of clothes, bedding, or food in a car. Judge Harry Pregerson wrote in 2014 that the law allowed homeless people to be arrested for “eating, talking on the phone, or escaping the rain in their vehicles,” which he described as “the everyday conduct of many LA residents.”

Sobel plans to use her proceeds from the settlement to stop other laws that target the homeless population. Indeed, city attorneys have already begun redrafting the law in order to push it back through, despite opposition from Councilman Mike Bonin, who urges a different approach. He stated that if the city “[tries] to find another way to tell people they can’t live in their vehicles[…]we’re going to wind up paying Carol Sobel another million dollars or so.”

Instead, he is a proponent of Santa Barbara’s “safe parking plan” which sets up special lots for just such a cause, helping them find a place to take shelter rather than hunting them down.

This $1.1M settlement came at the heels of a DOJ decision against laws that ban sleeping outside, stating that they cross the bounds of “cruel and unusual punishment” as outlined in the 8th Amendment. Their statement came as a result of similar laws in Boise, Idaho, though there are many laws nationwide that are aimed at criminalizing homelessness.